[muzza]

Portrait taken of a work mate. What do you all think?

[Petographer]

The one thing I noticed right away was the reddish tone. With the red brick her complexion seems even more red. Maybe a slight crop on the left tighter to her shoulder and a touch of sharpening to her eyes as these are the center of attention. This is a very good shot that with a couple slight improvements would make the model very proud. Fine work Muzza, very well done!

[Schellamo]

Yes, a very flattering portrait I think. The lighting is nice too. I think a different crop would suit though, perhaps a close up of her face? I just don't like not being able to see the top of her shirt, makes me wonder whether she's wearing one - though I'm sure the boys wouldn't complain about that

[Petographer]

Muzza,

I hope you don't mind but I did a little work on your image. First image, here are the steps I took.

-crop
-levels
-contrast +3
-dodge the eyes a touch to lighten shadowed areas
-applied warming filter 81 @25%
-selected the eyes and satured a slight touch
-used healing brush to remove a few freckles on lips and face
-sharpen eyelidsand lips



Second image I went a step farther and applied a layer mask to improve on skin texture.



You can view the exact process in a short tutorial here

[NT73]

I like the original esp for colour of hair.
In the lightened version the highlights get blown making her face look shiny.
The other thing I would do (not everybody) is crop just below the hairline. With her coat undone it looks a little brazen. My wife thinks crop below chin, about the distance from eyes to chin., so we're different.
Eyes look a bit out of focus, Otherwise I like it. Nice girl

[Irma]

I think the square crop or landscape format, and the centered composition don't favor this portrait, since the girl's face is a bit round... I think her eyes are lacking color and light and as it was said it looks flat...

I know that this is not the fix me up... but I had to try to give my advice...

I think a b&w conversion works much better. and a crop like this... I followed Slejhamer tutorial but I just work the first two steps, and then worked with levels... Still I think a bit of contrast might be missing but it is just matter of taste..

Hope this helps...

[Petographer]

I think Irma's version works well in B&W. It lessens the blown whites to a great degree but I don't thing having that blown area on her face hurts the image too much. Here I used it to my advantage by adding a little soft glow.

[Irma]

Colin, I worked the B&W conversion because I really didn't like the colors in the whole picture... and without expecting that, I recovered a bit of detail in the blown out area... however I think your second try has much better contrast than mine...
I like a lot the last one... the soft glow looks great here...

[shuttertalk]

Very flattering portrait! The others have done a good job at pp, but I think it definitely helps when you have a good pic to start with!

[muzza]

Hey,

Thanks for the feedback.

Schell: She did have a top on...but it was still quite a boy pleasing one anyway if you know what I mean. I'll post another shot where you can see the top!

Peto: Initially I quite like the reddish tones overall but now agree that they could do with a colour balance. The red bricks are pretty much spot on to the correct tones though. The diffuse glow shot also looks pretty good.

NT73: Yup..missed the focus by a smidge. I'm still getting used to the manual lens! Practise makes perfect!

Irma: I really like that b&w conversion and the crop too. Thanks for the composition tips.

[muzza]

Here is the as promised follow up shot showing the top! hehehe



What do you all think?

[Schellamo]

I like it better. I also like the tones better in this shot. I'm sure she was very happy with this

[peter]

Yeah .. i like the framing on the one just posted... dont know but the colours seem less saturated... which is a good thing ... i also like the framing better ...

[Petographer]

I like her expression in the latest shot much better. The exposure is a tad better too.