Portrait of a Girl Mk. II

[Griffin]

Here is some more for your comments:

http://www.pbase.com/image/6911774

http://www.pbase.com/image/6911775

http://www.pbase.com/image/6911792

Thanks in advance.


Griffin.

[Leighow]

GRIF

IMAGE 1:
********
Beautiful, beautiful lady. I would stamp out the red in the top left corner. I would crop above the solid white dress line. I would wish that the necklace was not there. This is pure HK beauty that radiates all on its own.

Finally, I would like to comment on an amazing optical illusion. You see, the black background causes my mimd to think that the top-of-head-hair is actually "om the image" and above the photograph's top border ! So in any final print, the background ought to be black too -- which will preclude the use of a pearl outline.


IMAGE 2
*******
Just not as nice a shot as #1, framing is off. Same cropping comments hold. But I see your problem. If you do not drop a clue via a slice of the white dress, viewers may think that there has been no wedding!


IMAGE 3
*******
This is framed the besto all thre, but it fails to connect or to radiate beauty the way Image 1 does. As well, the orche eye make-up says artificial, and in this way it reduces the natural colors that make Image 1 so sucessful.

If it was my daughter I would be banking the 1st image.

HOWIE

[henkbos]

Fully agree Howie, first one is the best. I do think however that you can make this girl very happy by editing it in PS:
- remove come freckles
- a little more tan
- a little whiter teeth
- fill the gaps in her hair
- make all the hair a little darker
- tighter crop

[Don Ellis]

Hi Griffin,

I agree with everyone else... it's #1. If I may be so bold, I'll upload your picture and a variation I quickly touched up...

http://www.kleptography.com/dl/griffingirl.jpg

http://www.kleptography.com/dl/griffingirl.5.jpg

Here's what I did:

1. Cloned out the shelf in the upper-left corner.
2. Cropped (before reading about leaving the white dress in for the wedding).
3. Auto-contrast in PS7; otherwise, set Levels.
4. Cloned out all the little flash reflections on the gums and eyes.
5. Made the right eye highlight slightly larger to match the size of the highlight in the left eye.
6. Filled a few gaps in her hair.
7. Slight curves to lighten the highlights and darken the shadows.
8. Unsharp mask at 30, 0.3, 0.

As for Henkbos's recommendations, I had to smile at giving her "a little more tan." Most Chinese girls spend a good portion of their allowance on skin whitening products; tan is the last thing most of them care to be.

As for freckles, my rule, unless it's an advertising model you've paid, is that anything permanent stays, anything temporary gets cloned. In this case, I'd ask the lady.

Hope you don't mind the post. You did a nice job with a lovely girl.

Cheers,

Don

[Griffin]

Thank you Don. You make a photograph much better than mine! :D

I just think it is a tag too sharp for me. I am afriad I am used to the "softness" of D30.


Griffin.

[Leighow]

Well, I dunno. While I love Don's skin tones, I find that it comes with a price. That is to say, it draws more attention to the yellow eye makeup which I am not really keen on.

[Don Ellis]

Leighow wrote:
Well, I dunno. While I love Don's skin tones, I find that it comes with a price. That is to say, it draws more attention to the yellow eye makeup which I am not really keen on.
Thank you... it's not often that someone compliments me on my skin tones, although it used to happen more when I was younger. :p

Don

P.S. At some point, we have to realize this is a bride, not a model, and that she probably applied her own make-up. And having said that, I don't really see the yellow that you're seeing, so perhaps it's not just my skin that's getting older. Maybe it's your monitor. :)

[Don Ellis]

griffin wrote:
Thank you Don. You make a photograph much better than mine! :D
I just think it is a tag too sharp for me. I am afriad I am used to the "softness" of D30.
Hi Griffin,

No way for me to undo the sharpening, I'm afraid; you'll just have to use a little Gaussian blur. In any case, the photo was hurriedly retouched because 1) it's not the original, and 2) it was just to illustrate the steps I went through in case you wanted to follow them.

Cheers,

Don

[kd6lor]

Hello Don, long time no see. ( or something like that ) What a shock to plow through this website and see the picture of the young lady. A few days ago on another website I demonstrated how this very same picture would look cropped and eye/tooth whitened. I saw the flash in her gums but left them for reasons of expedience. Crazy thing, I didn't notice the object in the upper left until you mentioned it. In fact, I had to go to my copy to see if it was indeed the same picture.

