Technique Challenge #6 – Professional Looking Portraits
Ready for some fun filled creativity and perhaps to learn something new? So what is a technique challenge? The host challenger selects a specific “technique” to try. It may be brand new for some, or just a challenge to be creative for others. Techniques may include high/low key, macro, portraits, landscapes, abstracts, the possibilities are endless. It could even be specific techniques in processing. The host will select a technique along with some links and examples. Constructive & kind feedback is encouraged. Feel free to share tips, suggestions or how you were able to get the terrific photo you did. Posting your photo on this thread is encouraged but not required. The challenges will last about 7 days.
To post a photo on this thread:
1) Go to your page that has the photo you would like to post.
2) Find the code located toward the bottom right side of your page. The code is on the right side of the word "share". Copy that code and paste it in this thread.
All photos must be taken within the challenge dates. Enter as many as you would like. Voting will last about 3 days. The winner will host a new challenge (or will ask someone else to host it).
This week’s technique challenge is Professional Looking Portraits. We don’t claim to be experts on portraiture but we both love capturing, the emotion, excitement and creativity of people. This challenge will have two parts to it, the taking of the picture and the editing. TAG your photos “technique6 “
Jocelyn’s Photographing Professional Portrait Tips:
Wherever your photography skills are, you can achieve a great portrait. When I shoot portraits, I generally follow these rules:
• Focus; unless you want the focal point to be somewhere else, always focus on the eyes.
• Keep It Simple; some of the most complex looking photographs in reality are fairly simple. Keep your vision simple and it will turn out most beautiful.
• Get In Close; if there is unnecessary space in the photograph, crop it out. Only photograph what you want in the photograph.
• Rule of Thirds; placing your subject following the rule of thirds allows for the viewer to be led throughout the image more than if your subject was exactly in the center.
Obviously these rules are just guidelines. Here are some other pointers:
If I can’t see light in my subject’s eyes, I don’t take the photo. Shooting from slightly above the subject’s line of sight causes the subject to look slimmer, and shooting from below the subject’s line of sight causes the subject to look bigger. If your subject has a problem with their neck/chin blending together, have them bring their chin forward and down to slim the neck and create distance between the two. Turning the subject’s body slightly from the camera is a more pleasing angle than their body being square with the camera. If you want the lighting to be harsh, shoot in direct sunlight. If you want the lighting to be soft, shoot with overcast sky or in the shade.
Here are some links for tips on how to achieve professional looking portraits-
When it comes to editing portraits it’s easy to go overboard, it can change the entire feel and look of an image. Always remember the message you are trying to convey, not every model needs skin smoothing, slimming etc. Try not to destroy the elements you worked so hard to create in camera e.g. light and textures.
You may have noticed that RAW images look flat when compared to Jpeg that is because your camera adds contrast, saturation and many other in camera elements to make your picture pop and be more appealing to the eye. I shoot in RAW so I have full control over things like contrast, colour vibrancy, white balance etc in processing. I am not saying this is the right way but it’s the way I work. Another tip I have learnt along the way is no amount of processing is going to make a bad picture look great. I work in Photoshop CS5 but some of the most amazing portraits I have seen have been processed with other editing software, don’t be scared to try things just keep a backup of your original image should you need to start again. Don’t get upset if it’s not working for you, I stuff up images in editing all the time.
YouTube has been my best friend while learning processing techniques and how to use Photoshop, there are thousands of tutorials from how to brighten eyes, smooth skin, colour tone and many more. I searched everything I know from the web. When I first bought Photoshop I remember typing into YouTube “How to use layers in Photoshop?” pages and pages came up, within half an hour I knew the very basics about layers. If you use elements or Gimp try searching “How to brighten eyes using elements/GIMP?” No doubt there will be a tutorial on the web somewhere that can help you learn how to do it.
The things I play with most in my processing are:
• Brightness/Contrast.
• Vibrancy.
• Making sure eyes are beautiful and bright, they are after all the windows to your soul.
