[smarti77]

Inspired by some of the other great portraits (and recommended post processing improvements) on this site recently I have done a remake of one of my shots of my son. I would value any honest comments or advice?
Tell me whats overdone because I tend to take the photoshopping too far...



I've added the original for comparison...



I changed the T-shirt to blue to match the eyes. I found the green too distracting. I tried my best to darken the bricks while lighting the skin. Alot of smoothing of the skin and attention to the eyes...

[Schellamo]

This is LOVELY! I really like it.
I would probably crop it a bit differently, but the photoshopping looks perfect to me, very natural, I can't tell what you did- what did you do??

For some reason I can't upload my crop for you, so i'll try to describe it! I cropped it so that I chopped off about half his hair at the top, and some of the left side, and it looked really good, I think it had more impact with less of the brick around, and then I did a really really tight crop of just his face and hands pretty much and that looked good too I thought. Hope that made sense. I love his pose, the way he is sitting and his eyes are just lovely, great work!

[Banded Drake]

i like this portrait , it has a lot to say in it . Looks like he was playing real hard !! i dont think that you have over done anything at all. but i am no expert , i really like this .


....... Shawn

[Petographer]

I think the image is excellent. You did very well. The only thing I noticed right off the bat was his tanned forehead which I thought is a real shame. Not likely much you can do about that but on the other hand thats him. The crop IMO is perfect.

[NT73]

I think the image is excellent. You did very well. The only thing I noticed right off the bat was his tanned forehead which I thought is a real shame. Not likely much you can do about that but on the other hand thats him. The crop IMO is perfect.

I think it could be selected with a large feather, and the colour cast shifted a little to lose the tan.
But it may be best to leave it. The only thing I would alter is his barber. Remember the DA (Tony Curtis)

[wulinka]

very nice, good work smarti!
I don't mind your initial crop, think it works well.

uli

[smarti77]

The only thing I would alter is his barber. Remember the DA (Tony Curtis)

Haha, To be fair on him this is not his usual hair style. It was spiked up for a special day out...

Thanks for all the comments. Its funny how you dont notice things until somebody else points them out. I spent alot of time on the colour on the skin but didn't think anything of the darker tones on his forehead...

The hardest part of this was changing the colour of the T-shirt while keeping it looking natural. I kept getting a green edge between the skin tones and the T-shirt. You can still just see it in some spots (where his cheek meets the t-shirt).

I expected someone would pick on the eyes. His left eye was very dull with no colour or light. I totally replaced it with a copy of the other eye reversed! (reversing the catchlights to match). It does give a slighlty unnatural symmetry to the eyes but I think I got away with it in this case.

Jake is autistic and will rarely sit and pose naturally for me, making photos like this very special to me.
Shane.

[Toad]

This is very cool post rocessing, smarti. Very well done.

...notice I am not saying anything about sexy eyes... (heh, heh, hehe)..

[Schellamo]

LOL, I think you did an awesome job, even though it was hard, i think changing the colour of his shirt was well worth it, it totally pops! And his eyes look beautiful, well done! Now go and get it enlarged and framed!

[smarti77]

Please don't take this as a serious attempt to improve this portrait. I've just found an interesting tutorial and applied it to this image....



tutorial

What do you think? It was a fun time waster if nothing else...
Shane

[Wedding Shooter]

Very nice Smarti - and I like the clown face too.

Wel done.

[Kombisaurus]

yeah, great job smarti!

The original is a lovely shot, your post-processing is nicely done, and then the clown face is well done too!

[Petographer]

Fun processing Smartie.