4 girls in a park.

zoomer

I

I recruited some girls for a shoot in the park last weekend.
Still working on lighting, posing and processing. I try to get out and practice at least once a week. Since almost all my people photography is outdoors this is my slow season. Following the last post which inspired a spirited debate about processing I tried to tone it down just a smidge.
I assure you in the large prints of all these you can see the pores.
All taken with d300 70-200 f2.8 at f2.8. A small softbox was used off camera on a lightstand with a sb800 for lighting.

Katrina


Stacy


Sabrina


Melissa




This portrait of Melissa has the heavier processing

jeffreaux2

Hey Zoomer....NICE JOB!!!

Your pp work still looks nice and smooth, but not not overly smooth...or blurry. Some of the other appeared to have been over softenened, and then oversharpened to the point of introducing artifacts. This set....IMO...is much much better.

#1 I am not crazy about the arrangement. Mostly there is just a whole lot going on with the background. Beautiful young ladies though, and the light looks good.

#2-I like that her lip color is near that of her shirt. To be picky, her teeth appear to be unaturally white. To be really picky, there are two strands of loose hair laying across her chest. I don't always fix flyaways, but since the image appears so clean otherwise....they just seem out of place.

#3-Very nice. This is my second favorite. I like the way her hair frames her. Nothing appears overdone here. The camera angle was risky....many shots this square on to the shoulder do not work out well. This one works great.

#4 This is my favorite...if only because I think she is the prettiest of the bunch. Her eyes might be a little on the white side, but it is a very nice photograph.

#5 Super image!! Very natural look to her, and I really like the texture of her clothing.

#6 I am not super crazy about the pose...she doesn't look relaxed....and her one finger pointing up seems odd. The exposure and sharpness look great, and the stone wall is a nice backdrop.

#7 Another fabulous image. Nothing seems too far out there either in respect to PP. I do notice some aliasing or jaggedness in her earring to the right of the image. It may just be from resizing for the forum. I have seen this with some sharpening methods. Which method do you use?

All in all....very good job!

zoomer

Thanks Jeffreaux2,
Appreciate all the detailed feedback...really helps me to improve.

For sharpening I go to the filter menu in elements and hit sharpen twice after resizing the photo to 1500. This leaves the photo quite oversharpened.
Then I just resize it to 750 and it magically turns out just right.

I did not increase tooth or eye whiteness, Katrina has some crazy white teeth and all these girls must get their sleep because they have nice white eyes to start with.
I normally move the right slider in levels to the left and the left slider to the right to increase contrast and this may increase the whiteness a smidge.

Thanks again.
MikeR

jeffreaux2

zoomer wrote:

Thanks Jeffreaux2,
Appreciate all the detailed feedback...really helps me to improve.

For sharpening I go to the filter menu in elements and hit sharpen twice after resizing the photo to 1500. This leaves the photo quite oversharpened.
Then I just resize it to 750 and it magically turns out just right.

I did not increase tooth or eye whiteness, Katrina has some crazy white teeth and all these girls must get their sleep because they have nice white eyes to start with.
I normally move the right slider in levels to the left and the left slider to the right to increase contrast and this may increase the whiteness a smidge.

Thanks again.
MikeR

I have gotten away from sharpening filters such as sharpen, smart sharpen, and unsharp mask. The absolute best method I have found is high pass sharpening. It should be available in elements. I know it is available on elements4. I use CS3, but elements is the same process. I duplicate my layer, and apply the "overlay" made to that layer. Then select the filter menu and under "other" you should find "high pass". There is a slider available, and for most shots 1.8 to 2.2 is find. Others can handle a bit more. Landscapes and full length portraits can handle more than a headshot. Anyway....you can sharpen eyeleashes and hair, and catch lights without neccessarily sharpening skin texture if you are carefull. Just flatten the layers when you are done. If you try it, I bet you will like it!!!

I am not keen on the way ACR or LR handles sharpening either. JUst my $.02. High pass is the way to go!!!

zoomer

Thanks, I will try high pass.. I have never messed with it.
I normally use luminosity sharpening.

The other scenario I described is only sharpening for downsizing to the web.
Give it a try it works really well and takes just a second.

jeffreaux2

zoomer wrote:

Thanks, I will try high pass.. I have never messed with it.
I normally use luminosity sharpening.

The other scenario I described is only sharpening for downsizing to the web.
Give it a try it works really well and takes just a second.

I use smugmug galleries and upload images full resolution. Smugmug automatically resizes dupes for web display....and they do a pretty good job of it.

zoomer

I never thought about using the smaller versions from smugmug for web size shots. I will have to check that out. thanks.

PhotoFrank

Using high pass
I am not familiar with elements. If you can apply a layer mask as we can in CS3 then high pass really can make short work of regional sharpening. In CS3 I duplicate the layer, then apply the high pass filter, as the other poster already said 1.8 to 2 covers most everything, after applying the filter, change the layer mode to overlay. Quick and easy. Now if you only want to sharpen a specific area, say the eyes, just add a layer mask and fill it with black. Then change the foreground color to white and paint in the areas that you want to sharppen with a brush. You can lessen the opacity of the brush if you want or change the opacity of the layer to adjust your results. Hope this works in Elements as it does in CS. It's really a quick and easy way to sharpen.
Frank

Hary

I think it's better to say something short than nothing at all ...
#2 teeth just dont look right.
When i saw the photo I was worried taht all would look so unnatural but fortunately the dont
Nice job, the pictures look clean and detailed. I'm not expirienced enough to say that they are oversharpened or not.
thanks,
Kris

PhotoFrank

I like the group shot
By the way Zoomer, I like the group shot. Sometimes seeing people in a sharp setting is pleasing. After all, it is the way that our eyes see it and our brain decodes it. I may be railing a litle here, but this blurring of everything gets to be a little overdone after a while. Can't even take a nice photograph of a stream anymore without having the elitest core cut it down be cause the water isn't smooth. Well guess what, it isn't.
Anyway your shots are terrific, your models are lovely, and I loved the wonderful bokeh that you acheived with the portrait shots.
Frank

evoryware

I like the group shot.
I really like the shot of Katrina.
My favorites are of Melissa. I'm not sure about her hand in the second one, but the expression on her face looks comfortable.

atomicjade

Holy freak, can you ask them what they use to get that complexion?

jeffreaux2

atomicjade wrote:

Holy freak, can you ask them what they use to get that complexion?

just dab a little photoshop on and you will be fine!!!!