Critique - soft focus

January 26th, 2015
cyn


my first try at soft focusing, does it look correct or does it look like I simply missed the focus.

CC welcome on anything that would help me improve as well.
January 26th, 2015
An excellent first attempt at a very difficult genre. Good luck with more such work!

My two cents worth, and realize I don't shoot a lot of portraits, it looks softened down across the frame, even the eyes, somewhat flattened out, and that I think is not what you were looking for? If it was that f/1.4 close up look, very narrow DoF that does not cover the depth of all the facial features, certainly strive for "soft" but beware of "flat." At least I feel you need sharp eyes, differentiated from the rest. For a formal, posed portrait in this genre.

I'd do something about the harsh posterization of the highlights on her left cheek and forehead. It might disappear for a raw file printed at high resolution, but if displayed in the web I think it fights your desire for a "soft" f/1.4 look, which is, actually, immensely difficult to achieve out of the camera. Scott Kelby in his "portrait" re-touch books, has some excellent advice for improving such images in Photoshop.

The light, just the key light at a very significant angle around from the axis of the lens, is interesting, but very challenging to nail perfectly.

January 26th, 2015
Interesting critique. I'm just observing the photo, and the critique so that I can learn something.

Im not qualified to critique on this, but anxious to learn. Thanks for the photo that caused someone to take the time for a positive assessment of the shot.
January 26th, 2015
It is a beautiful image and the soft focus works beautifully here. With portrait, unless it is intentional, you should ensure that eyes are in focus, they are a bit blurry. Otherwise, very beautiful shot
January 26th, 2015
cyn
@mtnrunner, @jannatul18, @roseoliva

Thank you for your feedback, it's greatly appreciated.

@frankhymus thank you for taking your time to offer wonderful feedback, I'm going to go back to the raw file and work a little more on it with your insight in mind.
January 26th, 2015
@mwac44 If you have Photoshop or something equivalent, I think the "sharpen" brush judiciously applied to the eyes, the iris and the catch-light especially, would be a great start. Interested to see more of this from you.
January 27th, 2015
I have used a (clean) nylon stocking pulled over the lens for an interesting softening effect in portraits & focussed on the eyes as normal. (yep it looks very weird but it works & is cheap as...
February 8th, 2015
I agree whenever doing a portrait the eyes should be the focus point. Also the eye that is closest to the camera should be the sharpest.

I would have the little girl stand slightly on an angle rather than square to the camera. Typically in portraits you wouldn't have a straight on pose but turn slightly to the side for a little better look.

I will say that overall it is a nice portrait but I just have the person standing slightly on an angle rather than square to the camera. These are just meant as suggestions for improvement but it is a pretty portrait shot
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