Critique Portrait of my niece

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196
Name
Marie Hass
Edit My Images
Yes
This is a portrait of my niece. She came to visit last November and I was taken by her beauty. At 11 years of age, she has the most beautiful skin and a lovely mouth.

MH%209280.jpg



Please c&c
 
Like this.Obviously a great model. The cold and warm thing you got going on looks great too. She almost looks placed on the backround. You also captured a good connection with the camera.

Gaz
 
qz78769.jpg

sorry couldn't resist.

It's a lovely photo though, if I was being critical it's bordering on over lit as Gaz says she almost looks like a composite on that background. Might have been slightly better with a more directional light to allow some of the shadows to match in with the setting more? The eyes look a wee bit over saturated and are missing a catchlight but again it's being picky from a critique standpoint, I'm sure your niece and her parents absolutely love it.
 
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She is a very beautiful girl and looks much more than her 11yrs. I like the shot very much for the reasons mentioned above, maybe a tad more light in the shadows around her eyes. Overall a shot you should be pleased with Marie.(y)
 
On second viewing, can I ask is this actually lit? There looks to be some colour bleed in to her jumper at the bottom of the frame where she's leaning on the barrier/fence. looks like it's maybe masked and used a day to night type of technique to tone it in post?

Hope you don't mind, you've got the allow edit flag set to yes, I've done an edit of the image it's fairly quick and only on the low res jpg so not perfect but just an attempt to tie in the colours and eyes.

MH209280-edit.jpg


I've obviously cropped it to take out the bit she's leaning on. The main edit is to add a solid colour layer set to overlay sampling the purples from the background shadows and the using apply image image on the layers mask and inverting it to add the colour into the shadows only. I did a slight levels adjustment on the mask just to control how much of the shadows were targeted.

I also desaturated the eyes a bit and added a bit of a fake catch light to try and make them pop a bit more, oh and some fake steam from the mug, because I like fake steam coming from mugs.

If you like it and want the psd just let me know.
 
Dear Gary,

This is not a composite. The view behind her is real. It is on my deck. I had diffuse lighting that day - overcast and cold.

Marie
 
Dear Steve,

Aurora is beautiful. I was able to capture her again this spring. As you and Craig picked up, agreed on brightening the eyes - a nice difference.
 
Dear Craig,

I will come back to your comments and edits later - when I home from work and can formulate a reasoned response.

Just BTW, I like what you have done.

Marie
 
agree - lovely portrait - but the lighting does make it look composite, probably could be helped by a smaller aperture to make the background detail look like the same picture
 
sorry couldn't resist.
OMG. I swear that was the first thing that came into my mind. The next thing I did was check to see if the op was male or female (for some reason). It just gave me an uneasy feel.
Fab film, dated but that scene still turns the stomach !

Gaz

Dear Steve,

Aurora is beautiful. I was able to capture her again this spring. As you and Craig picked up, agreed on brightening the eyes - a nice difference.
Hi Marie I believe you but it wouldnt matter either way. Just a feeling you get when you first veiw.

Gaz
 
Oh WOW!
You MUST take thousands of shots of her regularly over the next few years because she'll change so much, and never look so young again.
 
It's a lovely shot. I'm a bit confused about where the purple is coming from since the colours of your niece look really natural. What was the light like? What time of day?

On second viewing, can I ask is this actually lit? There looks to be some colour bleed in to her jumper at the bottom of the frame where she's leaning on the barrier/fence. looks like it's maybe masked and used a day to night type of technique to tone it in post?

Hope you don't mind, you've got the allow edit flag set to yes, I've done an edit of the image it's fairly quick and only on the low res jpg so not perfect but just an attempt to tie in the colours and eyes.

MH209280-edit.jpg


I've obviously cropped it to take out the bit she's leaning on. The main edit is to add a solid colour layer set to overlay sampling the purples from the background shadows and the using apply image image on the layers mask and inverting it to add the colour into the shadows only. I did a slight levels adjustment on the mask just to control how much of the shadows were targeted.

I also desaturated the eyes a bit and added a bit of a fake catch light to try and make them pop a bit more, oh and some fake steam from the mug, because I like fake steam coming from mugs.

If you like it and want the psd just let me know.

@CraigDHD , would you care to comment on why you used 'apply image' rather than blend ifs or luminosity masks? I'd be very interested to see the psd if you feel like bunging it on dropbox or somewhere.
 
would you care to comment on why you used 'apply image' rather than blend ifs or luminosity masks? I'd be very interested to see the psd if you feel like bunging it on dropbox or somewhere.

It's quicker and easier is simplest answer. If you use apply image on the mask layer it creates essentially a black and white copy of the image as a mask, by default that means the highlights get lots of the layers effect, midtones get some of the layers effect and shadows get none. If you invert the mask the opposite is true and if you hit ctrl+l you can adjust the levels of the mask to set the intensity and break point more visually.

***edit*** if doing this an easy way to then control the layer on the whole image is to group it by itself and add a second layer mask on the group so you can mask in and out the effect without editing the initial mask you created. Hopefully that makes sense and isn't patronising if you already use that technique.

I use blend ifs quite a lot, but for this type of job this technique is essentially creating a luminosity mask but it takes seconds and can be easily set as a reliable way to do it via an action so it can be triggered with a single button press with the function key.

If I was colouring from scratch I wouldn't use this I use curves or hsl and selective colour then a blend if if more targeted adjustment needed but for a quick way of matching tones in an area this works and is really quick.

I'll pm you a link to the psd.
 
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Dear Craig,

I have not forgotten you. I just have been very busy with my work. I am also Market Manager for our local Farmers market. i do not remember if I used flash or not. I do know that I used a reflector. Don't know if I told you I really like the steam. It is subtle enough that it is believable.

Marie
 
I like this a lot. The warm jumper and coffee mug give it a comfortable, homely and relaxed feeling. Beautiful girl btw.
 
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