I enhance my own photos. Just minor things like color and contrast.
Not all photags get back to me right away with the final edits so when they give me freedom edit my own photos, I pretty much take them. I hate having to wait a month before using a photo, ya feels me?
But anyway this one has me stumped. Just a simple headshot to add to my port.
Its missing...something...but what?!
PS. I didn't put this in the sample forum.
Maybe I should have. But I wanted to hear opinions more than anything. Like when to know if something is meant for retouching or not. Thanks guys
Peano
Posts: 3,714
Washington, District of Columbia, US
Small things aside, the lighting on the subject is too flat and too bright. If you're going to stick with the white background, I'd make it really white, tone down the light on the model, and do some D&B for the contours ...
My preference would be for a darker background ...
Nicole Packs wrote: Like when to know if something is meant for retouching or not. Thanks guys
sounds like a solicited critique...
probably not meant for retouching. For a headshot, I'd go with a softer light source, not quite so overexposed (you can blow women out a little, but not quite this much).
Also, the image looks a little soft to me. How's the focus? Is the lens mushy? can you post a 100% crop of the eyes from the raw?
Ashish Arora
Posts: 2,046
Bangalore, Karnataka, India
I quite prefer the original shot as it is, maybe bring up the blacks and neutrals down a bit so it looks a little less white-ish but it is pretty good - like a 10-15% more contrast and maybe a little sharpening to make it look more crisp - but that's it.
It's not a headshot per se, it looks shot more with an intention to like a jeans/shirt catalog image.
Often, it's important to know what the image is.
Just because you have PS, doesn't mean everything be retouched.
I enhance my own photos. Just minor things like color and contrast.
Not all photags get back to me right away with the final edits so when they give me freedom edit my own photos, I pretty much take them. I hate having to wait a month before using a photo, ya feels me?
But anyway this one has me stumped. Just a simple headshot to add to my port.
Its missing...something...but what?!
PS. I didn't put this in the sample forum.
Maybe I should have. But I wanted to hear opinions more than anything. Like when to know if something is meant for retouching or not. Thanks guys
This one is not. Save the time and effort to go shoot a new photo.
played around with it a little. The complex hair shadows on the wall made it tough. Either incorporate the wall into your shot, or distance the subject from it.
my quick attempt (except the bra strap. i was lazy about removing it) Really, this is kind of like (forgive the expression) "polishing a turd". The retouching is way to heavy for what the image started as, and I probably went overboard a little. I think the direct light pushed me to want to glam it up, since usually direct front light isn't used except to be edgy.
it's also not really a headshot, as there's probably a little too much glam.
Crack The Sky
Posts: 264
Melbourne, Victoria, Australia
You have good skin and not many wrinkles so i think it can pass without retouching.
Retouching should be based around the look your are going for.
Do you want it to look like a casual shot taken with a film camera?
Do you want it to look like it came out of a modern fashion look book?
Do you want it to look like an unretouched polaroid shot?
There is nothing major happening in the shot makeup/hair or styling wise.
I kind of like it as a polaroid, heres me with no retouching kind of shot.
Mask Photo wrote: played around with it a little. The complex hair shadows on the wall made it tough. Either incorporate the wall into your shot, or distance the subject from it.
my quick attempt (except the bra strap. i was lazy about removing it) Really, this is kind of like (forgive the expression) "polishing a turd". The retouching is way to heavy for what the image started as, and I probably went overboard a little. I think the direct light pushed me to want to glam it up, since usually direct front light isn't used except to be edgy.
it's also not really a headshot, as there's probably a little too much glam.
And you felt like it was necessary to liquefy her face?? to a headshot??
great retouch! How did you achive the white circle in the background without getting any banding?
You have to extract the image and create a separated fill layer , double click it and go to gradient over lay, use circular gradient and play with it from that point on.
- contrast enhancement with levels and curves
- sharpness enhancement with high-pass filter
- little color correction with additional sepia tone
Indeed the picture is clearly too flat, but I disagree a bit with the comment saying it is too bright. I'm sure that if we had the RAW file it would be quite easy to correct. It's a bit bright but correct imho.
You have to extract the image and create a separated fill layer , double click it and go to gradient over lay, use circular gradient and play with it from that point on.
Illuminate wrote: And you felt like it was necessary to liquefy her face?? to a headshot??
like I said, I did more to this than is necessary for a headshot. The title of the thread was "Can i make this more interesting". I made it more interesting. The lighting was wrong for a headshot anyway, so i just messed around. LIKE I SAID.
I enhance my own photos. Just minor things like color and contrast.
Not all photags get back to me right away with the final edits so when they give me freedom edit my own photos, I pretty much take them. I hate having to wait a month before using a photo, ya feels me?
But anyway this one has me stumped. Just a simple headshot to add to my port.
Its missing...something...but what?!
PS. I didn't put this in the sample forum.
Maybe I should have. But I wanted to hear opinions more than anything. Like when to know if something is meant for retouching or not. Thanks guys
Photon Mayhem wrote: one thing you can experiment with is this:
http://illuminations.herokuapp.com/ (it loads for about 30 sec. but after that is very fast.)
load your image, and experiment with film-stock and fashion looks, etc.
when you like it, press "save"
(if JPEG times out, save as PNG)
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