portrait.. my girlfriend [Archive] - Canon Digital Photography Forums

Noah

17th of February 2005 (Thu), 16:22

Hey guys,

This is my first time posting here on the forum, I have learned much in that past few months just from reading all the threads. Now I need som advice on this portrait that I took of my girlfriend. Aside from the part of her shirt that is sticking out. Can you tell me what else I could do differently to make this picture more appealing or is it fine the way it it. Any criticism is welcome. Thank You.

-Noah

Michaelmjc

17th of February 2005 (Thu), 16:47

It has potential to be a great shot, the pose just looks very awkward. I think it would look great if she was just sitting there, without holding her head up by her hand. i also like the rule of thirds you have in it.

P.S. Great color and background.

mike

Harry Settle

17th of February 2005 (Thu), 17:43

I like the setup in relationship to the shapes in the background. Nice

17th of February 2005 (Thu), 17:43

Noah,

Your girlfriend is very pretty.

First be careful about hand placement. This picture would be better if you would have had your girlfriend rest her chin on top her hand, and slightly titling her head.

When taking people shots the background is often a distraction. I cropped your image, and soften the skin tones.

ayotnoms

17th of February 2005 (Thu), 18:10

I agree with the other posters concerning the hand and the need to put it some where else.

The background was nice and placed well relative to her position.

I like that JX brought out more detail around her eyes but I think it came at the expense of the better tonal quality you had in your photo...somewhere in between would seem to me to be the sweetspot.

Keep up the good work.

Hellashot

17th of February 2005 (Thu), 18:32

The top of the image is over exposed. Possibly crop it out.

KevC

17th of February 2005 (Thu), 18:54

Your girlfriend is very pretty.
However, I really don't like the fist. It seems way out of place. I never ever encourage resting the head on something. Especially if it's a fist. Maybe lying down resting on hands... but never the fist. Sorry, it's just one of those things I dislike. But other than that, I like it!

bitbytes9

17th of February 2005 (Thu), 18:56

The top of the image is over exposed. Possibly crop it out.

x2

Your girlfriend is very pretty. :)

Citizensmith

17th of February 2005 (Thu), 20:03

Good work, I agree about the placement though. The background works very well, but I'd like to see more of her, enough to move her head up so here eyes are about 2/3 of the way up the frame. And of course the fist/squished chin thing but others talked about that. Keep at it though, your off to a good start.

Oh yeah, and that piece of shirt would be amazingly easy to remove in photoshop. Little things like that are easy to clean up.

pradeep1

17th of February 2005 (Thu), 21:17

Your girlfriend looks to be Indian? I agree with the other posters about the hand. It looks like she is nice and smiling and someone is punching her from below the frame. The left structures are okay..but I'd crop out the little lights on the right.

Noah

17th of February 2005 (Thu), 21:35

Thanks for all the comments guys. Yes pradeep, we are "desi," pakistan nationality actually but raised in the US for the most part of our lives. With closer inspection, I agree with the hand being awkward and in some cases also appearing as if someone is punching her from below the frame.

Citizensmith: I would be interested in how the shirt could be removed in Photoshop. If anyone could explain to me a technique, I would greatly appreciate it.

-Noah

Sydor25

17th of February 2005 (Thu), 22:47

Here is my quick edit (I hope you don't mind):

http://sydor25.com/Pictures/Portrait.jpg

sGu

18th of February 2005 (Fri), 05:08

Composition wise doesn't quite work for me, i'd crouch down a bit more, so architecture at the background would sit at the bottom of the frame, just high enough to reach bottom of her neck, then you can have her face against pure blue sky, that way you make her stand out, IMHO.

Also the more I look at it, her fist becomes more and more unreal to me, looks like someone else's, maybe open her palm would be better :D

RoyceGracie

18th of February 2005 (Fri), 08:41

Wow, I usually don't like middle eastern women, but she's pretty.

I agree about the shirt sticking out; I would crop that.

The pose is natural but not "proper" portraiture style as others have pointed out; but this wasn't from a studio session.

karusel

18th of February 2005 (Fri), 13:10

The only really disturbing thing about this image is the hand. It appears as if it even weren't her's, the angle is just too odd. Added to that, she's clenching her fingers into a too tight fist, and to me, the fist represents something strong, rough, slightly violent and it just doesn't go with her face, expression and is surely contrary to your intent.

Colorwise, a combination of JX's and Sydors images would be nice.

Noah

18th of February 2005 (Fri), 13:14

Thank You for all the input. I was working on this portrait for hours on photoshop and this is what i have come up with. Aside from the hand being there, I tried to remove all other distractions. Let me know what you think

-Noah

HJMinard

18th of February 2005 (Fri), 13:35

Much improved, Noah ... I think this is much better than your original.

You can't do anything about the pose, but you otherwise cleaned it up nicely.

Beautiful woman!

pradeep1

18th of February 2005 (Fri), 19:27

Here is my take on the same photo. It is a bit rough since I couldn't do all I wanted to it...there was not enough data, but here it is:

xdjoynerx

19th of February 2005 (Sat), 02:41

IanBMW

19th of February 2005 (Sat), 11:54

I like Sydor's edit IMO.

IanBMW

19th of February 2005 (Sat), 11:54

Hey xdjoynerx .....don't just b*tch, if you want to add to this thread show US how it's done. ;)

xdjoynerx

19th of February 2005 (Sat), 14:58

i would, but im too lazy. so i will bitch.

pcasciola

19th of February 2005 (Sat), 15:22

5 minutes in Photoshop got me to this point. Would have been better if I could have started with the original and not the web sized shot.

What do you think?

http://www.casciola.com/pics/noah_girlfriend.jpg

pradeep1

20th of February 2005 (Sun), 01:05

pradeep1

20th of February 2005 (Sun), 01:07

im sorry, but the photoshops in this thread are seriously some of the worst ive ever seen :x (especially the first one)

either wayyyyyyyyyyyyyyyy too washed out, or enhanced to the point where they look totally fake.

Yeah...we didn't have much room to work without posterizing and losing detail. The file Noah provided lacked info. :(

Hey Noah, make the original available to us and see some of the magic we can do.

swoop1156

20th of February 2005 (Sun), 01:42

Pradeep get's my vote...now I just need some popocorn for the rest of the thread! Heck, I'd like to take a picture of someone that pretty in the first place!

kalee

20th of February 2005 (Sun), 01:52

pretty girlfriend... :)
nice capture.
as others have said, hard to work with at web resolution, but i played anyway.

here's my take on it.

pcasciola

20th of February 2005 (Sun), 08:25

Oversharpened.Yeah, I agree, but I think that amount of sharpening on the original would be ok though. It's just that the JPEG artifacts get accentuated when applying USM to a previous JPEG compression. With the original that amount of sharpening would probably be ok, to bring out the detail in her eyes, lips and hair, which were nearly completely flat in the original. I actually applied a gaussian blur to most of her skin to try and fix all the JPEG "boxes", but the other pixelated areas are mainly JPEG artifacts from the original.