• White balance.
• Colour toning or changing an image to black and white.
• Dodge and burn.
@jocelynphotography
Challenge starts today, June 4th and lasts until Midnight June 14th. Voting will take place June 14th – 16th.
If you have any questions at all, please don’t hesitate to ask.
Have fun everyone!
I think i am going to jump in on this one! i need to learn some new techniques to get me out of the garden!! I think i am covered with poison ivy!!!!!!!! :)
@ellimae LOL Ellen, I shouldn't laugh but it's hard not to. I couldn't count how many times I have been stung or bitten trying to get that perfect photo :D
@Cheesebiscuit that is the challenge with portraits you need a person.
Perhaps you can ask your neighbor, friend, do a selfie, ask a stranger, Be Bold you can do it
@myhrhelper People? Ha! Hahahahaha! Apart from selfies I think I've taken one, maybe two, photographs of people in the last six months. I simply don't feel happy asking people to do what I am uncomfortable doing, namely sitting in front of the camera.
@Cheesebiscuit I think a lot of people feel that way and so this is just some practice time. What's nice is Tracy and Jocelyn will help you with them too.
First one for the thread, very professional I feel! haha. These models are a difficult bunch to work with!! And I really don't think there is enough going on in the picture, it's a bit drab
@gwhit123 Hi George, Thanks so much for being first :D What a cute picture, I love the stripes in the background and the dots on her suit. Beautiful eyes! You could try a faster shutter with little ones to freeze movement, I know how hard it can be to photograph children though. Maybe I would have increases the contrast a little too, all in all she is adorable and this is a very cute picture, well done.
@myhrhelper@Cheesebiscuit Kathy is right :D We'll help out as much as we can. It's nerve racking for everyone to ask people to pose, but it does get a little easier each time. A portrait doesn't have to be someone's face, maybe you could take a photo of their hands to start with. :D
Couple questions about portraits that I've struggled with.
1) cropping I've struggled a bit in knowing where you can crop without making the person look like they are missing limbs etc. Sometimes there is a height difference and I'm not sure where to crop a person. Are there any suggestions on cropping?
2) What do you suggest when you have to take a photo somewhere that leaves distracting background. I've tried the following but what do you typically do (besides avoid them in the first place). I've tried burning the background darker, make the background black/white, blur/soften it.
Ok.. I took a portrait the day before this challenge started, so I'm not going to tag it, but I Did want to share, because I'm quite pleased with it. I've was trying to figure out what kind of lighting it is, LOL
If I haven't noticed that tree branch growing out of my models head I'll clone it out in processing, if it's against a solid colour like the sky and my dof is shallow sometimes I'll simply paint over it with a matching colour. I have also used the blur tool before when the distraction is only small.
@m9f9l Beautiful shot, I love the rosy cheeks and bright eyes. To be honest I know this sounds silly but I don't know much about lighting, I generally go with what looks good. Learning lighting styles is on top of my list for year 2, I really struggle with it. The kin in this portrait has a beautiful glow, however If it were me I would have moved the light back a little or toned down the highlight on the nose in processing it draws my attention away from the beautiful eyes a little.
@tracywilliams LOL on moving the light back. The lighting was our dining room windows and if she was up against the table...nowhere to go. I'm not sure how i would go about toning down the highlight on the nose, but I'll play with it as a learning experience!! I'm SO glad you said that about her skin, because I did play with the overall color a bit based on how the skin looked to me. I was using a shallow depth of field and for her to get Tai Tai's eyes in the same plane as hers in order to have clear eyes for both she ended up tipping her head down and so I also reduced dark circles under her eyes in processing.
@myhrhelper the general rule of thumb like Tracy says is to never crop ON joints or just below joints. You get strange angles and it just looks strange. Better off cropping just above joints. The trick here is to get it right in the image. Before you shoot, stop, take the camera away from your eye and look at the image (the WHOLE image) without the camera. Are there weird objects in the foreground / background? Is the lighting helping to tell the story or is it distracting? Where are the limbs? Pay special attention to fingers as they will often start to tense and will ruin the image.
