My Wife

DavidS

My wife just opened a Facebook account and asked me to shoot a picture for her profile. Here are a few that I took. I am interested in any C&C, but especially on the exposure and white balance. I used Photovision's Digital Calibration tool and did very minimal adjustments to the white balance and exposure in Lightroom.

1.


2.


3.


4.


She was not happy with any of them and asked for a redo and picked this one.

Flutist

Wow, David I have to disagree with your wife. They are all very nice, but #3 is my fav. Her eyes are amazing in that one!!

I don't think her choice flatters her beauty at all. There seems to be some darkness around her eyes and smile line.

divamum

Flutist wrote:

Wow, David I have to disagree with your wife. They are all very nice, but #3 is my fav. Her eyes are amazing in that one!!

I don't think her choice flatters her beauty at all. There seems to be some darkness around her eyes and smile line.

100% agreement - #3 is the winner from this set!

WingsOfLovePhoto

Love the poses and the lighting.. Pretty woman and beautiful eyes but for some reason I see maybe too much sharpening? and her ears are really soft in the middle? those are just a few things that seem to jump out at me. And I like #3 the best!

Agnieszka

Crispiness!!!! Lovely photos!

Mike J

The white balance looks good to me but #3 doesn't look as warm as the others. I really like her engagment in #3 but that ear just doesn't look right to me. Looks like you shot with a very shallow DOF? Or did you do some blurring in post? You did say you just did minor WB and exposure adj in LR, but was there anything else? I think it is the shallow DOF, how her hair is on the ear, and the angle that all contribute to drawing my eye to that part of the frame.

You can't let her use her pick. #1 or #4 would be better (IMO)

Flutist

I kind of agree with Mike J, but honestly her eyes are so stunning and the emotion pouring from her face is so much, I didn't even look past her face until Mike said anything. Maybe do a bit of smoothing right under her eyes, but even that I think is unnecessary

Scott_Quier

From a guy who's not yet old enough to be safe - your wife is gorgeous and these photos prove it! With all respect to your wife and her opinion - she is dead wrong on all points!

#1 and #3 are the best of the group.

The last one isn't even in the same class - it doesn't exude personality nearly as well as any of the first group. Oh, and the light is soooo flat in this last one.

#1 - Love the color, the beautiful skin, the open and happy expression. This image works on so many levels. A small nit - I think I would brighten her eye sockets just a touch in post to better open up her face.

As noted, the ear in #3 is a little strange, but I can live with it. I love the pose. Not too thrilled with the lax expression - it's like the photo was captured either before she was ready or after she had relaxed her expression.

afev0602

I agree with Scott, #1 is my favorite. Her smile is very sweet. The eyes are beautiful in all your shots.

Ed911

David,

You are getting pretty good at this...these are very nice. I like 3 and 4. Beautiful.

picturegirl

Love #1

geospatial_junkie

I think they are all nice photos. Honestly though, I have two caveats I see in them, with the exception of the last one.

It looks as if there is too much grain in the skin tones and her lips appear chappy. It looks as if there is some skin smoothing going on and when the grain was added, it was applied a little too generously. Also, in one photo she appears to have a lot of forehead. Many women don't like this (I learned the hard way).

But hey, the photo poses are fine. Remember, no matter what anyone here thinks... she is ALWAYS right.

DavidS

Flutist wrote:

Wow, David I have to disagree with your wife. They are all very nice, but #3 is my fav. Her eyes are amazing in that one!!

I don't think her choice flatters her beauty at all. There seems to be some darkness around her eyes and smile line.

Thank you Shannon. I appreciate the kind words and feedback.

DavidS

divamum wrote:

100% agreement - #3 is the winner from this set!

Thank you.

DavidS

WingsOfLovePhoto wrote:

Love the poses and the lighting.. Pretty woman and beautiful eyes but for some reason I see maybe too much sharpening? and her ears are really soft in the middle? those are just a few things that seem to jump out at me. And I like #3 the best!

Thank you Sandy for the nice words and the input. I am still trying to get the hang of sharpening. I don't know why the ear is soft in the middle other than a shallow depth of field.

DavidS

Agnieszka wrote:

Crispiness!!!! Lovely photos!

Thank you Angie!

DavidS

Mike J wrote:

The white balance looks good to me but #3 doesn't look as warm as the others. I really like her engagment in #3 but that ear just doesn't look right to me. Looks like you shot with a very shallow DOF? Or did you do some blurring in post? You did say you just did minor WB and exposure adj in LR, but was there anything else? I think it is the shallow DOF, how her hair is on the ear, and the angle that all contribute to drawing my eye to that part of the frame.

You can't let her use her pick. #1 or #4 would be better (IMO)

Thanks for the feedback Mike. I believe the softness in the ear is due to the shallow depth of field. I did not do anything to it in post. Number one is my favorite as well. She could have gone into my archives and picked something much worse than the one she did, so I am relieved.

DavidS

Scott_Quier wrote:

From a guy who's not yet old enough to be safe - your wife is gorgeous and these photos prove it! With all respect to your wife and her opinion - she is dead wrong on all points!

#1 and #3 are the best of the group.

The last one isn't even in the same class - it doesn't exude personality nearly as well as any of the first group. Oh, and the light is soooo flat in this last one.

