Outdoor portrait C&C

[Nolly]

Hey everyone,

I've been trying out some new PP ideas on unused shots of mine; it'd be nice to get some C&C on an image, ignoring the fact you can see my reflection in his shades!

Cheers!

 

[tirediron]

Yo! 1976 called and it wants its style back!

Seriously, if that's the look you were going for, I think it worked well The image has a very mid-70s feel to it; in fact I seem to remember seeing an image of David Cassidy on a record jacket that looked very similar to this. My main thought for improvement is that the use of a reflector image left would have helped reduce the dynamic range of the image somewhat and likely eliminated that hot-spot on his jaw.

 

[Nolly]

Hah, cheers! Yes, very much going for a classic filmy look here. I did use a reflector but not too close since I thought the natural light was lovely at that time

 

[Majeed Badizadegan]

This works pretty well, in my opinion!

 

[Stradawhovious]

Something about the light on his face doesn't sit right with me....... Almost gives him a Herman munster look at the brow. Looks like you reflector was bouncing the light up like a flashlight at a campfire ghost story.

 

[Primoz]

I am not a pro, but I am very strict about what I like and don't like in photography. And I love the way this image turned out.
The colors are somehow muted and vibrant at the same time, which gives the image a nice thick film-like look. The light is amazing and I am not so sure a reflector would be a massive improvement. It's a guy shot - you don't have to light every corner of his face. The image just calls you to stop working and join chilling in the nice evening sun =P

If I were you, I'd definitely stay with this style and make it my personal style. It's really good.
Do you mind if I ask what RAW processing settings were used to achieve this analog looking image?

 

[Nolly]

Thanks!

I am not a pro, but I am very strict about what I like and don't like in photography. And I love the way this image turned out.
The colors are somehow muted and vibrant at the same time, which gives the image a nice thick film-like look. The light is amazing and I am not so sure a reflector would be a massive improvement. It's a guy shot - you don't have to light every corner of his face. The image just calls you to stop working and join chilling in the nice evening sun =P

If I were you, I'd definitely stay with this style and make it my personal style. It's really good.
Do you mind if I ask what RAW processing settings were used to achieve this analog looking image?

Very glad you like it, this is definitely the kind of processing style I lean towards, so hopefully I can make "my thing"
The processing is mainly some curves to fade the blacks and highlights, then some film/cross-processing effects from Nik's Color Efex Pro 2, and also a bit of film grain too. I've found it's really easy to overdo the effect and have it way too washed out or lacking depth; you definitely need to get the shot right at the source (still learning a lot about that!), the processing is actually quite subtle when you compare the before and after.

 

[tacosanchez]

The PP is very nice, I like the slightly muted colours. However I would have loved to see this photo without those glasses.

 

[The_Traveler]

When I look at a picture, my eyes go to the brightest areas first.
In this case the brightest spots are the light blue jacket, the background and damn near everything but his face.
I think if you darken the rest of it, in pieces, the face becomes the center of the picture.

 

[Nolly]

Very interesting, I can see what you mean once they are side-by-side. The only drawback for me is that it seems to have lost the "summery" quality with the light cascading in from the top right, and left the lighting looking rather disconnected. Maybe a middle ground is in order

 

[Derrel]

The edit is a huge improvement.