Yearbook Photo

I'm going to guess that this is your very photogenic daughter.

Your post-processing is subtle....the way I think it should be. It's good that you got rid of the wrinkled background. The replacement BG looks fine. The first shot does look like it's missing something...there's a big negative space where you put the flowers. I think the flowers could be desaturated a bit. They are overpowering with their intensity. The color of the flowers takes away from her face/lips. Maybe a pale pink would be better for the flowers.

Good processing on the face. The slight blemishes have been removed without making her look plastic and overdone. Great job here.

My suggestions....mostly will require a reshoot.

1. Get the eyes TACK sharp. They look a bit soft. This could be the uploading process or if you were using a filter, that may have degraded the sharpness.
2. Hair. Have her spend some time her hair before the next shoot. The wispy flyaways on her right side and the fluffy stuff on her left (both at the neck level) are a bit distracting.
3. Wrinkles. Her left shoulder/arm could use some pressing. The collar of her tan shirt could use some starch to make a crisp fold.
4. Posing. Her fingers look uncomfortable. Have her fingers curved as she's holing on to the mortarboard. Her hand will look more relaxed.
5. Face post-processing. In the second frame, her face appears to be wider proportionally than in the first (original?) shot. You might try decreasing the width of the photo to 95% (or even 95%) to make her post-processed face look thinner instead of wider than in the original. I might also try desaturating the lips a touch, too -- unless that is a local style/custom this year.

I hope you don't think these comments are harsh. The reason I can give so many is because you are soooo close. When pictures are posted with many huge, glaring errors, it is difficult to give feedback. You have some minor tweaks to be made.

I hope you get advice from others, too. I can't comment much on the quality of the clamshell lighting you used here.

Thanks for sharing and congratulations on your soon-to-be graduate!

cpam.pix wrote in post #16580583
I'm going to guess that this is your very photogenic daughter.

Your post-processing is subtle....the way I think it should be. It's good that you got rid of the wrinkled background. The replacement BG looks fine. The first shot does look like it's missing something...there's a big negative space where you put the flowers. I think the flowers could be desaturated a bit. They are overpowering with their intensity. The color of the flowers takes away from her face/lips. Maybe a pale pink would be better for the flowers.

Good processing on the face. The slight blemishes have been removed without making her look plastic and overdone. Great job here.

My suggestions....mostly will require a reshoot.

1. Get the eyes TACK sharp. They look a bit soft. This could be the uploading process or if you were using a filter, that may have degraded the sharpness.
2. Hair. Have her spend some time her hair before the next shoot. The wispy flyaways on her right side and the fluffy stuff on her left (both at the neck level) are a bit distracting.
3. Wrinkles. Her left shoulder/arm could use some pressing. The collar of her tan shirt could use some starch to make a crisp fold.
4. Posing. Her fingers look uncomfortable. Have her fingers curved as she's holing on to the mortarboard. Her hand will look more relaxed.
5. Face post-processing. In the second frame, her face appears to be wider proportionally than in the first (original?) shot. You might try decreasing the width of the photo to 95% (or even 95%) to make her post-processed face look thinner instead of wider than in the original. I might also try desaturating the lips a touch, too -- unless that is a local style/custom this year.

I hope you don't think these comments are harsh. The reason I can give so many is because you are soooo close. When pictures are posted with many huge, glaring errors, it is difficult to give feedback. You have some minor tweaks to be made.

I hope you get advice from others, too. I can't comment much on the quality of the clamshell lighting you used here.

Thanks for sharing and congratulations on your soon-to-be graduate!

Thanks cpam... About her fingers, I just dont know the problem with her cause she keeps on returning with that kind of posture she has on the photo... Ill tell her to do this and that and after I go back to my spot where to take her a picture, everything is back where it was before...

With your other suggestions, they really meant a lot to me... God bless...

Agreed to the above. I would also like to see a slight head tilt in one direction or the other.

Studio portraits are not my forte...so this might be a dumb question but is there some other way to position her hand/cap that it doesn't look like the hand is detached? I don't if that can be accomplished by pulling back a bit, or cropping to remove the hand (but then the cap is lost). Just a thought. Anyway, kudos to your nice attempt.

Thanks for cc guys... I am posting another photo of her classmate... I made the same shot and post processing... This time, I cloned and erased some frizz on her hair, lowered the exposure of the flower and let her use another color of lipstick... Which is better? or do I still need to do more to make it pleasing? Please critique... Thanks

Great work on the hair and face. Great choice of the lipstick.

A couple hair flyaways against her left shoulder could be cloned out. Flowers are better, could still be desaturated a bit more, but they are ok.

She's got a death grip on the mortar board. Maybe have them support the caps with their left hands and "caress" it with the right hands that are showing. All the fingers should be comfortably curved and not straight or hyperextended as on fingers 2 and 3 on her hand here. [Did something go wrong on post-processing her pinkie finger? It looks white/pasty instead of matching the rest of the fingers.]

Let's talk about focus technique. Are you using focus-recompose? Are you choosing a focus point that is right on her eye? If you are doing focus-recompose, you could be moving the camera just enough to pull the eye out of focus.

I also noticed that the focal length on this was 65mm. You're using the 24-105mm zoom (one of my favorite lenses), you may want to get it up to the 90mm range. That will slightly flatten the face and noses become slightly smaller.

She and her parents will likely be delighted with this shot. I'm guessing it will go in the yearbook as a smaller print. The wrinkles on her collar and left sleeve will be less noticeable at a smaller size. Also, do you know what cropping ratio the yearbook will be using? If you can crop to their format, you'll have control of the crop. Otherwise, they will crop where they want to...and that might not be where you want it.

Great work again.

You don't have "image editing OK" on, if you turn it on I have an edit for you...

cpam.pix wrote in post #16589809
Great work on the hair and face. Great choice of the lipstick.

A couple hair flyaways against her left shoulder could be cloned out. Flowers are better, could still be desaturated a bit more, but they are ok.

She's got a death grip on the mortar board. Maybe have them support the caps with their left hands and "caress" it with the right hands that are showing. All the fingers should be comfortably curved and not straight or hyperextended as on fingers 2 and 3 on her hand here. [Did something go wrong on post-processing her pinkie finger? It looks white/pasty instead of matching the rest of the fingers.]

Let's talk about focus technique. Are you using focus-recompose? Are you choosing a focus point that is right on her eye? If you are doing focus-recompose, you could be moving the camera just enough to pull the eye out of focus.

I also noticed that the focal length on this was 65mm. You're using the 24-105mm zoom (one of my favorite lenses), you may want to get it up to the 90mm range. That will slightly flatten the face and noses become slightly smaller.

She and her parents will likely be delighted with this shot. I'm guessing it will go in the yearbook as a smaller print. The wrinkles on her collar and left sleeve will be less noticeable at a smaller size. Also, do you know what cropping ratio the yearbook will be using? If you can crop to their format, you'll have control of the crop. Otherwise, they will crop where they want to...and that might not be where you want it.

Great work again.

Thanks again cpam... About the pasted color of her harm, its not edited, its a birthmark I think... I didnt bother to ask her about it, just to avoid her of getting embarassed or something... You know teens now adays...
With the focusing technique... I recompose from the center af point... Will it be better if I use the af point adjacent or right in her eye? I usually notice that center af point gives sharper images than the rest of them...
And the ratio... I checked about it and they told me that to crop at 8x10 in...
God bless...

tmoore323 wrote in post #16589940
You don't have "image editing OK" on, if you turn it on I have an edit for you...

How can I turn it on?

Jiggo0109 wrote in post #16593897
How can I turn it on?

Got it now... Will just wait for your edit... Tnx...