Another Headshot Try

shatch

My last headshot attempt turned out to be quite contriversial and critiqued as not very good. Listened to the recommended corrections and took it to heart. Here is a new attempt. Is this any better?

Thanks for looking and commenting.

Swartzy

Hey there Steven. Nice pose. The smile is a little forced as in "not real" but as far as your head shot goes, great job. Now this has the processing of "current day trend" which I like and always trying to achieve that look...kudos on that. At this point, it may be a matter of preference but a little more skin texture and realistic color tones might go over better. Again, it's a cool look and I'd be thrilled if you would share your processing on this.

Halite

Nice fresh, bright look to the image. I agree with Swartzy, she looks a bit frozen in her smile.

What is the headshot to be used for? A portrait, an acting headshot or a portfolio piece to display your photo and pp capabilities for commercial work?

joshhuntnm

nice shot!

I agree with Swartzy in that I like skin a little more toned down/ realistic. But, beauty is in the eye of the beholder, if that is what you like. . .

Qarik

nice composition and decent lighting. Agreed with other posters..skin looks a bit plastic.

beetle8

I like it all, and would like the tute on the processing.

shatch

Thank you everyone for the feedback on this photo. This was shot in a stairway off of an alley here in Idaho Falls. Really an ugly place, but artistically neat. The model was sitting on the stairs with some indirect light spilling in from the alley area. (I'll try and provide a zoomed out photo of this area later) I provided about 40 shots to this particular model (different locations) and this was the photo she selected. The bad thing about it...it was out of focus. Thus the "plastic skin". I ran a high pass filter on a duplicate layer and played with it until I felt the eyes were more realistically focused. I put in a layer mask to reveal the original skin. The only touch up I did on the skin was with a healing brush...to clean up typical teenager facial issues.

As for the processing...I'll look at it again and see if I can retrace my actions. A lot of it was done in lightroom.

Thanks again for the feedback.

shatch

Here is a untouched photo of what the stairway looks like.




And here is the original photo out of the camera and the "after"




I actually like the composition better in the 4:5 format vs the 8x10 final ratio that the client is requiring. Should have thought about that when I was shooting.

I'll be back with the post process if I can replicate it and write it down as I go. Too much experimenting without documentation.

beetle8

looks like a pretty rough place

Seneca

Good job. Nice and sharp.

shatch

Had a few requests for the post production process on this one. Here it is to the best of my recollection.

Opened in Photoshop and used the healing brush to fix the skin blemishes. Duplicated layer and ran a high pass filter on it. Used overlay and ran a mask to reveal the untouched skin underneath. Brightened the eyes and teeth.

Opened in Lightroom
Adjusted temp to taste
Added fill light to balance out midtones
bumped black just slightly to keep dark foundation of photo.
increased brightness
increased contrast
increased clarity
increased vibrance
reduced saturation (did this just before final sharpening)
Increased luminance on orange channel
Reduced luminance noise
added a lens vignette (dark)
final sharpening
a lot of luck. Everything was done to taste, readjusted, again..again until it felt right.
I would have given you values, but I think it really depends on the original image tone.

beetle8

thanks

Shima

Wow that's really stunning what you've done with your post processing. Thanks for the additional information of how you did it... especially since you did it in Lightroom which is what I use for all my editing

The Curious Camel

Nice work...I'll be checking back for your workflo.


Just noticed you already posted it. Ha
gail

Mitchell

I like this shot. Natural light headshots can be quite eye catching, and I like your crop here.

My only concern with such flat lighting is the loss of detail you have in the facial skin. I fight this all the time with my garage portraits. You effectively have a flat garage type light in this stairwell. Sometimes a light blend with the high pass filter will bring back some of that detail. It's worth a try.

rhommel

hello,

I asked shatch for his permission to edit this photo as I would like to apply my own technique to the photo. I played around the curves and levels and also sharpened. it's probably not as good shatch's version

cmorganphotography

It's nothing you can fix but her teeth are illproportioned to her face. Her teeth are too small, can't tell if the mouth is small too, but it looks about right.
Maybe you could leave in a couple of shadows so her nose and forehead have more dimension? Would that offset the "plastic" skin look? To me it just looks like she has no 3d features.... and the small teeth thing.

shatch

rhommel wrote:

hello,

I asked shatch for his permission to edit this photo as I would like to apply my own technique to the photo. I played around the curves and levels and also sharpened. it's probably not as good shatch's version

rhommel,
This looks great. I like the richness and depth of tones you used. The only part I don't like is the area I had problems with as well...the modely skin tones of her face. Small issue at best though. I like it.

Does the "finishing school" post photos for public manipulation? If not, would be fun to drop some in on a regular basis for learning and variation techniques.