Paul Kicks Butt

FuryofNature

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Which one of these 2 is more pleasing to the eye?

1.)
PaulA.jpg


2.)
PaulB.jpg


I've been looking at it too long to see it clearly anymore, I think. The first one, to me, seems to have lost all its sharpness.

Thanks for looking.
_KA
 
Depends upon what you mean by 'pleasing to the eye'.
Who's eye are we talking about?
Your first port of call is to explain what effect or mood you were trying to achieve.
 
I feel like my photos always lack that "something" that makes them look professional and I'm not sure what it is. I was trying to make it look as professional as I could. I tried to put some softness into the first version....but I'm thinking it didnt work. I don't know how I feel about the 2nd one.
 
'Professional' is largely a state of mind.
It looks a little lacking in 'punch'. The contrast needs to be crisped up a little. Should help.
 
The second one.
The skin tones look a bit muddy and flat which is making the person - the focus of the image - merge with the background.
 
In all honnesty, i love these pics.
But i gotta say you went a tad too heavy on the softness, esp on #1 as i can see by the symbols on the led zep' poster. But since i'm a sepia freak, i prefer it anyway for the browns :D
 
Here's my interpretation, but that's only my vision.

PaulB-mod.jpg


I moved it to greyscale, boosted the contrast using a curves level, and applied a little smart sharpening.

That's only one option. As Hertz said, the choices you make are going to depend on what you want to show. I think figuring out what you want is the hardest thing in photography. The tech stuff you can get from books. This required knowing what's in your head.
 
Like the straight BW of markc's version. The softness and tones weren't doing much for it in the other versions. a vignette and some grain may make it more interesting too.
 
FuryofNature said:
Vignette? please explain that :)

darkening around the edges and corners so as to make the middle portion stand out more

like this (jus a quik job, not so good):

paulbmod5al.jpg


I just used a very large brush with feathered edges and low opacity set on black to paint around the edges.

EDIT: I think that's the worst vignette I ever did :lol: anyway, you get the idea. :)
 
You'll find an explanation of 'vignette' here
http://www.thephotoforum.com/forum/showthread.php?t=3028

But as I wrote it I'll reproduce it here:
Vignetting A term used by Photographers to describe darkening or lightening the corners of a print.
It is also used to describe loss of information at the corners of the neg due to a lens hood or similar intruding inside the lens' field of view.
 
I'd like to see it as sharp as the second one while the tones from the first one...
 

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