# Portrait - Comments & Criticism Requested



## Ext1jdh (Oct 4, 2010)




----------



## Ext1jdh (Oct 5, 2010)

50+ views and no comments or criticisms? Either it's a perfectly average picture or nobody has any opinion...


----------



## supraman215 (Oct 5, 2010)

The background is very distracting and ugly. The first thing I see is the white card in the door.


----------



## XCountryGuy (Oct 6, 2010)

Ext1jdh said:


> 50+ views and no comments or criticisms? Either it's a perfectly average picture or nobody has any opinion...



The setting makes it read as a snapshot... a picture without much thought given to composition, setting or lighting. I'm sure the image has a sentimental purpose, but there isn't much to comment on photographically, unless you want people to pick apart the deficiencies. That wouldn't be too worthwhile.


----------



## Ext1jdh (Oct 6, 2010)

Feel free to pick apart the deficiencies. Criticism is education. 

It was taken semi candid at my parent's house. The environment was not very controllable. Fuji S7000. From Jeffrey's Exif Viewer:  Lens:14 mm (Max aperture f/2.8) Exposure:Auto exposure, Portrait, 1/14 sec, f/2.9, ISO 400


----------



## rCOSIO (Oct 6, 2010)

Looks like a Cell Phone picture .. really a candid shot, distracting background as said above, and agree on the White Card being my first look. Blown out pieces on their face, and bad shadows on gurl, with overall grain


----------



## rCOSIO (Oct 6, 2010)

^ Totally not being rude either, just you asked .... I think these two woudl be great canidates for some portraits though .... great smiles!


----------



## dhaval (Oct 6, 2010)

hmm well if you'd wanna salvage it I'll suggest:

1) Selectively blurring the background.
2) Why the noise? Maybe add some vignetting?
3) The t-shirt is too distracting, maybe clone out the design and make it pure black?

It's probably not worth doing all that anyways, but it should give you an idea about what you can do next.


----------



## jozef3d (Oct 7, 2010)

Ext1jdh said:


> 50+ views and no comments or criticisms? Either it's a perfectly average picture or nobody has any opinion...




There is too much grain in this picture.  It seems like you pulled the curves/levels too far and started introducing noise and attempted to sharpen it?  The skins tons seems a little too blown out.  As they said the card on the cabinet becomes too much of a focal point...especially where it is currently positioned.  Are you sure this was with f2.8?  Maybe the subject should have stepped away from the cabinets a little further?  Your shirt is a little bit distracting in contrast.  Black with white design + blown out face of the girl looks like you have three heads laying on your chest.  Hard to find focus except for the white card at the corner.

If you still have the original picture, I would try not pushing your curves/levels too high.  If you didn't take this raw, you've lost a lot of data due to compression so you're limited to how much you can push the exposure of the picture.  

So instead I would try to blur out the background as suggested...that card is going to be difficult to work with, but perhaps stamp the cabinet and hopefully the blur will help with concealing the stamping process.

Touch up the skin tones so there isn't a lot of noise and give it a softer look.

Bring your dark/grey tones out a little more to tone down on the over exposure.

As far as the shirt goes, I would try adding a gradient from the lower left till near the girl's face to grey out the design a little bit.

Try to give it a soft focus look, this might help in making the blown out areas seem intentional for a dreamy look?

Finally add a vignette to bring focus back to the subjects.

Hope this helps.

Good luck.

PJ


----------



## Ext1jdh (Oct 7, 2010)

I didn't notice the grain, myself, but it's easily remedied. The camera applied 2.8 but I did blow it out in PS on purpose. I'll see what I can do to blur the background without destroying the subjects, and try some of the other suggestions. Thanks much.


----------



## Derrel (Oct 7, 2010)

Ext1jdh said:


> 50+ views and no comments or criticisms? Either it's a perfectly average picture or nobody has any opinion...



I think perhaps you forgot a third and fourth possibility:3- it does not even rise to the level of 'average' and 4-if you do not have anything nice to say, do not say anything at all.

The lighting is very chalky...burned out whites...grainy grays...areas of detail,free,inky coal-mine black blacks...technically a very bad photo.


----------



## Ext1jdh (Oct 7, 2010)

After about an hour of playing in PS I'm left with something a bit better, but still unsatisfying. Masking out the card is better. Blurring the background is proving to be difficult due to the subject's hair and I can't get it to come out looking like it happened in the camera. I was able to clean up his shirt so that its not drawing so much attention ao at least that's working. The overall soft focus is helpful, but it looks very flat when I try to halftone pattern it (which is where most of the grain came from in the OP pic). I'll keep chucking away at it this weekend.

Thanks for the pointers. I'm just here to learn, and I appreciate the honesty.


----------



## oldmacman (Oct 7, 2010)

Ext1jdh said:


> After about an hour of playing in PS I'm left with something a bit better, but still unsatisfying. Masking out the card is better. Blurring the background is proving to be difficult due to the subject's hair and I can't get it to come out looking like it happened in the camera. I was able to clean up his shirt so that its not drawing so much attention ao at least that's working. The overall soft focus is helpful, but it looks very flat when I try to halftone pattern it (which is where most of the grain came from in the OP pic). I'll keep chucking away at it this weekend.
> 
> Thanks for the pointers. I'm just here to learn, and I appreciate the honesty.



Here's about 10 minutes of editing to address some of what people are pointing out. I enjoy a good challenge, but this was too much for me. I'm not a fan of grain, even when I developed my own film BITD, so I had a difficult time balancing the existing severe grain with re-establishing the blown areas. They tend to look a little dirty in spots.  If you had an original, this could be a much better edit, but as others have pointed out it may be more beneficial to start with a new image.


----------



## Ext1jdh (Oct 7, 2010)

new image is impossible as one of the subjects is in prison. I have color originals which I can play with. Again, I appreciate the criticism. While I am not aspiring to any level of professionalism I view these comments as a way to nurture a better eye for composition and to learn my camera better, as well as learning to use PS effectively. 



Derrel said:


> I think perhaps you forgot a third and fourth possibility:3- it does not even rise to the level of 'average' and 4-if you do not have anything nice to say, do not say anything at all.
> 
> The lighting is very chalky...burned out whites...grainy grays...areas of detail,free,inky coal-mine black blacks...technically a very bad photo.



Derrel, have you got anything to say that might be constructive, or are you just here to bust balls? Perhaps joining this forum was not such a good idea if this is the kind of reaction to expect. My father was a wedding photographer for many years which, I recognize, does not mean that I'll have any ability with a camera. I did expect harsh criticism, I did not expect downright rudeness. 

Jozef, Oldmacman, Dhaval, rCOSIO, thank you for your comments and criticism. I also truly appreciate the recommendations. You've been quite helpful, however I think that this forum is not going to work out for me.


----------

