Headshot

[zona5101]

iso200 f5.6 1/125
Appreciate any feedback on the B&W conversion/toning and skin. tia!

[scootermcq]

Bruce... I love ya like the big brother I never had, but this one misses for me. I have hesitated to respond twice, because I respect you, but I think that would be wrong & an insult to our growing online friendship. With that in mind:

The conversion is good, I really like that.

Tone wise, the light is too hot for my taste on the right side of her face and has some really specular highlights. It appears a little too skin smoothed, but that could be the lighting.

You did not ask for feedback on other things, but since you are here... what the hell.
The flat, front facing composition does not do it for me. I would prefer her head turned slightly one way or the other. Also, for me, the crop is too wide for a dead centered composition and would prefer it off set. I am not fussy over the border & vignette, but that does not kill it for me.

So, now that I have torn you apart and left you bleeding on the floor, let me close with the fact that I have great respect for your work and skills, and an example would be the Senior pictures for Brooke which were great. This one however is not up to your usual standard from my tastes.

[zona5101]

No worries my brotherfromanothermother
Unlike Lt. Kaffee, I can handle the truth and I won't have Santiago order a Code Red on you

Thanks for the feedback. It is appreciated. The specular highlights were quite spectacular and I did some work to tone them down... I wanted to see if it was too much and basically ya, it probably was. Of course now that you mention it, the lackluster composition is hitting me over the head.

Here is the SOOC shot.

[Liz Caldwell]

Hi,

Your photo isn't actually that bad, with a lil snazzing up, I think it would make a decent head shot for a blog or social media site....

I hope you don't mind, I took a few moments to play with the photo... Aside from the obvious I only did a small levels adjustment.

[zona5101]

Thanks for the effort Liz but Scott is pretty much dead on that its fundamentally weak. And i think it will remain fundamentally weak even with snazzing up - I do like where you were going with it...

[Liz Caldwell]

I agree with scott's posing comments, but the lighting and crop can be fixed in post pretty easy. I wouldn't put it in the portfolio, but don't be too hard on yourself either

[Liz Caldwell]

... I should probably add here that I really enjoy retouching and photoshop in general, so I might be a bit biased... lol

[scootermcq]

Originally Posted by zona5101

No worries my brotherfromanothermother
Unlike Lt. Kaffee, I can handle the truth and I won't have Santiago order a Code Red on you

Thanks for the feedback. It is appreciated. The specular highlights were quite spectacular and I did some work to tone them down... I wanted to see if it was too much and basically ya, it probably was. Of course now that you mention it, the lackluster composition is hitting me over the head.

Here is the SOOC shot.

The SOOC is actually better, the specular highlights are there, but less noticeable. Still not a prize winner, but better than most. Something in the conversion made that right side go nuclear. Did you invert the image and do an overlay?

[zona5101]

Originally Posted by scootermcq

The SOOC is actually better, the specular highlights are there, but less noticeable. Still not a prize winner, but better than most. Something in the conversion made that right side go nuclear. Did you invert the image and do an overlay?

I did general spot healing, patched out some of the specular highlights. Conversion was using the "Calculations" technique that NicolaB posted a few weeks back. Then a run through Nik dynamic skin softening. ...that's where I probably blew it up jacking with the sliders. The border and vignette was from Nik Silver efx.

[prince]

I feel the contrast is lacking in the B&W conversion. It is too soft for my taste.