Salon Photo Shot

[PhotoGnat]

Hey everyone, do you think I blew out his face too much, and is the lighting in general ok? Someone mentioned he looks pale but he was a very light skin toned. Also looking for some general critique on whatever you find that could use improvement. Thanks for looking.


Exif data
Camera Canon EOS REBEL T2i
Exposure 0.006 sec (1/160)
Aperture f/9.0
Focal Length 84 mm
ISO Speed 100

[ccting]

i like the lighting

[ajax_andy]

I like the pic a lot but there are a few minor points I think that could be improved.

1) His forehead almost looks a little shiny. The hot spot really needs to be toned down and I'd recommend either burning this area a bit or selecting a pleasing skin tone colour and using the brush tool on about 10% opacity to go over it.

2) His eyes are a tiny bit soft, not a lot and it could be my monitor as the one i'm on is rubbish, but presonally i'd just use the sharpening tool ever so slightly on them to make them pop more.

Apart from that though I think its a cool shot

[graciousness]

Hey there,

Am having a little snack tonight and thought I'd fiddle with your photo whilst I do it. Hope you don't mind...just wanted to show you an edit version where he can look a little less.....pale and inebriated

He does look a bit red/pink and it doesn't help that the lighting is just a tad bit much on his face. Did you also point a light at him from behind him? It's caused a triangular shadow on his neck area plus a little 'hot' on the left side of his face (camera left).

This is a good photo and just needs a little tweaking.

If you look at the edit version that I've done, he's a little bit more neutral in comparison in skin tone. I added yellow tint/filter with opacity to something very tiny, like around 5% or even less? Using curves, I've also reduced redness and adjusted levels to get more blacks and white balance.

Anyhoo, just wanted to show the edit I did just for comparison so you can perhaps see that yours is a little tad red. Is your monitor calibrated? I know you mentioned that he's rather pale, but it doesn't mean we can't still do something about fixing that in edit It doesn't have to be extreme, but only enough to give them a little pop.

I'll take the photo down if you wish.

Hope this helps.

By the way, his eyes are sharp enough on my monitor. Could prove different with other people's monitors, though...

Cheers and hope this helps,

Grace

[graciousness]

By the way, that shirt gave a little colour cast on his face, esp under the eyes. It may have helped a little though and reduced the redness in the shot, but still, just something to watch out for next time. This became apparent when I was editing.

[BigFuzzy]

In the end it's a nice image, but I have to say that the brightness of the flash reflecting off his skin is noticeable to me.
Does it ruin the image? No.
Does it hold it back a bit? Yes.

I think changing the angle of the light that's hitting him a bit more to the side would keep that light from bouncing back directly to the camera which is why it looks that way.

Otherwise, I like your use of the side light and the photo in general. Just a bit of tweaking and it could be an excellent headshot.