@tracywilliams@m9f9l lighting is generally pretty easy to tell by looking at the catchlights in the eyes. Lack of catchlights in humans generally has the effect of making the subject look less lifelike. If you click on the image and go to the large format, you can see what looks like a window at about 45 degrees to the side of subjects which actually gives a fairly flattering light. One of the first standard lighting is 45 / 45 - 45 degrees to the side, 45 degrees up. Playing around with this will give you various types of loop lighting but general rule of thumb is to stay away from hard light on women - but on men it gives a better gritty look.
Basically, the larger the light source compared to the subject, then the softer the lighting. You're seeing that effect here - the window is quite large and the shadow caused by the cats fur and the subjects nose is quite soft. A harder light will give you a more defined line. Even if Mary could have moved the subject further from the light source and softened the lightlight, she may have ended up with the lighting not being so soft and even and shadows slightly harder. The highlights (nose and top of the forehead) are most probably caused by small oils on the skin - everyone has them. In a shoot you'd probably try to remove it by powder but in this particualr case you just have to take the shot and look at it in post processing. Ideally if you want to shoot someone, just take the time before hand to do minor makeup / powder before hand so you dont have to think about it during. The higher exposure on her arm is caused by the relative closeness of the arm to the light source compared to her head
I took this shot of a 'Perfect Stranger' who unbeknownst to me (at the time) is the nephew of Michael Jackson. It wasn't my favorite of the pics but the eye turned out swell. Any thoughts on this girlies??
Hi, so my first real attempt at producing something for a challenge during my 365. This is my youngest Franky and she is rather grumpy today and didn't really want to have her photo taken, I thought she hadn't notice me taking this snap, but looking at those eyes, she quite clearly had......
@eyesofbetsie Hi Betsie, I really like this, his eyes are lovely and so is your dof. The only thing I would do is tone down the 2 bokeh circles in the right of the image. It makes me curious what he is looking at.
@mrgsmith77 Franky has the most amazing eyes, I also love high key portraits. Beautiful work, I may have increased the contrast on the right side of her nose a little.
@m9f9l You should be very pleased! I love it! I took a bunch of pics last week that would have been great and I'm pretty sure I will not be able to recreate them ;(
@tracywilliams I should probably add that this image still needs a bit more editing. I'm not entirely 100% happy with the crop on this and may need to clone out a few more of the smaller flyaways that are a little distracting
cropping: i have always told that if you do crop, don't crop right before the joints, so when i crop, i'll crop in the middle of my arm or leg. although a lot of my photos are headshots, you could just browse through for ideas! (:
distracting background: i don't quite follow you completely, but besides moving the subject for a different background, try using a wider aperture to blur the background more when shooting the photo. if that's not possible, separate the subject from the background more. have them stand further away. or if you already have the images, clone stamping can help, same thing with dodge and burn. i also suggest considering getting some textures. I'll put a texture on a photo and then change the blending mode to soft light or overlay and then change the opacity of the layer to my liking. i hope that helps! (:
@toast if i recall correctly, rembrandt lighting only has the triangle of light on the dark side of the face. loop lighting is just a loop under the nose. i was saying that the lighting Mary used was in between the two.
I was very excited about this challenge because I really want to improve my portrait taking skills. I really worked at using the advice from above. Thanks for the tips and helpful links.
@jocelynphotography I agree with what you're getting at.. i'm just being picky lol
I remember shooting something similar when I was learning and someone telling me the nose shadow was too low - to be honest, i'm less worried about whether an image fits a particular description and more worried about whehter it looks good :)
I did some family portraits today. Very tough since we have someone confined to a wheel chair, a toddler who will not stay confined to anything any where. These are a few from that shoot. Please provide feedback - especially if there would be a better pose for such a family. I had poses but every second someone moved!
