Opinion on these photos? (2 portraits & 2 landscapes)

Been experimenting with editing and trying to improve on taking portraits. Looking for C&C.

Are the framing on the portraits good? Is the editing too much? Do you like one more than the others or none at all?

I really like the emotion of the second portrait; I think the look in his eyes, the grime on his face, and stubble all work well together. I'd like to see a much tighter crop though as the entire shirt/torso area is doing nothing for me and his body is leaning at an odd angle in comparison to his head. I think maybe his face should be just a tad lighter too, but I'm not sure. I don't think much more than 1/3rd of a stop as the darkness might be adding to the mood for me in a positive way.

I can only comment on the landscapes since I'm not really a portrait shooter.

#1 I like the colour and warm feel, but I feel the foreground isn't interesting enough to match the nice background. Horizon could be straightened marginally counter-clockwise.

#2 I find the colours much more appealing here and the foreground interest is more interesting. The slow shutter speed has allowed you to capture some movement in the waves, which I like. What iso was this shot at because it's a little grainy in the clouds? I can also see some sensor dust spots that could be cloned out. I think the image could do with a high pass sharpen then mask out all areas except for the rocks.

Cheers, Tim.

#1 looks flat and the crop is off. Bring the bottom up to half way through his forearm.

jothdu wrote in post #16156302
I really like the emotion of the second portrait; I think the look in his eyes, the grime on his face, and stubble all work well together. I'd like to see a much tighter crop though as the entire shirt/torso area is doing nothing for me and his body is leaning at an odd angle in comparison to his head. I think maybe his face should be just a tad lighter too, but I'm not sure. I don't think much more than 1/3rd of a stop as the darkness might be adding to the mood for me in a positive way.

Wasn't sure how tight of a crop or if I should have cropped off the top part of his hair, but is this better? and thanks

Hyper_Vistas wrote in post #16157225
I can only comment on the landscapes since I'm not really a portrait shooter.

#1 I like the colour and warm feel, but I feel the foreground isn't interesting enough to match the nice background. Horizon could be straightened marginally counter-clockwise.

#2 I find the colours much more appealing here and the foreground interest is more interesting. The slow shutter speed has allowed you to capture some movement in the waves, which I like. What iso was this shot at because it's a little grainy in the clouds? I can also see some sensor dust spots that could be cloned out. I think the image could do with a high pass sharpen then mask out all areas except for the rocks.

Cheers, Tim.

Do you mean to sharpen just the rocks? Wasn't sure what you meant by "mask out". Thanks!

fsbk366 wrote in post #16163736
#1 looks flat and the crop is off. Bring the bottom up to half way through his forearm.

Is this better? and thanks for the feedback

Watch the following video to learn dodging and burning. It's the technique to enhance the shadows and highlights to sculpture the face. this way lighting won't look flat.

click me> Dodging and Burning

it's one of the best i found on youtube.

here, since your image editing is ok, i tried it. dodging and burning was done. notice how the contour on his face is improved?

vinmunoz wrote in post #16197769
Watch the following video to learn dodging and burning. It's the technique to enhance the shadows and highlights to sculpture the face. this way lighting won't look flat.

click me> Dodging and Burning

it's one of the best i found on youtube.

here, since your image editing is ok, i tried it. dodging and burning was done. notice how the contour on his face is improved?

Now I understand what you meant about it looking flat! Wow that looks so much better.Thanks for taking the time to do that edit. I think I might have processed it too much and took too much contrast out of the picture, but his face does look much better than the original un-processsed one actually because he hardly had any shadows on his face.

Cool. Watch that dodging and burning video to learn it when you have time.

vinmunoz wrote in post #16205644
Cool. Watch that dodging and burning video to learn it when you have time.

it's a great video, I just started practicing on other images while following the tutorial. Thanks!

you're welcome. it feels great to help.

if you want in-dept skin retouching. this is what i do.

click this video > frequency separation