Model

[Jules]

http://i49.photobucket.com/albums/f290/julia0406/model.jpg

another close crop.

[Marko]

This shot is quite similar to the baby shot. I do like the close crop here.

This is another portrait with strong direct flash. Due to the harsh quality of light from the direct flash, we are seeing , quite clearly, some blemishes in the model's skin. For shots like this the model probably would be happier if the blemishes were reduced through a soft focus filter or softer light. Personally i would choose softer light.

These blemishes would be less apparant with softer light. This soft light can be achieved by bounching the flash or shooting with flash off camera either bounced into an unbrella or through a softbox. As tegan suggested in the last shot we are also losing detail in the hair.

There is nothing wrong with direct flash per se, but it is not always suited to the average face.

Do you recall the exposure on this shot?

hope that helps,

Marko

[tegan]

The basic guideline for all portraiture is to flatter the model. The tools to do this are camera, lighting, filters and postprocessing. Attention to the smallest detail is necessary.

As marko mentioned, the lighting does not flatter the skin. Backing off in your framing would loosen a shot that is too tight a crop while at the same time helping the skin. Softer light bounced off a wall or reflector would help.

The eyes are better than what I have seen in many portraits, but you still need to get the red out. That is generally done with Visine before shooting or after shooting with postprocessing.

Lighting should not cause any part of the model to blend into the background such as the hair in this case. Pro photographers and enthusiasts generally use a hair light at the back to give the hair more detail but black hair can be quite difficult to work with. I would also pay attention to straggly hair near the eyes and always make sure that hair is well-combed, in place

The two creases at the left side of her lips can be worked on and de-emphasized a little to look more natural in postprocessing as well.

All things considered it was a pretty good shot. I am just pointing out that there is a great deal of detail, work, effort, and equipment that goes into this area of photography if you want to get really good at it. :) Keep at it.

Tegan

[Misty-Bug]

I love the color of the eyes and it pulls me into the model. But I am not a professional. LOL.

Tegan, how would you get rid of the red in the corners of the eyes in photoshop?

[Jules]

how does this look?

http://i49.photobucket.com/albums/f290/julia0406/model2copy.jpg

i missed the red in the eye ...when editing..

did i do it too dark? i adjusted the exposure to -.5 then did a layer mask blur thing.

Marko, exposure time 1/60 sec.

[Jules]

and i got a little out of the lines on the bottom of the hair..

[Jules]

here's another i did with the same technique:

http://i49.photobucket.com/albums/f290/julia0406/modelB.jpg

with the original:

http://i49.photobucket.com/albums/f290/julia0406/IMG_0418RS-1.jpg

i hope im fixing some of the stuff you guys were talking about.

[Marko]

I think these fixes are MUCH better Jules!

The second model shot especially is a good fix compared to the original.

The first fix - the eyes look photoshopped they are too white. Still, it IS more flattering than the first shot....and at the end of the day, the model is likely to be happy which is more important than the critics :p

Obviously it's hard to get good detail in the hair when attention has not been paid to lighting it in particular - still we do the best we can...and like I said i think both models will be much happier with the photoshopped shots.

That said, you will quickly learn that it will take longer to shoot and set up shots the more you learn, but the results will be better. IMO it's always better to do as much of the work as possible before photoshopping or using photoshop as a 'save'.

FYI - when we ask for exposure, we also want to know the F-stop (for me that's usually the key component). The shutter speed is only half the equation.

Jules, can you describe your technique for smoothing the skin with p.s for others to learn?

Hope that helps!
Marko

[Misty-Bug]

the technique for smoothing skin is actually a part of the forum here. Someone posted a link. dernicker

http://www.dphclub.com/cat/tutorials/

it is under Portrait Retouching. Making Nice Skin.

Hope you don't mind me posting that Jules. I have used it too.

[Jules]

Since Misty covered the other part that's taken care of.

Marko, F/5 was used. On the second set of pictures same shutter speed with F/5.6.

[tegan]

I love the color of the eyes and it pulls me into the model. But I am not a professional. LOL.

Tegan, how would you get rid of the red in the corners of the eyes in photoshop?

There are a number of ways. One is zoom in on the eye. Do an irregular selection around the red in the corner of the eye and any veins. Then go to hue and reduce the red until it disappears. You can also clone it out with a semi-opaque brush but that takes some skill/experience.

Tegan