photoshopped me CC

[Abby Rose]

Not my usual style at all, I'm more of a minimalist when it comes to editing and I dont take pictures of people - but it cant hurt to try something new. I guess I'd just like to know your general thoughts on these since I dont really know what I think of them myself. The editing, the pose, anything.

It was dark and the lighting was just the normal overhead lighting in my room, the background is my wall. I was aiming for a hair toss and I did get a few, but I'd rather just post one 'category' for now. I have these, then I have ones where the hair is actually tossed, and then ones where I used my arms. Everything is, of course, a little soft if not outright blurred because of the lack of light.

I'm not sure if these qualify as 'self portraits', since they arent exactly portraits really. How would I classify them?

 

[Cam_Assassin]

if not 'self portraits' then perhaps wild-life photography?

 

[BuS_RiDeR]

Self portrait for sure... I think any parent, friend or whatever would be very happy with this self portrait.

As an afterthought, I took the first... and using Gimp, I dropped the brightness, boosted the contrast and added a bit of sharpness.... Then I converted it to Greyscale.

Oh I cropped it a bit tighter as well...

 

[Abby Rose]

if not 'self portraits' then perhaps wild-life photography?

heyy. :greenpbl:

I do think that the tighter crop is better, but I still dont really have a feel for these. Are the ok? Did I do anything right? What should I do different for next time?

You guys can say if they really suck, you know I'm not gonna be offended. Though no one usually holds back so these must be just blah.

 

[Taylor510ce]

Other than the 3rd one ( which should probably just be deleted IMO, no offense ) the main problems I can see are

1) soft ( which you already addressed in your original post )
2)white balance due to your overhead lighting
3) contrast issues

I think 2 has the most potential because even being soft, it looks like your hair is blowing and your eyes are closed which sort of adds to that. However, this one has the worst contrast.

Nice attempt for what you had to work with though.

 

[Abby Rose]

ah, thanks.

Do you want the originals to take a shot at editing? Like I said, these are way more processed than what I would normally do, so they got a little damaged. I'm not very good at edits.

 

[Taylor510ce]

I am sure people would like to edit them. I will give it a shot, but am not on my normal computer right now, so it may be a while before I get around to it.

 

[XCountryGuy]

These have some potential. It's always a personal risk to put yourself out there, so I thought I'd give the first shot a try.

All the shots are a bit soft. That is probably due to a slow shutter speed. For me, there seems to be a yellow colour cast that gives you a sallow look. I noticed you had a bit of a spot light on the wall, so I played that up.

If you like this edit, here's what to try:
1 - multiply another background in
2 - colour correct for the yellow cast
3 - sharpened to give detail to the hair and cause some separation from the wall.
4 - deepen the black level
5 - NR for processing, but if you have RAW originals, you may be OK.

Edit: I just realized your focus is on the wall. You can see the texture of the paint roller. Next time pre-focus on a coat rack or something to help with that issue.

 

[XCountryGuy]

I actually like the second shot better. The softness of the shot goes with the serenity of your face. Here is a really quick LR edit:

In this edit:
crop for composition
reduced clarity to add to the overall softness
colour correction
added a vignette

 

[Abby Rose]

thank you guys, better edits than mine...

and I AM sallow.

 

[Abby Rose]

Edit: I just realized your focus is on the wall. You can see the texture of the paint roller. Next time pre-focus on a coat rack or something to help with that issue.

Thats something else... I dont know much about focusing, I always use the auto focus on my point and shoot. I tried the manual for a while, but I am lazy and it's time consuming. So when I set the timer for these, it focused on the wall obviously because I wasn't there. If I did manual focus, could I have focused on the space where I was going to be?

 

[XCountryGuy]

Edit: I just realized your focus is on the wall. You can see the texture of the paint roller. Next time pre-focus on a coat rack or something to help with that issue.

Thats something else... I dont know much about focusing, I always use the auto focus on my point and shoot. I tried the manual for a while, but I am lazy and it's time consuming. So when I set the timer for these, it focused on the wall obviously because I wasn't there. If I did manual focus, could I have focused on the space where I was going to be?

I think that would really depend on the ability of the point and shoot camera. Sorry, I guess I missed that you aren't using a dSLR. You'll just have to get a friend to help you out

 

[Taylor510ce]

Here is a quick photoshop edit. Cropped, color adjusted, wb adjusted, sharpened. skin blur applied, and glow applied and vignette added using onone phototools 2.

 

[XCountryGuy]

Here is a quick photoshop edit. Cropped, color adjusted, wb adjusted, sharpened. skin blur applied, and glow applied and vignette added using onone phototools 2.

Really nice edit and miles from the starting point.

 

[oldmacman]

Here is a quick photoshop edit. Cropped, color adjusted, wb adjusted, sharpened. skin blur applied, and glow applied and vignette added using onone phototools 2.

That is an impressive progression. Nice edit.