wanting to earn from this...

[EmmaR]

Hi all,
so as the title says, I want to earn money from my portrait photography. So, in order to do that, I need to get better.

This was taken just before dusk.

I'm just after general things I could have done better for this shot. Feel free to edit in any way and repost - this shot just has a levels adjustment layer - nothing else.


EXIF
Canon EOS 1000D
SS- 1/100
Ap - f/5.0 (the lowest my lens will go to)
ISO- 800 might be worth a run though a noise filter do you think?
lens- EF-S55-250mm f/4-5.6 IS @ 131mm
no flash,
spot meter mode

[SusanH1970]

You're off to a great start! Nice sharp focus. The composition almost works - I don't like how she's chopped off at the neck and then a flower is just appearing out of nowhere (obviously I know she was holding it or it was growing near where she was, lol). Shooting from further back or in portrait orientation might have been better.

Skin tones are very cool - she's bluish-pink. I really don't see a lot of noise, it might be more apparent in a larger version.

Otherwise, I think you've done a pretty nice job with this! By the way, your model is gorgeous.

You said you didn't mind if anyone played...I may do so!

[PhotoPhix]

Originally Posted by EmmaR

Hi all,
so as the title says, I want to earn money from my portrait photography. So, in order to do that, I need to get better.

This was taken just before dusk.

I'm just after general things I could have done better for this shot. Feel free to edit in any way and repost - this shot just has a levels adjustment layer - nothing else.


EXIF
Canon EOS 1000D
SS- 1/100
Ap - f/5.0 (the lowest my lens will go to)
ISO- 800 might be worth a run though a noise filter do you think?
lens- EF-S55-250mm f/4-5.6 IS @ 131mm
no flash,
spot meter mode

Its a great shot and I agree with the comment about the flower. I tweaked the colors a bit as well as softened it up a bit .

Great work


Armando

[SusanH1970]

Okay...I warmed it up a little, brightened, and added a touch of contrast. If you hate it let me know and I'll take it right down!

[EmmaR]

hey, thanks heaps for replying!

Armando, that shot is fantastic! Could you possibly tell me exactly what you did with it? I use PSE7.

Susan, I see what you mean about the flower just coming out of nowhere and chopped off at the neck. I'll have to work on my composition!

yeah, isn't she just gorgeous! She's my mate and we were at a function last night, and she luurrrves to pose!

[PhotoPhix]

Originally Posted by EmmaR

hey, thanks heaps for replying!

Armando, that shot is fantastic! Could you possibly tell me exactly what you did with it? I use PSE7.

Susan, I see what you mean about the flower just coming out of nowhere and chopped off at the neck. I'll have to work on my composition!

yeah, isn't she just gorgeous! She's my mate and we were at a function last night, and she luurrrves to pose!

I did a color adjustment layer and warmed it up a bit, then a light pass with noise ninja softened it up just right. I also dodged and spot sharpened the eyes to make them pop a bit.


Armando

[ttosifa]

Pretty picture.

The main problem I see in the original and in the edits that follow is that the colors are pretty far off. The color cast you have is common for shooting outdoors in natural light. A lot of light bounces off of surrounding foliage and grass, and the color cast is a combination of too blue and too cyan (or, equivalently, too little yellow and too little red).

If you are going to go pro, you might want to invest some time (and a few $) learning to identify and correct for color casts. It's hard to trust your eyes because they automatically adjust for color casts. The books "Skin" by Lee Varis and "Professional Photoshop" by Dan Margulis explain how to use color-space numbers as an objective baseline. You can choose to deviate from the numbers for artistic reasons, but at least you will start from an objective baseline.

So, back to the photo. According to the CMYK numbers, you have a blue-cyan cast likely created by surrounding foliage. Because of that, you have lost a lot of color contrast. I have taken a very quick stab at your photo, but I did not try to be perfect. The warmed up photo by SusanH seems to cancel a bit of the blue cast, but the cyan cast is still prominent (done by guessing; I did not her check numbers).

Also, I am not fond of the skin-smoothing technique above. To me, it makes the skin look plastic since a lot of the skin texture is lost. The book "Skin" has some nice methods for improving skin.

[SusanH1970]

Originally Posted by ttosifa

Pretty picture.

The main problem I see in the original and in the edits that follow is that the colors are pretty far off. The color cast you have is common for shooting outdoors in natural light. A lot of light bounces off of surrounding foliage and grass, and the color cast is a combination of too blue and too cyan (or, equivalently, too little yellow and too little red).

If you are going to go pro, you might want to invest some time (and a few $) learning to identify and correct for color casts. It's hard to trust your eyes because they automatically adjust for color casts. The books "Skin" by Lee Varis and "Professional Photoshop" by Dan Margulis explain how to use color-space numbers as an objective baseline. You can choose to deviate from the numbers for artistic reasons, but at least you will start from an objective baseline.

So, back to the photo. According to the CMYK numbers, you have a blue-cyan cast likely created by surrounding foliage. Because of that, you have lost a lot of color contrast. I have taken a very quick stab at your photo, but I did not try to be perfect. The warmed up photo by SusanH seems to cancel a bit of the blue cast, but the cyan cast is still prominent (done by guessing; I did not her check numbers).

Also, I am not fond of the skin-smoothing technique above. To me, it makes the skin look plastic since a lot of the skin texture is lost. The book "Skin" has some nice methods for improving skin.

ttosifa....I see that now. I did a VERY quick edit (not trying to be perfect either, as you say), adding yellow, playing with cyan a bit, but not enough.

I'm not wild about the skin smoothing method, either - looks a bit Barbiedoll-ish to me..

[EmmaR]

right, so how's this version? any better?

thanks again for taking the time to reply - it means a lot!

[SusanH1970]

That actually looks quite lovely to me (albeit the floating lily, LOL).