Portrait Shot!

Coleman Photography

Hey guys here is a shot from a shoot awhile back that i gave a new treatment. C&C welcome.

ontherivet

Composition is fine but something doesn't look right with the bokeh, especially upper left third of the frame (most noticeable in the tree bark). I'm guessing the background was PPd a bit in an attempt to improve the separation.

anonymouscuban

I really like this shot. Nice composition and pose of a pretty girl. I think it's a bit flat but it could be that I am viewing on my laptop. I would suggest boosting the contrast a bit... maybe some adjustments in the curve through a layer mask on the face. Especially to make the eyes pop a bit more. As for the comment about the bokeh, it doesn't look pp'd to me but does look like your lens just doesn't yield a creamy enough bokeh on it's own. That is easily remedied in post through the use of the Gaussian blur filter. Oh... I burn the highlights in the background a bit because they're a tad distracting.

Coleman Photography

anonymouscuban wrote:

I really like this shot. Nice composition and pose of a pretty girl. I think it's a bit flat but it could be that I am viewing on my laptop. I would suggest boosting the contrast a bit... maybe some adjustments in the curve through a layer mask on the face. Especially to make the eyes pop a bit more. As for the comment about the bokeh, it doesn't look pp'd to me but does look like your lens just doesn't yield a creamy enough bokeh on it's own. That is easily remedied in post through the use of the Gaussian blur filter. Oh... I burn the highlights in the background a bit because they're a tad distracting.

Thank you, yes i have done no pp on the background and that was exactly what i was looking for as for the shot being a bit flat i did a bit more work to it and looks a ton better. as for the high lights in the background what would be the best way to do so. I tryed just burning the highlights did not do to much. anything else to help me. thanks.

ivar

Nice shot, pretty girl I also think the bokeh think mentioned above could be a lens thing.
As far as the highlights, you can burn them a bit more. If you shot raw, you can also try to reduce the exposure a bit and make a composite image.