Another what did I do wrong...

[The Fox]

Tell me once again what I did wrong in this?

http://i48.photobucket.com/albums/f228/nicolas41390/what2copy.jpg
Canon EOS 20D
EF 50mm F1.8
1/250th @ F10
400 ISO

Nick

[ItsMike]

Nick,

Why would you post a comment like "What did I do Wrong?" ? Did it not look like the way you imagined it would? Looks ok.. Maybe a little soft, but it is ok..

[ItsMike]

Here... I just applied USM to it in Photoshop..

Here are the settings..
Amt. 200
Radius .3
Threshold 0

[KarlosDaJackal]

Photography.....
Looks fine. The expression is very sombre but that's fine. Original was a little soft. But the framing seems fine.

I'd hesitate to say that her hair is starting to blend into the background near the edges, but I'm on a really poor monitor at the moment, so take that with a pinch of salt, I'm about 55% sure it looks ok, but can't tell on this thing.

Post Process.....
The USM helped, but makes the 2 lines on the neck, and another line on the left her chest show up a bit more. I quickly heal those out. Maybe play with the channel mixer a bit to make the conversion a bit more intense (less red might work, but I'm in work so can't really try it out.

[ItsMike]

Good call on the lines.. I didn't even see them...

[ElizabethCarol]

Hi Nicolas,
I darkened the lower and lower right side of your image to bring more focus to her face and not so much to her chest and neck.

suggestions:
1)Try to move your main light a foot higher.
2)Turn her chest area more to our right side so that it is not 'straight on' to the camera.
3)Turn her face so that 'her' right eye is not covered by her nose and her nose does not extend past her cheek... not having her head turned so much and by turning her body,the lines on her neck will be more towards the back and not be hit so hard with the main light, this will help hide the lines.
4)raise your camera a little bit, your lens height should be her eye height. It appears that your lens height in this image is just under her jaw.

I hope this helps.
Elizabeth
http://i326.photobucket.com/albums/k406/ElizabethCarolOriginals/Revision_by_Thy_Fox.jpg

[The Fox]

Nick,

Why would you post a comment like "What did I do Wrong?" ? Did it not look like the way you imagined it would? Looks ok.. Maybe a little soft, but it is ok..

I have gotten to realized that photographers more point out things they dislike then what they like.

Here... I just applied USM to it in Photoshop..

Here are the settings..
Amt. 200
Radius .3
Threshold 0
On the 100% crop, that was way too much as it brought up the noise. I did shoot this at 400 ISO
Hi Nicolas,
I darkened the lower and lower right side of your image to bring more focus to her face and not so much to her chest and neck.

suggestions:
1)Try to move your main light a foot higher.
2)Turn her chest area more to our right side so that it is not 'straight on' to the camera.
3)Turn her face so that 'her' right eye is not covered by her nose and her nose does not extend past her cheek... not having her head turned so much and by turning her body,the lines on her neck will be more towards the back and not be hit so hard with the main light, this will help hide the lines.
4)raise your camera a little bit, your lens height should be her eye height. It appears that your lens height in this image is just under her jaw.

I hope this helps.
Elizabeth

1. Okay.
2. Okay.
3. Okay.
4. It was, it is just the crop.





I will play with more usm later today and see what I can do.
Nick

[PhotosGuy]

I just applied USM to it in Photoshop.. There's no rule that says that you have to sharpen all of an image? Select the important parts with a feathered selection, like the eyes, or the face & some of the hair here, & just sharpen that area. I like the Polygonal Lasso Tool for that.

[kirkt]

You can also create a duplicate of the image on a new layer, sharpen that duplicate and then paint in the sharpening selectively using a layer mask. Using the selective sharpening on a new layer allows you to control the strength of the sharpening by tweaking the opacity of the sharpened layer, the blending mode, etc. This assumes you use a PP app that supports layers.

[The Fox]

I will post the updated one when I am not so tired in the morning. I did make a separate layer and use a mask to apply selective and variable sharpening.
Nick

[The Fox]

Here is the update.

http://fc07.deviantart.com/fs33/f/2008/236/2/6/Revision_by_Thy_Fox.jpg

[Lonnie]

The photo looks pretty good to me. I agree that it could be a little sharper and contrasty.

I have gotten to realized that photographers more point out things they dislike then what they like.

I agree, and I think it's more of a function that we are all trying to improve and assume others are also. When I critique my own photos I am always trying to determine what I can do next time to make it better. This means dwelling on the things I don't like instead of the things I do usually.

[Deckham]

Aside from what others said, I would have liked to see the model around 1' further from the backdrop, your f/10 widened to f/8 and your primary light source a little higher, as well as the model's eyes looking a touch more leftwards (her's)