Portrait PP, Well Done or Over Done?

[pkd14u]

The original image for this photo, shot raw, was a bit underexposed, the eyes were very dark. I color corrected, corrected the overall exposure, lightened the entire image via levels, and lightened the eyes further. I also gave the overall photo a softer look by using gaussian blur in screen mode and again in soft light mode (I masked this effect off of the eyes).

Composition-wise, I have a further edited version with the people in the background taken out of the photo completely and a closer crop. I know that there is more that could have been done with the composition and would love suggestions on that.

What I really want to know is if the eyes are overdone. I know that I cringe when I see eye whites that are WHITE. It really bugs me. However, after staring at this image (and the many others I have processed myself) I can no longer see if it is well done or over done.

Anything else you'd like to critique (exception: the model (she's my daughter ) have at it!



EXIF
Canon EOS Digital Rebel XT
Exposure 0.013 sec (1/80)
Aperture f/9.0
Focal Length 135 mm
ISO Speed 400
Flash Off, Did not fire
Exposure Mode Manual
Lens 28.0-135.0 mm

Thanks a ton!
Cathy

[SusanH1970]

Beautiful girl, I love her smile and her hair!

What immediately stood out to me as odd was that her right eye (camera left) has a gorgeous catchlight, but her other eye doesn't. Other than that, the eyes look fine to me, not overdone at all. Skin tones are a bit uneven, I'm seeing a lot of yellow and a bit of magenta, and the blacks are clipped. A soft light layer often does that - I always reduce the opacity way down and paint back the skin.

Hope this helps.

[pkd14u]

Thank you Susan!

Yes! I was seeing the yellow and magenta (maybe red) too. I worked on that and the result, along with further edits, is on my Flickr photostream.

Marah_2010 | Flickr - Photo Sharing!

Unfortunately, the more work I did the more the image seemed to degrade and become noisy.

I agree about her left eye being darker and less grabbing than the right eye. I treated them both equally in PP, doing exactly to one what I did to the other. I'll go back and see if I can take the left eye brighter a notch so they match better. That always seems to happen with my photos and I'm hesitant to process one eye more or differently than the other, but I'll give it a go.

Thank you for looking at it and giving my your critique.

Cathy

[SusanH1970]

You're welcome, Cathy.

Would you mind if I played? If it's okay with you, could you post a SOOC? If you'd rather I didn't that's perfectly fine, of course.

[pkd14u]

Susan, I'd love to see what you can do with it.

I'll post a jpg on Flickr that is mostly SOOC (except being RAW).

Marah_SOOC | Flickr - Photo Sharing!

I undid my RAW corrections, so you can see exactly what I was working with.

[RLucas]

May I play too?

[SusanH1970]

Thanks for the link! I don't know if I'll have a chance to play tonight, but probably will tomorrow.

[pkd14u]

Luke, you can play if you give me some feedback on my work. Fair's fair, afterall.

[SusanH1970]

Okay, here's a quick and dirty edit. If I had the full RAW file instead of a low res web version, it'd be MUCH better, LOL! But just to give you an idea....

The SOOC was really, really underexposed. I brought it into ACR and increased the exposure, then used the recovery slider a bit to bring back at least a touch of the blown-out background. Saved as a .dng and brought it into CS2. For the eyes: duplicate the layer, lasso eyes, new layer via copy, set to screen mode, lower opacity way down. Used black eraser to brush back in everything but the irises/pupils. Flatten image, clone good catchlight from right eye into left eye (still wonky and not in the 100% right place, but it gives you the idea I hope). Used the patch tool to fix undereye circles, faded to about 65-70%. Lassoed teeth, went to hue/saturation, chose yellow, dropped saturation down just a touch. Cropped to bring her eyes to the ROT. Didn't bother with the background, you already handled that nicely.

Like I said, quick and dirty (and super fast!) - could be much better, just wanted to give you a basic idea of improvement. If you hate it, let me know, I'll take it down immediately.

PS: I LOVE the name Marah!

[RLucas]

Originally Posted by pkd14u

Luke, you can play if you give me some feedback on my work. Fair's fair, afterall.

There is really nothing I can add to what Susan had to say. I am seeing what she sees as well. Her edit is really nice too!