Girl Model

[lilplucky11903]

I shot this photo awhile ago so im not sure of the details. I really love the lighting in this photo, and the pose. I edited it with portrait professionals. My questions however are, what does everyone think of the lighting and the pose in this photo. Could it be better? Also, I have been told that with the edited I did to it she looks like a wax figure, I dont really see that, does anyone else? Thanks!!!

Taken with a Nikon d40x and standard 18mm to 55mm lens.

[Photolicious]

I like the skin and light, but I am not too crazy about the sunglasses/lip thing...it doesn't look natural to me (who sits like that? and it makes the lower lip look funny.
But great shot, would love to see the orignal SOOC.

[WooD]

I don't think you went too far with the skin process, real close but not too far. There is still detail. Her hair on her right is nice and sharp, but the hair on her left, and top of her head kind of looks like you didn't mask it off when doing the face edit. It would have helped if you had posted the EXIF info on the picture.

The pose works, and the sunglasses would have been great if she was just resting them on her lip, instead of actually pressing down on it.

I think the blue on the right of the frame takes away from the image, I'd have cloned that out.

Over all I think you did a great job. I like it. Just goes to show a person doesn't have to have pro gear to get great results.

[Benji]

For a snapshot this is nice. Good exposure, great white balance, I like the skin smoothing and the feel of the image.

Since sunshine is such a hard light source it leaves very hard shadows with a sharp edge transfer which in portraiture is not usually flattering, especially to beautiful women. However I see this as more of a modeling type of image rather than a portrait and in modeling shots all rules of just about everything goes out the window.

Some fill flash would have helped add some needed light to her dark hair around her right ear so her hair would have some detail in it rather than that large area of black nothingness.

All in all I'm impressed.

Benji

[JeffSmith]

Nice shot, but I think the skin is too smooth and doesn't look real. My eyes were adjusting focus between the forehead and the hair because of the severe contrast in sharpness.

It looks like there's a halo of softness around the eyes and the bridge of the nose has completely disappeared by the models right eye.

There's also a slight frown in the models eyes caused by the brightness of the sun, but not a wrinkle in sight; it's just incongruous.

You've proven you know how to smooth skin, just cut it back a little and make it a little more natural.

[SusanH1970]

Another vote for the skin smoothing to be just a bit much. If you tone it down just a little, I think the photo would be greatly improved. Just my two cents.

[lilplucky11903]

thanks for all the posts! I think im going to re edit it, and re attach it with all of you suggestions! thankyou again everyone! this site is helping me out alot!

[lilplucky11903]

Ok here is the not edited one, as you can see she did have a line in her forehead from the sun, which deffintaly needed to be removed.

[Swisstony10]

I think that the skin processing is a tiny bit too far. It's not horrible, by any stretch of the imagination, but I can see what people mean when they say "wax figure"..

I use Portrait Pro too - once I've set up all the key points and it moves on to the processing phase, the first thing I do is back all the controls off to nothing at all, and then gradually work up from there, rather than use the default settings - I always find that Portrait Pro's idea of "perfect" is just a little too heavy-handed and unsubtle..

Russ.

[irishmuth]

agree with most that the skin smoothing went just a tad too far and that the hairline right in the middle of her forehead is what calls the most attention to the smoothing. she has pretty nice skin in the original, so I don't think a ton of correction needs to be done.