I did do another edit (not posted here) where I clone the sleeve on boy in the wheelchair.
And then there are times I try to adjust the horizon line and I'm not sure if it is the natural slope or a tilted camera.
Here is it adjusted.
@tracywilliams ahhhh you picked my nemesis and I so wanted to give it a proper attempt, read the links, tried using myself as a model (blech) and eventually today just pulled out my camera and took some candid shots.
Two attempts so far, don't know if I am getting the focus right. What is the best camera settings as a starting point? I had to brighten both of these a little, I am using the kit lens, I went with f4 & f4.5 in these, bumped up the iso, the indoor shot was a low shutter but the outside gave me more leeway with the shutter speed, Portraits aren't really a strong point of mine
@tracywilliams@jocelynphotography Do either of you have any suggestions regarding the photos posted? Looks like this was a pretty popular challenge! Thank you Ladies!
@ikamera I love this Kiran, the composition is unusual is a great way, it caught my eye and made me stop to view for a long time. Great work, the saying is just adorable too.
@jeanbelleisle Jean I really like your composition of your second shot, it isn't something you normally see with babies. I really love it actually and it's something I would hang on my wall.
@wenbow Wendy these are lovely shots, when I photography in doors I usually use my external flash and bounce it off the ceiling or walls to add some extra light, children are hard to photograph with a slower shutter as they rarely keep still. You did a great job.
@btorrey A less expensive alternative to Photoshop (I can't afford) is Adobe Lightroom. I have Gimp (the free type of Photoshop) but not an easy program.
@gwhit123 your shot is gorgeous! i love the lighting on this precious little girl and her eyes look great! there are three things that i would change if this were my photo: if possible, i would love to have her looking at the camera, or directly above the lens(looks most like she's looking at camera); there is a little bit of motion blur on her hands, so i suggest either using a faster shutter and higher iso or cropping it out; and my lastly i find the two color patterns to be distracting me from the precious girl, i would choose a simple color for either the baby or the background rather than both being loud.
@m9f9l Your portrait is gorgeous! I love the soft lighting and the beautiful blue eyes and details! If this were my image, I would try to lighten the dark circles around her eyes a little bit, and maybe lighten the shadows a little bit.
@eyesofbetsie i love this image! the detail is great! if this were my image, i would have the man tint his chin slightly upward, so that i could see his eyelashes a bit more.
@mrgsmith77 i love the high key style! the eyes look GORGEOUS. if this were my image, i would have brought the exposure down a little bit more, so there is more definition in the nose. when taking the photograph, i would have told Franky to bring her chin forward and down, it helps separate the neck and chin. Also, When I am working with eyes i use the dodge tool on midtones at 9% all over and then i do a little bit on the highlights at 9%. I would also consider burning in her eyebrows a little bit!
@missmercy I love the tones and texture in this image! The feel is great! If this were my image, I would have taken the photo from a bit higher of an angle. I usually shoot portraits with my camera just above the subject's eye level. I also would probably move the subject to the right a little bit more to fit the rule of 3rds a bit better.
@sassyinma Shooting with hats is tricky! They create shade on the face, but you don't want to overexpose the hat! If these were my images, I would probably decrease the contrast slightly, then lighten the shadows, and then darken the blacks, and possibly darken the highlights (i hope that makes sense). I love the tones and the composition!
@sassyinma your other photos look great! If I was shooting, I would shoot looking slightly down at the kids, just to get more light in their eyes. When they are looking up, the sky will be more likely to reflect in their eyes.
@christinalee this is super cute!! If this was my image, I would have shot the photo slightly overexposed. When you do that, it makes the skin tones look softer and even. Gorgeous eyes!
@kristieg I love this shot! I love the tones! If this were my image, I would have lightened the shadows slightly so there is a bit more detail in his hair.
@melissachambers Love your images. Do you use florabella actions by chance? The processing looks familiar (: If these were my images, I would have used the dodge tool on midtones at 9% and dodged their eyes a little bit and under their eyes a bit!
