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Archive 2015 · Candid moment; I listened to your advice. Any better?

  
 
zunkus
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p.1 #1 · p.1 #1 · Candid moment; I listened to your advice. Any better?



Heidi and Thomas by Stephen Spiteri, on Flickr

Tell me what you think you would have tackled differently, mostly in post edit. I'm looking to improve and I admire very much what I see here so I'm sure that some good suggestions would pop up. If you think that it helps I'll also post the unedited photo later. I haven't got access to it at this time.

Edited on Oct 13, 2015 at 10:06 AM · View previous versions



Jul 19, 2015 at 04:57 PM
RustyBug
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p.1 #2 · p.1 #2 · Candid moment; I listened to your advice. Any better?


The candid capture is nice.

The color is very non-neutral ... which could be either a distinct direction toward a mood evoking rendering in the soft-pastel warm realm, or it could be something that warrants adjustment. Not sure, which is your desired direction for this one.



Jul 19, 2015 at 05:42 PM
zunkus
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p.1 #3 · p.1 #3 · Candid moment; I listened to your advice. Any better?


Yes the soft pastel warm tint is intentional. Think it goes with the theme. Don't you?


Jul 19, 2015 at 06:00 PM
RustyBug
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p.1 #4 · p.1 #4 · Candid moment; I listened to your advice. Any better?


zunkus wrote:
Yes the soft pastel warm tint is intentional. Think it goes with the theme. Don't you?


I kinda dig it in the sky, but I'm a bit "hmmm" at on the subjects themselves. Here's a "little of both" rendering where I adjusted the subjects somewhat, but not the surrounding environment.

This one will definitely be a Highly Subjective to your vision and direction, and as always, S&P to taste. For me, the tint muddies our subjects a bit, but it does give it a different "softer" vibe ... well, because it is softer.

Things like her white shirt / his collar becoming pink, and her pink watch seems blown out with the tint overlay. While, I realize that those aren't the primary value of the image ... I just think the tint is stealing from them a bit more than I'd prefer. Maybe a "split the diff" rendering is worthy to consider.

But ... the main thing ... nice capture of the emotive.







Jul 19, 2015 at 06:07 PM
Camperjim
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p.1 #5 · p.1 #5 · Candid moment; I listened to your advice. Any better?


The color and the hair coming out of her mouth both need to be fixed.


Jul 19, 2015 at 07:49 PM
zunkus
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p.1 #6 · p.1 #6 · Candid moment; I listened to your advice. Any better?


Camperjim:

The colour is intentional done that way to give warmth and softness to the image, but I like the adjustments made by our friend so much that I'll be going through the image and do that. I went through individual rgb curves to achieve the feel I wanted. I'm noticing the shadows a bit on the green side and whilst I'm not sure honestly if I like that, having tried going warmer cuts the subtle variety of hue which I'm after.

As for the hairs sticking out of her mouth... wow... was totally blind to that. Surely gotta fix that; Thanks!

Edited on Jul 19, 2015 at 11:49 PM · View previous versions



Jul 19, 2015 at 11:31 PM
zunkus
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p.1 #7 · p.1 #7 · Candid moment; I listened to your advice. Any better?


RustyBug:

Thank you so much for the effort you put into this kind sir. I mostly agree with what you've done and it has been very informative and an eye opener. I will be taking your advice and adjust accordingly as it makes good sense. Still a bit unsure on the shadowy areas in her face especially, even in your adjusted image and especially now that it is lighter in the faces it is more evident. The nose for instance. Do you think the greenish hue gives an unhealthy look?



Jul 19, 2015 at 11:41 PM
RustyBug
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p.1 #8 · p.1 #8 · Candid moment; I listened to your advice. Any better?


Hmmm @ greenish hue ... I'm not seeing it on my end (color space, monitor profile, etc. ). Generally speaking, I wouldn't want skin tones to have a greenish hue to them. If I've produced a greenish skin tone ... well, that just ain't right.

My RGB values in her face / nose are all highest in red, so I'm a bit @ the greenish hue. Curious what others are seeing?

As always, S&P to taste.










Jul 20, 2015 at 06:32 AM
ben egbert
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p.1 #9 · p.1 #9 · Candid moment; I listened to your advice. Any better?


When I first looked at it, I thought perfect. Great expressions and I even liked the color. Now that I have read the comments, my verdict is the same. But never trust me on color.


Jul 20, 2015 at 09:11 AM
zunkus
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p.1 #10 · p.1 #10 · Candid moment; I listened to your advice. Any better?


RustyBug wrote:
Hmmm @ greenish hue ... I'm not seeing it on my end (color space, monitor profile, etc. ).