Hope all is well and you are enjoying your new house higher up the hill. Will check out your website for pictures since my last visit.

Paul Jaruszewski


my quickie eye/tooth job at
http://www.fredmiranda.com/forum/viewtopic.php?TopicID=16343#142758

PJ

[marie]

re quote from Don

Thank you... it's not often that someone compliments me on my skin tones, although it used to happen more when I was younger.
unquote

( I enjoyed this remark very much : )

Hi
its me butting in,
just a little

Before I went to bed last night I saw these pictures
and just loved what Don 'done'
( the mind boggles, first skin tone and now...... what ?
relax , its about the changes in that picture
: )

Am not too sure, but I don't think anyone had mentioned that dreadful top on the dress which was sticking up on the girls chest in the original of the
photos.
Was I really, really glad to see it go
It really done nothing one way or another
until it went completely.
Wonderful alterations

and a footnote,
just to say.......
when I remarked on the first black and white shot of the other girl it was mostly because I remembered something (a while ago ) about what Griffin said regarding 'girls ' and Don's good advice re same, in reply
and so, as soon as I saw the picture I wanted to say 'here I was, giving Don's advice which he gave you a while ago ' (regards getting to know girls )
but I didn't like to actually quote Don's name without his valued permission.
....... I nearly did though
All done in a little jest, of course

As regards the bl/wh shot , I did like the way the girl looked away and as though she didn't know where to look when the camera pointed at her
It was shyness I think
I would probably do the same but maybe wouldn't look as good as she did

I'm gone .........


marie

[Don Ellis]

kd6lor wrote:
Hello Don, long time no see. ( or something like that ) What a shock to plow through this website and see the picture of the young lady. A few days ago on another website I demonstrated how this very same picture would look cropped and eye/tooth whitened. I saw the flash in her gums but left them for reasons of expedience. Crazy thing, I didn't notice the object in the upper left until you mentioned it. In fact, I had to go to my copy to see if it was indeed the same picture.

Hope all is well and you are enjoying your new house higher up the hill. Will check out your website for pictures since my last visit.
Paul, how are you, buddy?

What a great coincidence. I like your cropping better but decided I shouldn't do too much to the original. As for the shelf, it's amazing how you can zoom in on the details and miss the big bits. Whenever I'm copy editing, I have to force myself to read the headlines because my tendency is to go right for the fine print. Anyway, you did a beautiful job... of course, the picture started out beautiful so that was a great help.

The new house is fine, although we've been here for nearly nine months now and they're just getting around to doing the garden wall so we've got plants on top of plants here. We spent half our time in the old house outside on the terrace; here, we haven't been out at all. All in good time, I suppose.

Nice to hear from you. Hope this finds everyone well and happy.

Cheers,

Don

[Griffin]

Don Ellis wrote:
[quote]
Thank you... it's not often that someone compliments me on my skin tones, although it used to happen more when I was younger. :p

Don

P.S. At some point, we have to realize this is a bride, not a model, and that she probably applied her own make-up. And having said that, I don't really see the yellow that you're seeing, so perhaps it's not just my skin that's getting older. Maybe it's your monitor. :)



LOL!

BTW, I guess the skin in the original is a tag too dark.

Also, she is not a bride, she is a model from the PhotoDay in early Nov, just like another portrait photograph earlier. Sure the make up is not that profession, I am afraid.

P.S. And I am not asking you to undo the USM -- I use Fred's sharpen tool most of the time.


Griffin.

[eland]

Griffin

I'm coming in late on this one and you have probably heard enough by now.


Naturally the top left corner should be cleared.

All I would do then is crop to 2 cms below the necklace.
The change to lighter skin tone and general balance
dictate that the crop should be there and not lower.

Then I would remove or subdue the flash points in her eyes.

It's a portrait to be proud of.


eland

[Griffin]

eland wrote:
Griffin

It's a portrait to be proud of.


eland

Before or after the retouch? :p

Thanks for your kind words.


Griffin.

[eland]

It's an outstanding portrait either way.

The suggested modifications are minor and could
be considered as merely fine tuning.

Kind regards

eland