@myhrhelper Cute family!! If this was my photo, I would have moved the family picture to somewhere where there wasn't bright sun behind the family, I find it a bit distracting. Either find a place where they can be in the shade with the background also shady, or just shoot in the sun. It's really contrasty with shade and sun areas. I LOVE the second photo! The lighting is so gorgeous! I like the horizon line straightened out, but I wish that the photo was cropped differently on the kids, maybe zoomed out a tiny bit more or cropped in a little more. And Leah in the tree, I would find a place that doesn't have any sunlight hitting her and then up the exposure to make her skin lighter and her eyes pop more.
@mirepuolitaival You're gorgeous! If this was my photo, I would have turned my body the other way so that there was more light on me. It's always best to turn your head towards the light. I also would have exposed a little bit lighter to make the eyes a bit brighter.
@joa This is beautiful! I find the lighting a little bit distracting, as there's a sliver of light near your mouth on the left side. Perhaps more your camera to the right a little bit more and then turn your head towards the light a bit more!
@bluebell this is a gorgeous image! i love the composition! if this were my photo, i would have changed the color temperature a bit, or used the color balance and toned down the yellows a bit.
@melissachambers That boy has gorgeous eyes! Great shot! If this were my image, I would have dodged a little bit below his eyes to even out the skin a little bit.
@bluebell I love the toddler photo so much! The depth of field is beautiful and I love the tones! If this were my image, I would try to dodge his face a little bit and try to brighten the eyes a tad.
@ikamera such a cute photo! I really like the composition! The only thing I would have done differently is to get his whole head and get all of the shoe in the shot!
@koopee Great photo of Veera! If this were my photo, I would have had her turn her nose towards the camera so that her face was straight on with the camera and I would have her bring her chin forward and down a bit.
@bardejov the background honestly doesn't bug me that much! i just with the photo wasn't tilted. i also would have exposed a little bit brighter if it were my image.
@myhrhelper i LOVE the beach photo! There's some problems down by her feet with post processing, to rid it, use the dodge/burn tool and clone stamp. other than that, i would probably dodge her face on midtones at 9% a tad. gorgeous!
@jeanbelleisle This is gorgeous! I just wish that the baby had her face turned a bit more towards the light so there was light in her other eye! I also would have added a bit more warmth to the photo.
@jeanbelleisle The second photo to me seems to have a lot of unnecessary empty space. I would consider cropping the photo to being a landscape and Putting the baby on the bottom left 3rd.
@wenbow Your images are beautiful! As for getting the focus right, if you don't know how already, learn how to use the focal points in your camera. I move the focal point to be on the subject's eyes. If the eyes aren't in focus, the portrait usually suffers (unless intentional). If i was shooting, I would have the boy indoors face the light and I would shoot in front of him, that way his eyes are lit up a bit more. If you want the lighting to stay dramatic, then just have him turn his nose slightly towards the light, and I would have him straighten the top part of his head with the camera. As for the outdoor portrait, I just would have dodged the midtones on her face a little bit!
@btorrey Gorgeous shot! I love the location! If this were my image, I would have boosted the contrast a little bit, and I find the bokeh a little bit distracting.
@lam I really like your portrait! If this were my image, I would have moved her left arm down (or cropped it out) and I would dodge her face just a tad to even out the skin tone a bit!
@emmasteil I don't mind the pose on the last photo, I do with that her vest didn't cover her cute natural smile though! I also would have turned her to face away from the sun more, shoot with the sun behind her so that the lighting was a bit more even on her face!
@wenbow I love this boy's expression! The photo seems really dark to me. I don't mind the background being dark, but I wish his eyes had light in them!
@jocelynphotography@tracywilliams Thank you so much for the feedback!!!
The one walking along the beach I did correct it but didn't post that:
http://365project.org/myhrhelper/365/2013-06-10
I have a couple more since I did a photo shoot with Brook (my granddaughter).
