Regarding Meagan

[RLucas]

I am revisiting some impromptu portraits I did for my stepsons girlfriend Meagan.
I have been working with LR3 for the past couple of months, and I seem to be having some issues with skin tones. They are either too red/pink, or too cold. I am having trouble finding that happy medium.

Couple of questions about this one.
1.) Does the composition work? Its not exactly ROT, but I thought it was pleasing. I would love to know your thoughts.

2.) I did move this over to GIMP, and did some dodging and burning around the eyes, and softened up underneath her eyes. Is it noticeable to you? Does it look overdone?

3.) I am on the fence regarding the light area in the background and the lightness of her shirt. I feel it could be a distraction, but to me it kind of adds to the frame. I would love to know what you guys think. Am I moving in the right direction?


Camera Nikon D40
Exposure 0.006 sec (1/160)
Aperture f/4.8
Focal Length 90 mm
ISO Speed 200

[sheila3]

Hi RLucas. Still very new to photography and post processing but here are my initial thoughts. Love the composition and pose. She looks very natural and comfortable. Have no clue what dodging and burning are but I think her eyes look great. I don't find the light behind her bothersome. Think its kind of pretty. So my opinion is Nice Job!

[Surprised]

Hi. Like Sheila, I'm no expert either, but I thought I'd offer a couple of thoughts. The eyes look good to me too, and whatever pp you've done it certainly doesn't seem obvious or overdone to my untrained eye. I'm less convinced about the light top and I'm wondering whether that, and the background light, are affecting her skin tone, which seems a little washed-out from here. The other thing is that I find her right ear slightly distracting -- perhaps because there's such a contrast with her dark hair. But I'm being picky; it's a nice shot and gives me the feeling that I'd know her if I met her! Thank you for sharing.

[KUlmer]

Nice shot!

I think it is right on for the rule of thirds. I try to pay more attention to the placement of their eyes when I am composing. In this case, her face falls in the top right corner and on the right third of the photo. Looks good to me.

The pp looks natural to me. Not overdone at all. The highlights to the left of her face do blend in with her shirt and create a distractingly large light patch very close to her face. You could try darkening that area a little with the burn tool. At first glance, my eye is drawn to the white space instead of to the models face.

On my monitor, her skin does look quite pale and a little green overall. I used to work in a photo lab and they always told us it was better to err on the side of to red. People tend to be a little more accepting of those images than of images where the skin is too blue or too green. It may help to look at the whites of your subjects eyes when you are working on color balancing like that.

Good shot!