Half Portrait

[HillHavenStudio]

I am doing a 365 project (I would love for any of you to follow it and leave me comments and critique - I need it! www.HillHavenStudio.Blogspot.com) The other day I had forgotten my pic until late so I snapped this shot real quick of my husband in a dark room with only a lamp pointed at his face, which is why the ISO is so high. I posted it up there without any editing, but then I messed with the levels and the contrast a little and this was my end piece. How is the color? Contrast? Composition? How could I have made this a better picture? thanks for all your help!!




EXIF
Aperture: f/5.6
Focal Length: 210mm
Shutter Speed: 1/30
ISO: 1600

[Elyzabeth]

I like the way the light is hitting his face, his eyes are kind of blank though, but it is just my personal opinion that the eyes in a shot should be saying something. overall good.

[HillHavenStudio]

if it helps i was going for a blank, stoic look.

[HillHavenStudio]

99 views and only one comment? I feel rejected...

[i speak in math]

Originally Posted by HillHavenStudio

While a half face portrait can be creatively executed, that really isn't the case here. The lighting and expression are really unflattering. Unless you are going for a "spooky" look, light should almost never come from beneath the subject. You can see from the shadow above his eye, that that is what is happening here.

Composition-wise, there is too much forehead and not enough chin. I feel like I am looking up which is almost never a good angle with which to take someones portrait. You can see up their nose. Nobody wants to see themselves like that.

You've tweaked the contrast or levels a little too much at the expense of blowing out some detail in the skin. The skin on the cheek and under the eye brow are pure white while there is no detail in the dark areas such as the hair.

[HillHavenStudio]

Thanks for your comment. Upon looking at it again, I do wish I had gotten more of his chin. It does look rather odd where it is cut off. I wasn't really going for a flattering look, but a blank, flat, anatomical look, but I do understand what you are saying and will take it under advisement next time

As far as the contrast goes, I really love black and white photography, and I am trying to learn what is right. I feel like I keep going from skin being too dark and muddy, to too blown out. Are there any good guidelines or suggestions that you have for black and white photography? Here is the link to the original, before i started tweaking the contrast...is it better or worse? HillHaven Thoughts: Day 13
Thanks again SO much.

[i speak in math]

Originally Posted by HillHavenStudio

Thanks for your comment. Upon looking at it again, I do wish I had gotten more of his chin. It does look rather odd where it is cut off. I wasn't really going for a flattering look, but a blank, flat, anatomical look, but I do understand what you are saying and will take it under advisement next time

As far as the contrast goes, I really love black and white photography, and I am trying to learn what is right. I feel like I keep going from skin being too dark and muddy, to too blown out. Are there any good guidelines or suggestions that you have for black and white photography? Here is the link to the original, before i started tweaking the contrast...is it better or worse? HillHaven Thoughts: Day 13
Thanks again SO much.

I'm not sure how you are converting your image to black and white so i'm not sure of what pointers to give you. I would certainly avoid hitting the "convert to grayscale" or "desaturate" options. When I do it, I shift the hues in the color shot around which effects the tone when converted to b&w to achieve the look I want. My process is kind of long and complicated, but I use a tweaked black and white gradient map as the main converting layer. One thing that helps avoid mucky gray skin is tweaking your reds and yellows. If you shift the red and yellow hues a bit before your gradient map, you can brighten or darken the skins look without blowing out your colors.

So, start with a color shot. Place a saturation adjustment layer with no changes above that and a black and white gradient map on above that. Then open the saturation layer, choose red from the drop down menu and slide it up to +10 or so. See how the skin tone changes? Tweak the red and yellow until you're happy.

Here's one I took a few hours ago. I'm not sure how the b&w looks because I edited on my laptop which has a really poorly calibrated screen. My images edited on here usually look pretty bad but I can tell nothing in this is blown out. There are some real dark shadows without detail though. But this was more of an impromptu shot where I didn't plan all the lighting out.