The first two shots I like but because I'm missing elbows or part of a hand can they still be used the way they are, or do they look odd the way they are cropped, if not can they be used cropped tighter?
@myhrhelper All three images are quite gorgeous! I love the third one! I also love the first one, but the elbow and hand do bug me. Maybe you could try to crop the photo to be a little more landscape, so it gets rid of her hand on the bottom and crop it so it's halfway through the other arm? As for the second photo, I'm not a huge fan of the angle/pose. Either shoot looking down from slightly above Brook's eye level, or have her bring her chin forward(towards the camera) next time to separate her chin and neck more.
@jocelynphotography ~~ Thank you Jocelyn. I used some presets in Lightroom (can't remember which ones) and made some adjustments to them. I am really new to both PS and LR so I haven't spent any money on actions yet, I have downloaded a few free ones but I figured I'd try to learn these programs before spending any more money!
I used the dodge tool for the whites of their eyes in "Swamp Monster" and Ice Cream Bribery", but I didn't know you could change the setting for the dodge tool, so it didn't look right when I tried going out of that area. Thank you so much, for mentioning that, now I'm going to have to try to figure that out and do as you have suggested!!!
***Update 5 minutes later (lol) : Well that was really easy to figure out, I guess next time I should just look a little closer (or not do editing so late)! Thanks again!
Wow, it was nice to wake up to see my photo made it to the final 5 (I live in the other side of the world).
I honestly didn't expect this because I saw so many wonderful portraits here. I thought of taking a picture specifically for this challenge (the father one I took for the weekly theme-father, which also made it to top 5, but that I hoped to), however I didn't think I stood any chance here looking at all the talent. I'm glad I tagged the father picture for this technique challenge now.
@jocelynphotography Thanks Jocelyn for your feedback. I agree with you, I too wished I got that full shoe. What to do, with toddlers, I have to take what I can get. :) I did get the whole head but cropped it since it seemed to make the picture tighter and put more focus on his eyes.
What a wealth of information here between your and Tracy's feedbacks. I'm planning go through this entire thread when I got time and check notes for each photo. You both did really awesome taking time to comment on each photo. Lots to learn from this thread. @tracywilliams
@jocelynphotography Thanks for the advice. I always find it really difficult to take selfies and so they never quite come as how I'd really want them to. It's a bit easier now that I've got a remote shutter but I still find it involves a lot of running backwards and forwards from camera to position. :)
@missmercy i know exactly how you feel, since i do selfies every day! and honestly, i didn't get a wireless remote shutter until May 8th, so you just have to make due with what you have!
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Thank you ladies for hosting this challenge. I think there are a lot of people who want to improve their portrait skills!
@chewyteeth @bobfoto
@wenbow @tigerdreamer @m9f9l @tigerdreamer @summerfield @jannkc @jannkc @pocketmouse
@gwhit123 @m9f9l @lorrainerb
I can't wait to see what you all come up with :D
Perhaps you can ask your neighbor, friend, do a selfie, ask a stranger, Be Bold you can do it
First one for the thread, very professional I feel! haha. These models are a difficult bunch to work with!! And I really don't think there is enough going on in the picture, it's a bit drab
1) cropping I've struggled a bit in knowing where you can crop without making the person look like they are missing limbs etc. Sometimes there is a height difference and I'm not sure where to crop a person. Are there any suggestions on cropping?
2) What do you suggest when you have to take a photo somewhere that leaves distracting background. I've tried the following but what do you typically do (besides avoid them in the first place). I've tried burning the background darker, make the background black/white, blur/soften it.
http://petapixel.com/2011/09/29/crop-guidelines-for-portrait-photography/
If I haven't noticed that tree branch growing out of my models head I'll clone it out in processing, if it's against a solid colour like the sky and my dof is shallow sometimes I'll simply paint over it with a matching colour. I have also used the blur tool before when the distraction is only small.
