Random portraits thread

[leedogg3]

davidd said:

My friend Matt is opening a bakery, when the power gets connected to the oven..

Really,really like that.

[MysteryLemon]

Just a quick one I took of my daughter this evening testing out my new lens

[Dogsey]

leedogg3 said:

davidd said:

My friend Matt is opening a bakery, when the power gets connected to the oven..

Really,really like that.

That's a very, very nice shot!

[paul911]

davidd said:

My friend Matt is opening a bakery, when the power gets connected to the oven..

Looks like a snip from a movie, excellent pic

[kit80]

paul911 said:

Looks like a snip from a movie, excellent pic

very cool.

[Tuna]

davidd said:

My friend Matt is opening a bakery, when the power gets connected to the oven..

I have opened a portal into another dimension..

[davidd]

davidd said:

My friend Matt is opening a bakery, when the power gets connected to the oven..

Thanks for the feedback, really appreciated.

[davidd]

A woman we found in a Windmill..

[rottie102]

XKjimmy said:

I've still got to do some processing to it.



C+C welcome

First PP then post a photo.

HTH

[XKjimmy]

I shall have a go at the processing tonight : )

[XKjimmy]

Heres's the image after its been through Light Room. I've tried to get more detail in the photo.

It does seem to stand out a bit more

[LongQ]

XKjimmy said:

Heres's the image after its been through Light Room. I've tried to get more detail in the photo.

It does seem to stand out a bit more

You have taken on an interesting challenge there.

I like the original in many ways but a little more separation between your Father and the background would be handy. Maybe play with a little cropping - to my eye it.s almost but not quite 'balanced'. Sorry, it's a feeling and I can't be more specific than that at the moment.

The original is a little yellowish - not much but it shows a tad in the skin tone. On the other hand the revised version, on my screen at least, suggests sunburn. Or something. And the black cardigan lacks any detail. Could be my screen so let's see what others think. Skin tones and random screens used by the image consumer can always throw up problems of course - but this screen, poor as it may well be, looks more realistic with other images posted here. Unless your father really is pink.

I would tend to go for picking out the details (but maybe smoothing skin a little) for your Father but soften (NOT blur) the background a touch to enhance the separation. The background is very busy - too much I think for detail but a great context setting if you can induce a little separation.

Did you shoot RAW? If so you may be able to to some clever stuff with subtle selective white balance tweaks as part of the separation work. I don't know recent LightRoom versions so sadly unable to be specific.

Overall I rather like the shot. Promising stuff, to my eyes. Does it catch your Father's character?

[XKjimmy]

HI LongQ

Many thanks for the great reply

I do see what you mean about the original one, the colours in that one were more accurate to what was in the room. quite dark too, lots of low energy bulbs... I completely agree on your point about the separation between dad and the background too, I'll try some more crops and settings.

When editing, I made sure to have my screen on its dimmest setting. I liked the warmth of the original with the skin tone. They have recently been abroad for a week which could be the pink skin tone. I agree with the cardigan too, I'll try to bring it out a bit more with contrast or some brightness.

Great advice too about the details too. I'll have ago at the smoothing and softening. Your right, there is a lot going on in the background, softening would tone that down a bit.

I did shoot the photo in RAW, I will have a look through the white balance settings. I'm still getting to grips with LightRoom, this was my first proper attempt with it, I've always used Photoshop before. I've loved using lightRoom though.

Many thanks I do think It caught his character in the photo, I was pleased with the moment I clicked the shutter.

Thanks again for the reply, I'll set to work with the adjustments

James

[leedogg3]

One that didn't make the cut!! by Spaceman photography, on Flickr

Never work with kids or animals......my three trying to pose for a christmas pic.

[simon_j]

[andy-xr]

XKjimmy said:

I liked the warmth of the original with the skin tone.

I preferred the skin tone in the original too, it feels like you've moved the white balance down and bumped the purples at the same time. There was a nice feeling with the lamp light against the window light, which I think has been a bit lost in the edit

In terms of separation, it'd maybe be more sympathetic to use blur (I hate using fake blur in editing) but at a really low setting just on the background. It's a focal plane issue though, so I'm not sure whether it'd be worthwhile. A slight S curve in a Curves layer would also bring out a little more brightness and contrast, set it to Overlay and drop the opacity right down so it's just nudging at the histogram should work

[andy-xr]

leedogg3 said:

One that didn't make the cut!! by Spaceman photography, on Flickr

Never work with kids or animals......my three trying to pose for a christmas pic.

Now I'm humming Mmmbop

[XKjimmy]

Many thanks for the reply Andy. You were right about the white balance too, I did a quick adjustment and the tone looks much more natrual now and closer to the original. That's true about the crop too, I did bring it all in closer, I'll put it back to the first crop again. When I first took the photo I didn't think, the flash can be seen in the window.. Had to crop that out, it did loose some of the features I liked in the room though.

Thanks for the advice on the seperation too. I will have ago with the blur on a low setting. I'll have a go at the curves too. Many thanks.

[LongQ]

XKjimmy said:

Many thanks for the reply Andy. You were right about the white balance too, I did a quick adjustment and the tone looks much more natrual now and closer to the original. That's true about the crop too, I did bring it all in closer, I'll put it back to the first crop again. When I first took the photo I didn't think, the flash can be seen in the window.. Had to crop that out, it did loose some of the features I liked in the room though.

Thanks for the advice on the seperation too. I will have ago with the blur on a low setting. I'll have a go at the curves too. Many thanks.

Well, I borrowed the posted image and ran a few edits to the point that I thought it was time to post back the results by way of illustration. As I went for the Output Win 7 started to do some odd things and then crashed. Result (unusually) lost edits and all sorts of other stuff in the 'temporary files' areas trashed.

Or it could of course just be this rather average HP notebook that seems to spend a lot of time seemingly not running much but with the processor temps over 80C and the fan blasting away deafeningly.

Looks like the edits are gone. I'll have another go at them later if I get time but in essence they were pretty much along the lines already suggested although I used local adjustments and, as I'm not using Adobe products, some of the tools and facilities are a little different but have much the same net effect.

I cropped quite a bit off the left and bottom though. Up to nearly all the painting on the left wall and everything below the level of the cardigan. I don't think it lost anything important from the image and helped to tidy up a little. Of course if the sailing painting is significant then it has lost something but that would just require a different approach and some tweaking to tidy up. Or, better, an alternative shot set up to make it more cohesive.

[XKjimmy]

Hi LongQ

Many thanks for trying, that's a shame about the edit being lost! My mac did similar recently to a photo!

With the cropping, that does sound good to me, no problem about loosing the sailing photo. It had certainly made me think a lot more about the composition of a shot, things that I didn't notice at the time of taking it.