Still trying my hand at seniors! cc please

WingsOfLovePhoto

This is a senior portrait done with an action I found in a ps3 book by Scott Kelby. He says he does this with all of his portraits. My question is...is it too soft? What do you think?

Joe Dukovac

Personally, I think it may be a tad to soft. I prefer shots that are a bit more sharp, however, that being said I think it really is up to the individual. The shot I think is very well done, and the dof is appropriate for what I like.

Joe

Tim Kamppinen

Great shot! If you could, please tell us what the action does exactly. Looks like a soft focus effect. When I do this, I duplicate the background layer, do a gaussian blur at about 20 pixels, and then reduce the opacity to somewhere between 15-30%. Then I create a layer mask and remove the blur from the eyes, lips, teeth, eyebrows and usually nostrils, and anything else that I want to be sharp like a necklace, etc. This is the most important thing for making sure it looks good in my opinion. I can't tell for sure whether you did this or not, but if haven't, try it and see the difference. At this size, it doesn't look too soft to me, but it's hard to tell. I do tend to favor effects like this for shots of women, though. Another thing I always do is add some extra sharpening on the eyes to really make them sparkle; again, I can't really tell if you did this or not, but it's something to try to balance the soft skin. You might want to remove the effect from the necklace, too. However you choose to process it, it's a beautiful photo!

Swartzy

I know this technique very well. Yes, it is too soft....lower the opacity. We want to see some skin texture...a bit more realistic. For senior photos, it's good to take care of wrinkles, blemishes and so on but to give the skin a model look is a bit much. By selective masking/painting you can achieve this using Scott's processing.

bendruckerphoto

As has been said, lower the opacity. Also, mask the effect from the eyes. You want sharp eyes, and soft skin. If the eyes are soften, they look glazed and un-lifelike.

RBrogen

Yes too soft. I'm familiar with this technique by Scott as well and I find it easier to run the opacity to 0 then work my way up to find the point where it looks best instead of working from 100 to 0. Typically I have found with this technique that you usually find the sweetspot between 30% & 45% opacity.