DSLR Photography Forum

Here is 2 of the shots that i really liked , i know that yall are prob. getting tired of sepia , but it is one of my fav looks LOL .

1.



I am not real crazy about the white vineget ( sp ) , i was trying to get a " dreamy " look in this one and i think that i got it .

2 .



please tell me what you think . and yes i have the originals if yall want to see them .


thanks for looking ............. Shawn

wow you have really out done yourself BD..........I can see why these are your favorites!!

#1 is absolutely fantatsic and I would not change a thing...

#2 is a great concept - but it has a slight problem. Sorry in advance for being picky - but I do a lot of photo compositing, so I am sensitive to these things. The reflection is slightly higher up in the photo than the "real" girl - even though the camera is level with the real girl's head. Light doesn't reflect like that. I realize this is a fantasy shot - but it looks wrong to me and it would be a dead easy correction. I would lower the mirror in the frame somewhat to have the 2 girls at an equal level and then maybe crop the top a bit if required. Otherwise the shot is outstanding.

As I say - sorry to be picky - its a really good concept for a portrait.

Great work Sean. I don't see #2 the way Toad does but that doesn't really mean much. He does more of this type of thing than I do. You can always try and see how it turns out. The white border fade is ok but imo a bit inconsistent. I have a program I'd like to send to you that has the effect as a filter that you can resize and even invert so that the fade is black. I'll have to look and see if I can find it first. I'll pm you when I've found it. It's called Filters Unlimited. It has a ton of great effects.
#1 is beautiful. Very very good work Sean. It's great to see you improve the way you have.

Thanks Russt , Toad , and Peto im glad that yall liked them , as you can see i have been trying real hard to understand all the things in PS . There is still so much to play with and its been fun!!!


Toad ,

i see what you are saying and i will play with it and see what comes about, and i dont want anyone to feel like they are being " picky " . Yall have taught me a lot ( more than anywhere else ) . I put these on here so people will be " picky ". I am still learning to look at the " small " details . My eye isnt near as quick to see these types of things.


Peto,


I would love to play with that program, the white was done like this

I used a oliptical tool featherd @ 225
Inverted selection
then i hit backspace to get the vin.


I dont know why it looks inconsistent , maybe the way i did it ? I really do appreciate the compliments .



Russt

I hope there will be a lot more to come , i have to keep my mind open to new ideas . I m really glad you liked them , i was afraid all the airbrushing i did would turn a lot of yall wouldnt like it .


....... Thanks soooooo much for looking .... Shawn

Inconsistent was a poor choice of words. Now that I know how you did the vignetting I think you feathered the edge too much.

wow, I really love #1!

there is a bit too much going on in #2 for me, but that's a matter of taste, I suppose.
what was your intention?

uli

wulinka Wrote:wow, I really love #1!

there is a bit too much going on in #2 for me, but that's a matter of taste, I suppose.
what was your intention?

uli

Uli , im not sure i know what you mean by my intention , but i was trying to make it look like she was in a dream ( thats why i have the white vin . ) . I tried other things with this shot and it was kind of " boring " . Just another girl in the mirror ( if that makes sence ).

This was my first stab at using a mirror like this and i have some other ideas that i think will be more suiting .

And thanks for the compiment on # 1 . Theres a lot of work in it .

......... Shawn

Number 1 is really special Shawn - well done.

Great work, love the second one.

Thanks W S and EB , ( i think that you are the first to like # 2 EB . ) i like it too , but i wish i had more knowledge of PS to make it better . I know that it has a lot of potential ( sp ) .





Thanks ........ Shawn

Great job BD...
As Peto says, its great to see you improve the way you have done since you joined. Its also great to see you experimenting with all this stuff. Even the images that end up in the rubbish rather than being shown here are still worthwhile exercises (I've certainly made plenty of those as I'm sure we all have). You should be very happy with yourself and these shots.

My pick of a favourite is #1. The lighting is lovely and soft, you've given it a unique style which suits the image, and you've done a good job with the vignetting. Of course the model and her expression are also lovely.
My only issue with this shot are the whites of her eyes and her teeth... they look a little grey rather than white. They don't need to actually be white, but perhaps they should be a touch lighter relative to the tone of her skin to give the effect of being white (ie you could either brighten the whites or else darken the skin a bit).

I can see where you're going with #2... and while I think the idea behind it is perhaps a little bit cliche for my liking (sorry), I think it makes an excellent exercise to improve your skills. You've also done an great job in putting it together as a composite image.
As for the vignette in #2... well I think in general its a lot tougher to make a white vignette look good than a black one, and white doesn't really work against a dark background as you've used it here. If you're after a "dreamy" effect and want to keep the black background, then have you considered using some kind of blur effect towards the edges of the image rather than (or in conjunction with) a vignette.

Also, rather than using a particular colour to create your vignettes, another idea is to create a new Curve Layer (and darken or lighten the curve substantially to give you the maximum vignetting levels) and then use the Layer Mask to create the shape of the vignette. Not only does this give you a lot of control over the shape (I usually hand-paint my vignette mask and apply a gaussian blur to smooth it out), but using a curve rather than a flat colour gives you a lot more flexibility over how the vignette works. For example, you can maintain highlights in the vignette and just darken mid-tones and shadows, or you might use the vignette to increase or decrease contrast rather than brighten or darken. Just a thought...
I probably didn't explain that very well, but here is a link to a small (860kb) photoshop PSD file with a vignette layer that illustrates this technique.

Cheers
Adrian

Thanks very much Kombi,


i saw the eyes and teeth and already fixed them , i didnt post it on here so i dont " beat a dead horse " . But thanks very much for the extencive wright up , i take everything yall say on here to heart and try to learn from it all


........ Thanks again ......... Shawn

Hey Shawn, I like what you've done with #1... very nice. It has a really great golden glow to it, and has one of those "timeless" looks to it.

Just personal preference, but #2 is a little bit excessive for me.