#1 - Love the color, the beautiful skin, the open and happy expression. This image works on so many levels. A small nit - I think I would brighten her eye sockets just a touch in post to better open up her face.

As noted, the ear in #3 is a little strange, but I can live with it. I love the pose. Not too thrilled with the lax expression - it's like the photo was captured either before she was ready or after she had relaxed her expression.

Thank you Scott! I appreciate you kind words and detailed comments.

DavidS

afev0602 wrote:

I agree with Scott, #1 is my favorite. Her smile is very sweet. The eyes are beautiful in all your shots.

Thank you. I really like #1 as well. I put it on my desktop.

DavidS

Ed911 wrote:

David,

You are getting pretty good at this...these are very nice. I like 3 and 4. Beautiful.

Thanks Ed!

DavidS

picturegirl wrote:

Love #1

Thank you Angie. My favorite as well.

DavidS

geospatial_junkie wrote:

I think they are all nice photos. Honestly though, I have two caveats I see in them, with the exception of the last one.

It looks as if there is too much grain in the skin tones and her lips appear chappy. It looks as if there is some skin smoothing going on and when the grain was added, it was applied a little too generously. Also, in one photo she appears to have a lot of forehead. Many women don't like this (I learned the hard way).

But hey, the photo poses are fine. Remember, no matter what anyone here thinks... she is ALWAYS right.

Thank you Will for the compliment and the comments. I did skin smoothing in Portraiture, but did not add grain. I am open to input regarding this. I agree about the forehead, in fact that is why she did not like any of the photos in first set. The wind was blowing, which presented a problem in that regard. I agree, like it or not, the customer is always right, especially when its your wife.

jeffreaux2

#3 for me!!!

Shooting from above looks great....even on me!

WingsOfLovePhoto

DavidS wrote:

Thank you Sandy for the nice words and the input. I am still trying to get the hang of sharpening. I don't know why the ear is soft in the middle other than a shallow depth of field.

Hi David....try portraiture on default and dial down the amout to about 9% (from the original 20) then try unsharp mask at 75% 2 and 3 as the last thing you process. Don't sharpen first in raw. This usually sharpens very nicely without looking like you sharpened at all. If you do it on it's own adjustment layer you can just bring down the opacity till it looks good. If you shot in jpeg you reallly shouldn't require too much sharpening anyway. I find that it is mostly necessary in RAW. This is my standard for adult portraits (shot in raw with a D3and 24-70 2.8)

Here is an example using this.....

Mitchell

David, these are excellent. I particularly like #3. My favorite of the bunch.

They all appear slightly oversharpened. It could just be web viewing.

thegreenegg

I think all your pictures are really nice.
I agree with the problems there seem to be with the over-sharpening on some your first shots.
But can I disagree with everyone who has commented so far and say that I actually quite like the picture your wife picked out for herself. Especially for what she is using it for- facebook picture.
I never like using the landscape shots of myself for facebook because they come up too small. I much prefer the portrait style that she chose. I think she looks warm, professional and charming. Its a picture that has a sense of a photographer with talent but where you haven't tried too hard. Because on facebook its a bit more about a straight forward nice picture of the individual- unless you are silly, and overly creative (bored) like myself and just have odd shots of yourself.
Anyway, I like the set.
Good job.
a.

DavidS

WingsOfLovePhoto wrote:

Hi David....try portraiture on default and dial down the amout to about 9% (from the original 20) then try unsharp mask at 75% 2 and 3 as the last thing you process. Don't sharpen first in raw. This usually sharpens very nicely without looking like you sharpened at all. If you do it on it's own adjustment layer you can just bring down the opacity till it looks good. If you shot in jpeg you reallly shouldn't require too much sharpening anyway. I find that it is mostly necessary in RAW. This is my standard for adult portraits (shot in raw with a D3and 24-70 2.8)

Here is an example using this.....

Thank you Sandy. I appreciate you taking the time to provide this detailed advice.

DavidS

jeffreaux2 wrote:

#3 for me!!!

Shooting from above looks great....even on me!

Thank you Jeff.

DavidS

Mitchell wrote:

David, these are excellent. I particularly like #3. My favorite of the bunch.

They all appear slightly oversharpened. It could just be web viewing.

Thanks Mitch. Does Smugmug do a default sharpening? Part of the problem may be that I just started sharpening my raw images in Lightroom and did not cut my sharpening of the final image back enough in Photoshop.

DavidS

thegreenegg wrote:

I think all your pictures are really nice.
I agree with the problems there seem to be with the over-sharpening on some your first shots.
But can I disagree with everyone who has commented so far and say that I actually quite like the picture your wife picked out for herself. Especially for what she is using it for- facebook picture.
I never like using the landscape shots of myself for facebook because they come up too small. I much prefer the portrait style that she chose. I think she looks warm, professional and charming. Its a picture that has a sense of a photographer with talent but where you haven't tried too hard. Because on facebook its a bit more about a straight forward nice picture of the individual- unless you are silly, and overly creative (bored) like myself and just have odd shots of yourself.
Anyway, I like the set.
Good job
a.

Thank you Ashley.

lisap

#1 is my fav. Love it! The one your wife ended up picking is probably my least favourite of the bunch as well.

It's funny though. One thing I've noticed happens quite a bit since I started doing portraits, is that people pick totally different pictures than I'd pick of them. I guess it's just how we see ourselves compared to how others see us.

-- Lisa P.