I hope this helps :D
@tracywilliams @m9f9l lighting is generally pretty easy to tell by looking at the catchlights in the eyes. Lack of catchlights in humans generally has the effect of making the subject look less lifelike. If you click on the image and go to the large format, you can see what looks like a window at about 45 degrees to the side of subjects which actually gives a fairly flattering light. One of the first standard lighting is 45 / 45 - 45 degrees to the side, 45 degrees up. Playing around with this will give you various types of loop lighting but general rule of thumb is to stay away from hard light on women - but on men it gives a better gritty look.
Basically, the larger the light source compared to the subject, then the softer the lighting. You're seeing that effect here - the window is quite large and the shadow caused by the cats fur and the subjects nose is quite soft. A harder light will give you a more defined line. Even if Mary could have moved the subject further from the light source and softened the lightlight, she may have ended up with the lighting not being so soft and even and shadows slightly harder. The highlights (nose and top of the forehead) are most probably caused by small oils on the skin - everyone has them. In a shoot you'd probably try to remove it by powder but in this particualr case you just have to take the shot and look at it in post processing. Ideally if you want to shoot someone, just take the time before hand to do minor makeup / powder before hand so you dont have to think about it during. The higher exposure on her arm is caused by the relative closeness of the arm to the light source compared to her head
I'm not sure it fulfils the 'professional' criteria but it's certainly a portrait.
Samples:
cropping: i have always told that if you do crop, don't crop right before the joints, so when i crop, i'll crop in the middle of my arm or leg. although a lot of my photos are headshots, you could just browse through for ideas! (:
distracting background: i don't quite follow you completely, but besides moving the subject for a different background, try using a wider aperture to blur the background more when shooting the photo. if that's not possible, separate the subject from the background more. have them stand further away. or if you already have the images, clone stamping can help, same thing with dodge and burn. i also suggest considering getting some textures. I'll put a texture on a photo and then change the blending mode to soft light or overlay and then change the opacity of the layer to my liking. i hope that helps! (:
And one candid that happened during our photo shoot. ;)
I remember shooting something similar when I was learning and someone telling me the nose shadow was too low - to be honest, i'm less worried about whether an image fits a particular description and more worried about whehter it looks good :)
I did do another edit (not posted here) where I clone the sleeve on boy in the wheelchair.
And then there are times I try to adjust the horizon line and I'm not sure if it is the natural slope or a tilted camera.
Here is it adjusted.
And Leah in the Tree-ah - open to critiquea
The one walking along the beach I did correct it but didn't post that:
http://365project.org/myhrhelper/365/2013-06-10
I have a couple more since I did a photo shoot with Brook (my granddaughter).
The first two shots I like but because I'm missing elbows or part of a hand can they still be used the way they are, or do they look odd the way they are cropped, if not can they be used cropped tighter?
If you have a moment to look at this one let me know your thoughts. Taken at the same time I just didn't have anywhere to put it,
Lighting and composition for the professional portrait.
I used the dodge tool for the whites of their eyes in "Swamp Monster" and Ice Cream Bribery", but I didn't know you could change the setting for the dodge tool, so it didn't look right when I tried going out of that area. Thank you so much, for mentioning that, now I'm going to have to try to figure that out and do as you have suggested!!!
***Update 5 minutes later (lol) : Well that was really easy to figure out, I guess next time I should just look a little closer (or not do editing so late)! Thanks again!
I welcome your feed back. Thank you.
I honestly didn't expect this because I saw so many wonderful portraits here. I thought of taking a picture specifically for this challenge (the father one I took for the weekly theme-father, which also made it to top 5, but that I hoped to), however I didn't think I stood any chance here looking at all the talent. I'm glad I tagged the father picture for this technique challenge now.
Thank you soooooo much.
What a wealth of information here between your and Tracy's feedbacks. I'm planning go through this entire thread when I got time and check notes for each photo. You both did really awesome taking time to comment on each photo. Lots to learn from this thread. @tracywilliams