Feedback, please.

DavidTO · August 29, 2004

I took these shots at the park yesterday, and I'd love some feedback. They all look a touch oversaturated online, because the ezprints color profile has been stripped out. So imagine them a little less saturated.

This is a portrait I took of my cousin and her family. I shot RAW, processed it twice, once exposed for the background and once for the foreground, then used layer masks to composite the two.

This one is of Maya. I love the lighting on her face, and I hate the distracting towel in the background. No fancy compositing here, just one exposure. What do you think?

One last from the day prior. No people, but still wondering what you all think. Cropped and blurred the background. Note: I got help on this one from master horse shooter, lynnesite.

PerezDesignGroup · August 29, 2004

All of these are beautiful. The horses should be on a poster! It looks like such a tender moment for them. And the portrait of Maya is breath-taking.

Amazing work!

DavidTO · August 29, 2004

PerezDesignGroup wrote:

All of these are beautiful. The horses should be on a poster! It looks like such a tender moment for them. And the portrait of Maya is breath-taking.

Amazing work!

Thanks. I actually ordered an 8x10 of the horses for my daughter's room.

One thing I'm curious about is on the first portrait if anyone can tell that I composited two different exposures? I can see some small mistakes, and I wonder if anyone else can. If they can, then theyr'e no longer small mistakes, if you know what I mean. It's one thing for the retoucher to see them, another for someone else to see them.

SeeMoon · August 29, 2004

DavidTO wrote:

One thing I'm curious about is on the first portrait if anyone can tell that I composited two different exposures? I can see some small mistakes, and I wonder if anyone else can. If they can, then theyr'e no longer small mistakes, if you know what I mean. It's one thing for the retoucher to see them, another for someone else to see them.

I think I see something around the boy's eyes and the womans arm (my left) looks a bit fuzzy.. is that it? You have to look really good. Even if i'm right i don't think anybody will see anything different than a lovely portrait!

I really like the one from Maya; if the towel is that destracting just crop and make it square. The light is lovely indeed!

wxwax · August 29, 2004

Love the horsie shot, david., that's a nice moment. And a sweet expression and light on the face of the youngster. The framing's off a little, nothing serious. I agree with you about the towel, but that can be brought down. The family shot looks nice but odd - my first reaction was that the family was shot somewhere else and superimposed over the background. I can see a few 'burn' marks on their arms where the layering was done. I'm not sure the average person would see them. Nice expressions by the family - especially the girl and her mom.

DavidTO · August 29, 2004

wxwax wrote:

Love the horsie shot, david., that's a nice moment. And a sweet expression and light on the face of the youngster. The framing's off a little, nothing serious. I agree with you about the towel, but that can be brought down. The family shot looks nice but odd - my first reaction was that the family was shot somewhere else and superimposed over the background. I can see a few 'burn' marks on their arms where the layering was done. I'm not sure the average person would see them. Nice expressions by the family - especially the girl and her mom.

Here's another stab at the portrait. Cleaned up the compositing and retouched a bit the wrinkles, teeth, etc.

It still seems to be plopped on the background a bit. I will say that when I view it in PS with the proper profile it looks much more integrated, I think the oversaturation on the web is part of the problem.

tmlphoto · August 29, 2004

DavidTO wrote:

Here's another stab at the portrait. Cleaned up the compositing and retouched a bit the wrinkles, teeth, etc.

It still seems to be plopped on the background a bit. I will say that when I view it in PS with the proper profile it looks much more integrated, I think the oversaturation on the web is part of the problem.

That looks better. One thing that I learned about doing portraits outside is to avoid having anything that is hit by direct sunlight in the picture, as it will be overexposed. Even things that are along ways away in the background will be troublesome. I will save alot of psing if you choose a background that has similar lighting to the subject lighting. Another less favorable option is to use a flash to bring up the subject brightness level. I have made alot of mistakes with the background on my outdoor portaits. It is difficult , but necessary to pay close attention to the background, when you are focused on the subjects. Nice work. Jeff Smith has a book on outdoor portraits on Amherst press. Not sure of the title, but you should be able to find it on Amazon. He has alot of great advice for outdoor portraits. Hope this helps.

DavidTO · August 29, 2004

tmlphoto wrote:

That looks better. One thing that I learned about doing portraits outside is to avoid having anything that is hit by direct sunlight in the picture, as it will be overexposed. Even things that are along ways away in the background will be troublesome. I will save alot of psing if you choose a background that has similar lighting to the subject lighting. Another less favorable option is to use a flash to bring up the subject brightness level. I have made alot of mistakes with the background on my outdoor portaits. It is difficult , but necessary to pay close attention to the background, when you are focused on the subjects. Nice work. Jeff Smith has a book on outdoor portraits on Amherst press. Not sure of the title, but you should be able to find it on Amazon. He has alot of great advice for outdoor portraits. Hope this helps.

I did use a fill flash on most of them. This one is actually one where I shot too quickly and my dying flash batteries couldn't keep up. It ended up being the best of the lot, thought IMO, and worth the extra PS'ing.

tmlphoto · August 29, 2004

DavidTO wrote:

I did use a fill flash on most of them. This one is actually one where I shot too quickly and my dying flash batteries couldn't keep up. It ended up being the best of the lot, thought IMO, and worth the extra PS'ing.

Yes, you caught a nice expression for everyone. It is difficult taking group pictures especially when small children are involved.

lynnma · August 29, 2004

DavidTO wrote:

I took these shots at the park yesterday, and I'd love some feedback. They all look a touch oversaturated online, because the ezprints color profile has been stripped out. So imagine them a little less saturated.

This is a portrait I took of my cousin and her family. I shot RAW, processed it twice, once exposed for the background and once for the foreground, then used layer masks to composite the two.

This one is of Maya. I love the lighting on her face, and I hate the distracting towel in the background. No fancy compositing here, just one exposure. What do you think?

One last from the day prior. No people, but still wondering what you all think. Cropped and blurred the background. Note: I got help on this one from master horse shooter, lynnesite.

I love this one of the child David..

you could probably burn that bright towel and back ground down with WxWx amazing burn technique.. The light on her face and hair is lovely...

p.s. the group looks great now.. I thought for a min that the man and boy were a sep. picture and you'd brought them toghether.. his coloring was a little differnet to hers...

looks great now..

DavidTO · August 29, 2004

lynnma wrote:

you could probably burn that bright towel and back ground down with WxWx amazing burn technique.. The light on her face and hair is lovely...

What amazing technique is that?
I can think of several ways of doing it, but would love to hear about WxWx's amazing technique. Sounds intriguing.

wxwax · August 29, 2004

Well, it's not my technique... i just use it a lot. But then again, so does Lynn.

For some reason I can't find the thread with the info. Bear with me, I'll dig it up. It's just a nicer way of dodging and burning.

wxwax · August 29, 2004

Here ya go - Cletus gave the tip. Brush size and opacity/flow are the keys to making it work. Big brush, w/soft edges, and low opacity and flow.

DavidTO · August 29, 2004

wxwax wrote:

Well, it's not my technique... i just use it a lot. But then again, so does Lynn.

For some reason I can't find the thread with the info. Bear with me, I'll dig it up. It's just a nicer way of dodging and burning.

Cool. Looking forward to it.

In the meantime, I just cropped it. What do you think?

Feedback, please.

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