A Woman and her "babies"

[AnneWynne]

EXIF:
Camera: Nikon D50
Exposure: 0.008 sec (1/125)
Aperture: f/5.6
Focal Length: 50 mm
Exposure Bias: 0 EV
Flash: No Flash


Minimal postprocessing with the exception of switching the eyes from one image to this one and reducing the wrinkles. Squiggly dogs made it very hard to get a capture with everyone looking in the general direction of the camera.


My question has to do with the eyes and skin. The eyes are natually asymetrical and the image I took them from was taken immediately before this one...so same pose, distance, lighting, etc. Does the fix look natural (would you know it if I had not told you), and is the face over-processed (I can lower the opacity of that level).

Thanks for any and all feedback.
Anne

[sybren]

I think any possible issues with the skin and the eyes aren't that important. I'm way too much distracted by the busy, light background. Geometrical shapes draw attention. The straight lines in the background are bright too, so that's a double attention seeker. Once I draw my eyes away from the background, I focus on the bright cyan shirt she has on.

I think her eyes could use more light. The whites are really dark. Also there is no highlight on her eyes, making them look flat. How did you light the photo?

I think that when you have dealt with those issues, the photo will become quite nice. I think that converting to black and white and removing the blue channel will help a lot. You could then darken the background a bit and lighten her face, and I think you'll have a lovely photo.

[zona5101]

from the size/resolution of the pic you posted (and not knowing what her eyes really look like) I could not tell you did anything to the eyes.

[davewb]

Hi Anne,

I agree with the eyes - a few stokes of the dodge brush would fix that up. I think the skin looks good - processed (as most skin in photos are these days), but still realistic. My main issue is the colour matching of the face and hands...the difference makes the photo looked touched up.

I don't agree with the comment regarding the background...it contextualises the women and dogs and helps to narrate a story - a women suffering from empty next syndrome etc.

Overall though, I think the photo is wonderful - it could easily fit into a Women's Day article.

Dave

[swilliams61]

The background was not distracting to me either...my first thought was how lovely, soft and gentle the portrait was. I would not have known that you had "fixed" the eyes. You captured a nice moment!

[dblightsey]

Wow, I really like this photo. The only thing that stood out to me was the arms/hands not matching up with the skin tones on the face. If you hit those up a little bit then I would say very good and I agree with the Womens Day comment. I thought it looked like a nice magazine shot. good job.