My Maggie (attempt at a portrait)

[sheila3]

Canon Rebel EOS XS
Exposure 1/25
f/5.6
ISO 100
focal length 55mm
Aperture- priority AE
no flash

Hi everyone. I would love some feedback on this photo. I was quite pleased with the composition and beauty of her face (as she is my daughter I am a bit biased ). Not sure if the color or contrast fell a bit flat. Along with learning all about portrait shooting I am also trying to master when and how much to use post processing. The second picture is the original. The first was touched up a tad with photoshop 6. (Don't think I let auto do this one .) So first of all are the pictures flat? Do you agree composition good? Anything I could have done to make it pop more as a portrait? And what about the post processing. Does it need more color? Did I make it too dark? Let the opinions and advice fly! Thanx so much for looking! ~Sheila~

P.S. If anyone wants to play with photo to show me what you would do be my guest.

[o.pulido]

Well, for starters, I love you camera! I have the same one, ha ha. I like what you have here, lots of potential. I think the skin tones could be a little warmer, and perhaps brighten the image up a bit. Although, the skins tones are little better in the first image, the shadows over the eyes are not allowing her face to pop out to the viewer.
On a final note, the cropping isn't bad, in my opinion, but I think it would have looked better if the crown of her head wan't chopped off that one bit; but that's just me.
A picture with great potential.
Good luck!

[MrJones]

great portrait!
I don't mind the head chopping, do it myself a lot.
all you need to do is brightening it up so the skin will get a more natural color. I love the background colors and how it matches her eyes.
btw, next time try to include her hand or lose the finger completly - but it's not that bad as it is.

great work!

[RLucas]

Hey Sheila! You have a beautiful daughter, and I love that smirk she is wearing!
On to the photo. The exposure looks good to me. Not too dark, and not too light.
The composition is a little too centered for my taste. Its not bad, but just a little too static for me. I took your original, and cropped off the left and top to get her eyes more in to the ROT zone.
Next is the white balance. It is way too cool. If you look at the whites of her eyes, and her shirt, they are light blue, not white. This gives a cool/blue cast to the whole image, and add to the flatness. If you shot in RAW, this is easily corrected, if not, it's a little more work, using white/black point adjustments. Most times, this method will not be perfect but it can help. This is what I did here. I set the white point on her shirt collar next to the pole, and i set the black point in the dark area between the pole and her shirt. For this I used "zone adjust" in GIMP, and I am not sure if PS has anything like this or not?

The next thing i did was levels and curves adjustment to adjust the contrast.

The focus fell just a little short of her eyes. It fell more on her hair next to the pole.To try and correct it, I did a high pass sharpen on just the eyes by using layers, and a layer mask.

[zona5101]

very nice post edit, Luke. well done.

[edbayani]

sheila, the photo of your looks very good except for the overall cyan cast and as Rlucas says, too centered.
here is a sample of what i did. corrected the color cast and adjusted the contrast a bit and used the burn and dodge tool to darken the left side of her face. i also cloned out the thumb.

[BritneyN_0518]

Here's my edit, it's not a huge change from your original but it works. I planned on sharpening the eyes and adding a slight color adjustment to them to make them pop more, more when I pulled up the original it was kind of blurry so I couldn't do it like I wanted. Anyway...I adjusted the white balance just a little warmer, did a histogram adjust, added in a small bit of fill flash, cloned the finger out, and cropped it like Luke did. I just did a simple edit to lighten the photo and put more focus on her face, of course there's alot more that one could do depending on your "likes."

[sheila3]

Originally Posted by o.pulido

Well, for starters, I love you camera! I have the same one, ha ha. I like what you have here, lots of potential. I think the skin tones could be a little warmer, and perhaps brighten the image up a bit. Although, the skins tones are little better in the first image, the shadows over the eyes are not allowing her face to pop out to the viewer.
On a final note, the cropping isn't bad, in my opinion, but I think it would have looked better if the crown of her head wan't chopped off that one bit; but that's just me.
A picture with great potential.
Good luck!

Thanx for the compliments and advice o.pulido. I will definately try to brighten it. I agree it needs to pop more. And yes I too would usually not go for the chopped head. Have a bunch of other shots from same day and of course the one with the cute smirk is cropped. Thanx for looking!

[sheila3]

Originally Posted by MrJones

great portrait!
I don't mind the head chopping, do it myself a lot.
all you need to do is brightening it up so the skin will get a more natural color. I love the background colors and how it matches her eyes.
btw, next time try to include her hand or lose the finger completly - but it's not that bad as it is.

great work!

Thanx MrJones. Will definately work on brightening the face. And didn't even notice the distraction of the finger. That is why I love this critique forum. Teaches me to catch all sorts of things. Learning tons Thanx again for compliments, advice, and for looking!

[sheila3]

Originally Posted by RLucas

Hey Sheila! You have a beautiful daughter, and I love that smirk she is wearing!
On to the photo. The exposure looks good to me. Not too dark, and not too light.
The composition is a little too centered for my taste. Its not bad, but just a little too static for me. I took your original, and cropped off the left and top to get her eyes more in to the ROT zone.
Next is the white balance. It is way too cool. If you look at the whites of her eyes, and her shirt, they are light blue, not white. This gives a cool/blue cast to the whole image, and add to the flatness. If you shot in RAW, this is easily corrected, if not, it's a little more work, using white/black point adjustments. Most times, this method will not be perfect but it can help. This is what I did here. I set the white point on her shirt collar next to the pole, and i set the black point in the dark area between the pole and her shirt. For this I used "zone adjust" in GIMP, and I am not sure if PS has anything like this or not?

The next thing i did was levels and curves adjustment to adjust the contrast.


The focus fell just a little short of her eyes. It fell more on her hair next to the pole.To try and correct it, I did a high pass sharpen on just the eyes by using layers, and a layer mask.

Wow! Thanx Luke! It looks awesome. You hit the nail on the head with the cool/blue cast. That is what was bothering me. Didn't shoot in RAW (That's my next learning experience ). And very amateur with photoshop. Still need to learn about layers and levels. But I love what you did here and can't wait to be able to do all this soon on my own. Thanx for the compliments and advice. And thanx for looking!
Oh and yes she does have the cutest smirk