Katie's Senior Portrait Shoot

[roostabunny]

50mm
1/200
f/3.2
ISO 400

Super-fun senior portrait shoot with my niece, and this is one of the shots I liked but had issues with. Issues, in this case = hair fuzzies.

Always open to general critique, especially on lighting and composition, but my main question today is whether the hair smoothing looks natural or not. It's dang hard to know when to stop!



Side note: This was really special. She's a very down-to-earth girl, and as I showed her a shot or two in the camera here and there throughout the session I got a big kick out of watching her realize, "Am I beautiful? I think I might be beautiful!" Anyway, we've all know all along, but what a thrill to give her the evidence she needed to be convinced herself.

[Tito87]

I think the lighting is fine, but like you said--the hair looks a bit over sharpened. Pretty girl.

[MrJones]

really nice shot, I really like the rim light on her leg, it really adds to the photo.
the hair doesn't look natural, mostly above her eye (the other side looks good).

[zona5101]

this is a wonderful shot, the lighting is really nice. The hair line is too smoothed.

[Superherosmommy]

Beautiful shot. I love the color and the lighting that you got in this shot. I agree with the hair not looking natural but other than that you got yourself a winner here, and a beautiful model.

[roostabunny]

Ha! Well, I guess the jury sides with my wife. Hair helmet it is.

Thanks for the feedback and generous compliments. I'll try again and see if I can be a bit more subtle with it. I'll post back here with a revision.

Meantime, anyone have any tips on smoothing hair fringe fuzzies? I use the clone stamp with a fuzzy-edge brush, but it's difficult to maintain the delicate edge sometimes.

[roostabunny]

Originally Posted by MrJones

I really like the rim light on her leg...

Mr. Jones for you and Zona5101 (or do you actually prefer Bruce?), I have to say that this spot was a super find. An elevated square mound with a flat top, covered with grass, right at a spot where the setting sun passes between the building next to it and another building further away. We were walking back to the car and I looked up and said, "Hey wait a minute..."

My artistic director/assistant/wife was just out of frame camera left with a big white reflector.

Beautiful light, coming in almost horizontal. If I hadn't run out of space, I might have tried a few more angles on it.

We had planned to get back in time to catch the awesome sunset light in my inlaw's yard, but it was too good to move from till I used up the space on my SD card (note to self: Buy more dang cards, you cheapskate!). We still got some pretty nice shots out the back field, and the delay was so worth it.

[zona5101]

it looks like a great location...the rim light is so nice. i'm sure spending some more time there you will find even more interesting light & angles. On the hair(s) some times a little blur works well so the hair is still kinda there just not sharp enough to attract your eye. Then theres some techniques for using hi-pass filters to blur/selective softening.
here's Vinnes post on that... How to - Selective Sharpening & Selective Skin Softening
Although the post addresses skin smoothing you can use the same technique to "smooth" the hair...
and Bruce is fine or zona or zona5101...i'll answer to all of them

[roostabunny]

Originally Posted by zona5101

Although the post addresses skin smoothing you can use the same technique to "smooth" the hair...
and Bruce is fine or zona or zona5101...i'll answer to all of them

Cool, Bruce, thanks! Funny thing, this is almost the exact technique I already use on skin - in GIMP, of course. I use the gaussian blur preview to determine how much smoothing is needed to get rid of the "schmutz", as the author of my tut calls it, then set the high-pass for that radius. Then invert the high-pass layer, gaussian blur to 1/3 the same radius, and use a layer mask to "paint" in the areas to smooth. Does a great job without losing skin texture.

And all that said, it never occurred to me to try it on hair. Thanks again!

We'll see how it goes, I'll try to post back another attempt after not too long.

[TNH]

Originally Posted by MrJones

really nice shot, I really like the rim light on her leg, it really adds to the photo.
the hair doesn't look natural, mostly above her eye (the other side looks good).

I agree, I think it looks fine on the left side, but a little over-edited on the right side. (My left, not her left!!)
I like the pose and lighting. Beautiful shot and girl!