Richard

JimmyJaceyMom · Apr 14, 2008

I went to a class with out local photography center and it was called a 'photo safari' where you go with an established photographer on an outting to take pictures. Well we went into an eclectic coffee shop and there was neat stuff everywhere to take pictures of but all I was interested in was taking one of this guy. He had so much character I couldn't resist.
After talking with him for a few minutes I come to find, no, he doesn't mind his picture taken and that he has been a photographer for a long time! Film though, he tells me. No digital.

NJMAN · Apr 14, 2008

All I can say is WOW! He has one of the most interesting faces I have ever seen. The lines and wrinkles look like they could tell you his whole life story.

He almost looks like something out of medieval times. And that stare, whoa, it burns right through your soul. A very striking appearance, no doubt. Care to share your processing technique on this one?

The depth of field is especially good here, since it accentuates the eyes and facial features so well.

Wonderful job for taking the opportunity to talk with him and get his photo! :thumbup: :thumbup:

Lacey Anne · Apr 15, 2008

This is awesome! I love the depth the photo has!

JimmyJaceyMom · Apr 15, 2008

Hi NJMAN - well i didnt do all that much to it. I played in curves a bit and then even though it didnt have a grain problem I ran it through noiseware in an attempt to get his skin to look real, like you could touch it or something. I like that effect sometimes.

Thanks for the comments I am glad you like it.

Lacey Anne- thanks so much.

Antarctican · Apr 15, 2008

So glad you took his pic! A face full of character. Well done.

The_Traveler · Apr 15, 2008

fabulous image.
what do you think of the extra treatment?

JimmyJaceyMom · Apr 15, 2008

Antarctican - yes character, that is exactly what I thought when i saw him.

Traveller - THERE you are! And what did you do here? I LOVE it! Please let me know how you did that.

KristinaS · Apr 15, 2008

Wow! What a unique looking face. I love it.

robitussin217 · Apr 16, 2008

Good edit Traveler! Can you describe what you used and what you did?

The_Traveler · Apr 16, 2008

This is a great capture, thanks to Kath for allowing the edits.

This work is much better done on a full-res negative but the potential results show reasonably well here, I think.

I do each of these steps on a new layer made up of all the layers below it merged up. That way if/when I overdo it I can back up or reduce the layer opacity. (I often end up with a bunch of layers and I am pretty compulsive about naming them as I go along. Then, before I save it as a work file, I merge whatever I think are successful and rename them.)

This is done with successive applications of the Unsharp Mask filter in PS CS.
The threshold is always set to 0.

1) Make a duplicate layer of background (Ctrl J)
2) Apply USM Radius .3, Amount 100 (or so)
3) Make new layer with all visible layers merged into new one (Ctrl,Shift, Alt, E)
4) On the new layer, apply USM Radius .3, Amount 100 (or so) to taste.
5) Make new layer with all visible layers merged into new one (Ctrl,Shift, Alt, E)
6) On the new layer, apply USM Radius 12, Amount 12 - 15 (or so) to taste.

The radius and amount in step 6 need to vary according to the resoultion of the image. I do this by eye rather than by any formula.

On the full-res image I would try two other things to see how they worked.
I would try lightening the eyes and the catch-lights a bit to increase their impact.
and/or cropping even tighter to put the oof areas even more at the periphery.

Hope this technique is of interest.

Lew

JimmyJaceyMom · Apr 16, 2008

You're awesome! I am definately going to do this. THanks for the help. I actually made a MAJOR mistake when taking this picture. I had him facing the opposite of the light. Else I would have gotten much better catchlights which would make him seem much more full of life, KWIM?
However I had to stand on somethign to get this angle and I didnt want to stand on the coffee shops chairs (rude) so I chose a wooden beam that ran beside where he was standing and it happened to be on the wrong side of the sun. LOL. He was very tall! But I knew I wanted to look down on him, can make for a more vulnerable look.

MarcusM · Apr 16, 2008

That is an awesome shot and great edit by Traveler! My only suggestion is that the DOF is maybe just a little too shallow. I see you used f/1.8. I think you could have come closer to Traveler's edit in-camera by using a deeper DOF, such as 2.8 or so, that maybe would have gotten more of the wrinkles in his face sharper.

Either way, a great capture to add to your portfolio!