Portraits taken with Canon A75 - Critiques invited

[Wass]

What do you think of these portraits?

[Photo's by Mike]

How do you make the frames?

[Wass]

Photoshop

[Ogrt48]

Nice, if I was told those were from the a75 after viewing them that'd surprise me. Very good.

[charlesu]

These are a tad too sharp. In a portrait I tend to not sharpen at all and then use a hard softening brush on low flow to add just a bit of detail to the eyes and maybe mouth.

In #1 her hair, lips, eyebrows, etc. all have artifacts because of oversharpening. Aside form that, I like the images. Well lit. The subject seems very comfortable. Could we see it without the sharpening? Or maybe with sharpening only by 1/2?

Thanks for posting!

[charlesu]

Here's an example. I felt that the hair was already sharp enough. I wanted everything else not in the same plane as her eyes, to be soft.

http://ompi.onemodelplace.com/OMP_Images/Photographer/3661/3661_Photographer6.jpg

This lends more intimacy. The eyes engage and you're less distracted by the rest of the face, I think.

[mdude85]

On your second shot your subject's right eye looks like it was artificially blurred.

[stoneylonesome]

I think those are very very good.

[cotug]

I like the second one. The DOF draws you into the image. It is still a bit too crisp for my taste. The highlights in the hair and lips tend to look like artifacts. Great shot other than that.

[colliewalker1]

I like the first portrait which is very well composed - although I would like to see a bit more detail on the face.

To me the posing of the second portrait looks unnatural and awkward - and the model looks rather unfriendly!

Thes are obviously personal views and perhaps not shared by everybody.

[Wass]

Thanks for the constructive comments everyone.
I agree about the oversharpening. Those were edited a couple of months ago, so I think I'd do them differently now.
The light blur on the right eye is because I used the dodge tool in PS to whiten the eye.

Wass.