New DGrinner - Same old story....

SaltFork

I've been lurking for a while now but finally got the courage up to post here and in the Whipping Post - http://www.dgrin.com/showthread.php?t=63972

My story is like a lot of others I see on this forum: I'm a nature and sports photographer/hobbyist and friends are asking me if I do portraits. Last weekend I shot a friend's daughter as part of a 16th birthday party. Here are three of my favorites - I'd love to hear your comments. All three shots are straight out of the camera because a) I liked them and b) I don't really know what else to do to them...

#1

#2

#3


Thanks for your comments....
- James

www.SaltForkImages.com

Seneca

James...first of all WELCOME . I love your shots...great job. But my only comment would be is to soften the face in the head shot...she's got a bit of acne on the forehead and softening it would be a little more appealing. Perhaps using the healing brush in Photoshop would be a quick fix.

I think you've done great.

RogersDA

These are great photos. However, I see a lot of red/green, especially in the second one.

I removed some blemishes on the face and hand, then dropped a blue filter on it for a very quick fix. Others might have better results.



This one was run with i2e plugin for photoshop:



I also ran did a B&W conversion. This one, I think, works very well for her.

dogwood

Just my two cents, but blurring skin to smooth it looks well, fake. Skin has texture-- it's not smooth plastic. Check out some of the methods in the book Skin by Lee Varis-- you can create actions for his methods and they won't wipe out the texture on the skin like blurring does.

Your first shot-- you did a good job of keeping the background clear behind your subject. Nice job on the lighting too.

I might use a little fill or a reflector on the outdoor shots, and turn her head just a bit (usually only very thin faces photograph well straight on-- the rest of us look better at slightly oblique angles).

I think for a first effort at portraits, these are fine. Shooting portraits is like anything, the more you do it, the better you'll get. Again, just my two cents, but experience really is the only way to improve when it comes to portraits. You'll learn something from every single shoot!