How did I do???

[mblanton]

I shot a series of outdoor portraits yesterday and this was my favorite. Instead of using -1 stop for the fill flash I used +1 stop for the fill and +2/3 for the ambient. I post processed in photoshop elements 2.0 and used the virtual photographer plugin.

I love the finished photo, but I'm partial...it's my wife.

Let me know what you think.

Mike

[Radtech1]

Since this is "critique corner" I will walk the thin ice of critiquing a "wife pic". There are a couple things I would have done differently.

1) Watch your background. You could have shot from a slightly higher POV and gotten all grass, or shot from a lower POV and brought the grass/tree line down to a less noticable area. Cutting her head in half is a bad spot.

2) Speaking of background, in addition to bluring the background, I would have desaurated it some as well. Not much, mind you, but just a little.

3) Hair and cheek and hand highlights are blown. I suppose that on the hair it is OKish, but even on the highlighted area of the cheek and hands, I would have wanted some texture.

4) Clone out the reflection off the lens of her glasses on her left.

5) Find some way to deal with the green refraction on her right eye area [EDIT: By this I do NOT mean the green grass behind her, seen through her glasses. I mean the greenish hue on the skin of her lower eyelid extending to the lateral aspect of her eye.]

6) Seems out of focus. At first I thought it was a post processed "soft focus" effect, but it seems that her eyes - as views through the lenses of her glasses - are sharper than the rest. Indicates that the focus is off. But I could be wrong.

Rad

[PhotosGuy]

Consider cropping the top & bottom a bit. Nice shot.

[Hellashot]

A bit soft for my tastes, but the pose and composition is good.