I am entering the I (heart) faces constructive critique for today. This is my completely adorable nephew Braden. I call him B-ray, he holds a special place in my heart and I love taking his picture at this stage in his life cause he is so so so full of personality.
This image is the SOOTC image. Taken with Natural Light. My Light of Choice..just not always available.
Taken at iso 800(i forgot to change it from the night before-mistake number 1) with my 50mm 1.8, Manual Mode f. 5.6 -1/25. Auto white balance.
Here is my edit. Sharpened eyes and then the entire photo.
I am open to any and all critique to improve. I know all my settings were not spot on. I have been trying to learn more about photography for the past two years and still have a lot to learn.
Thank you!
Well I personally think it is perfect...but that's just me! :)
ReplyDeleteDo you know how to meter for skin tone? I took The Photographers Workshop with Karen Russell and this was one of our lessons. I have not mastered it and rarely do it...but I think it may have helped with his skin tone. Just a thought...great photo though!
ReplyDeletea
sorry... i should have added that it looked slightly washed out to me...but i am def not an expert! a
ReplyDeleteI'm no expert by any means, but if it were me, I would have cropped it down to just his face. I think those striking blue eyes are where my eyes went first, and then directly to the blurred toy/hand on the left, which I felt was a bit distracting, and then on to his natural smile and soft skin tones, whereas without the toy, the focus would be more on just the good parts. :-)
ReplyDeleteBeautiful photo! I love how you sharpened his eyes. I personally like the skin tone. I think that's a totally subjective matter for many people. As someone previously mentioned, a closer crop would maximize on his face, but I didn't find the current composition overally distracting. I felt that the original photo was lacking some sharpness, but you adjusted that well in your fix.
ReplyDeleteThe sharpening definitely made his eyes pop and look terrific! I like more saturation and contrast to my images, so I would be inclined to use the sponge tool on saturation for all areas but those of skin. Then I would apply the burn tool on the same areas to darken it, drawing focus to the face and eyes. i played around with the crop to try to avoid the red toy and arm, but I found that I lost too much face that way. The skin tones look nice to me once the background is deepened.
ReplyDeleteAbsolutely gorgeous shot!!
ReplyDeleteNo magic trick to even application of the burn tool. I often apply, delete, reapply. :) Do use a low opacity, something in the 20% neighborhood, and apply with smooth strokes. Use a brush size large enough to minimize the number of passes you have to make. I find the greatest problems are when I accidentally overlap passes. Good luck!
ReplyDeleteI am impressed! I think you did a great job. That second photo just pops so well!
ReplyDeleteI am trying to learn more about photography, but it always seems to evade me... *sigh*
Thanks for stopping by to visit Bendy Ruggles today, and have a wonderful weekend and a Happy Easter! :)
He's got the cutest eyes!
ReplyDeleteWow - I think this is wonderful! I agree with another commenter that the blurred hand at the edge distracted my eye. But the sharpened eyes improved the photo dramatically, and the light is beautiful!
ReplyDeleteIt is so hard to remember to check all of those darn camera settings every time. I make mistakes like that ALL the time!
ReplyDeleteMy one and only thought was that his blurry hand seemed very distracting. I probably would have tried to do a 5x7 crop (but Julie said that didn't work very well with this photo.) Since that doesn't work, I would definitely burn the edges or use a vignette action on the photo. Then all of the focus will go to his beautiful face...right where it belongs!
~Angie
co-founder of I ♥ Faces
Hi Dana -
ReplyDeleteI don't have any advice (since I was entering the same event for advice myself!) Just wanted to say thanks for the Heads Up on the Lightscoop! I'm looking into it - anything to take better indoor photos!
Happy Easter!
His eyes are SO gorgeous!! I was looking through all your recent posts, and was going to mention that your photography is great. Then I came to this post, and it seemed the PERFECT place to let you know that!
ReplyDeleteThanks for stopping by my blog!! It's so great to meet you! LOVE your blog! Your daughter is so cute.