Please criticize this portrait

[DannyLewis]

I think the edit was to bright you washed out her skin tone. I shoot alot of native americans with very dark skin and have the same problem when editing...not to change the op's subject...It was good to crop and bring her in closer though.

 

[AgentDrex]

Howa Danny...you should quit shooting native americans...what do you mean gaawiin???

Anytuna, here's my edit along side the original for quick comparison:

View attachment 28953

Cropped extraneous material so we're left with a simple head shot. Darkened the background. Brightened eyes a tad using a mask and layer blending. Added a slight kicker to the bottom of the eyes. Cloned a freakishly massive amount of hair to cover the shoulder. Whitened the teeth a tad. Gave a little sharpening through the hi-pass filter technique.

 

[DiskoJoe]

Hi,



The second question that I have is that: I always use off-camera flash for outdoor portraits. Wireless trigger does not trigger the flash if shutter speed is higher than 1/200. Sometimes the background is too bright so I need to use a high shutter speed , say 1/400, but then the flash won't go off. Is there any solution for this?

Thanks heaps

Read your manual. You are probably exceeding the max sync speed for your speedlight. usually 1/250 is the max. You should not need anything more then that. If you need more light then add more flash units.

 

[AgentDrex]

That's a good tip.

I'd like to mention that though I made an edit, I can hold no candle to OP's skill with portraiture. I have a lot to learn about it. Perhaps they will provide us with some tips?

 

[Briman]

The Original View attachment 29029 My Edit

 

[skieur]

I'm not a big fan of when people cut off the tops of heads like that. Other than that, it looks great

-Ken Turner

It is called "brain amputation" by a lot of experienced portrait photographers.

skieur

 

[frommrstomommy]

Great smile, great hair.

Kill that green, so green. Lasso select that background, change your yellow hues and make it a fall day to match her hair. 100% improved.

I agree.. quick edit next to original:
View attachment 29035

 

[DiskoJoe]

You could have just desaturated the blue in the pic and only had to move a slider instead of all that lasso biz.