It may have been the monitor at work from were I posted the comment. I am very careful to keep skin tones on the warmer side whilst not overdoing it of course although having said that know from my portrait painting experience that a green hue does emerge in some area of skin with little fat or nearer to the bones (in even balanced light of course). When I went home and saw both my posted image and Rustybug's variation they both look ok, Rusty's looks a bit too light in skin tone to my liking but that is subjective and to his benefit he doesn't know the subject's skin tone whilst I do. I love the input here and decided to post edit another image from that batch keeping in mind what you guys said. Here it is, fire away


Heidi smiling with Thomas by Stephen Spiteri, on Flickr

Edited on Jul 24, 2015 at 04:16 PM · View previous versions



Jul 22, 2015 at 06:24 AM
beavens
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p.1 #11 · p.1 #11 · Candid moment; I listened to your advice. Any better?


Stephen,

Cute shot for sure, and no portrait specialist, but with these backlit shots it seems that reflectors, flash or some other fill light is needed to help give the subject some pop and exposure.

I'd love to see how much exposure boost you can get away with on mom and sun. Also might want to dial exposure back above his ear where the hair is getting blown out.

I'm seeing some slight greens around the top of her head and in the background cliff, and her white shirt is looking quite cool for such an otherwise warm scene. But take that with a grain of salt as I'm viewing these on my work monitor.

Cheers!

Jeff



Jul 22, 2015 at 06:42 AM
RustyBug
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p.1 #12 · p.1 #12 · Candid moment; I listened to your advice. Any better?


zunkus wrote:

Rusty's looks a bit too light in skin tone to my liking but that is subjective and to his benefit he doesn't know the subject's skin tone whilst I do.


Glad to hear you understand both the subjective aspect and the "guessing" aspect that can be in play as we all offer up our thoughts..

It's always, your image, your message, your call. Things get offered up to illustrate conceptual difference, just something to tickle your mind with ... then you assess the amount (or not at all) of implementation for the ideas we (collectively) present for consideration. Always a blend between assessing artistry and accuracy ... knowing that they can be quirky bedfellows sometimes.



Jul 22, 2015 at 07:34 AM
AuntiPode
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p.1 #13 · p.1 #13 · Candid moment; I listened to your advice. Any better?


Personally, I suggest color adjusting until the skin looks good, rather than adjusting to a standard, unless something of known color is large and obvious, in which case selective color adjustments may be necessary. In the posted image, there is a red cast. Warm is good, but skin that's too red looks less appealing than skin with a better balance of yellow. For some reason, many cameras seem to have a tendency to render skin too red. Even skin that's naturally too red usually looks better if the natural red is at least partly corrected.

Note also, correcting the mouth full of hair is also a plus.







Jul 22, 2015 at 02:32 PM
KaaX
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p.1 #14 · p.1 #14 · Candid moment; I listened to your advice. Any better?


AuntiPode wrote:
For some reason, many cameras seem to have a tendency to render skin too red.


I've seen an explanation that it's due to Asian preferences for rendering of Asian skin tones.




Jul 22, 2015 at 03:38 PM
AuntiPode
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p.1 #15 · p.1 #15 · Candid moment; I listened to your advice. Any better?


KaaX wrote:
I've seen an explanation that it's due to Asian preferences for rendering of Asian skin tones.



I've no idea, but if true it would make sense, given the size of the Asian market. Better to be pleasing to the majority of customers rather than to be accurate, which is what I recommend, too.

If someone's skin is a bit sallow, adding a little red or, in some instances, magenta, can be a plus.



Jul 22, 2015 at 03:55 PM
zunkus
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p.1 #16 · p.1 #16 · Candid moment; I listened to your advice. Any better?


AuntiPode wrote:
Personally, I suggest color adjusting until the skin looks good...

...Note also, correcting the mouth full of hair is also a plus.


Thank you so much Auntie for taking the time to edit, and may I add, so well my photo. Fabulous work on removing the hair. Looks a hundred times better now. Nowadays I'm shying away from over editing my photos from wrinkles and blemishes, I do correct don't get me wrong but try and keep more or less the reality of things. Sometimes I see plastic faces and perfect everything if just gets unreal. In my case, leaving that hair looking like it's coming out of her mouth was a bit too much though lol. Colour... how difficult that can be huh?! You have put good points about making faces look unnaturally red. My thoughts with the original was to keep a uniform warm feel with rverything. Make things feel a bit more romantic. Sometimes my painterly side takes over. What we do in portraits is give a glaze of dilute red tint all over the picture to achieve this and I've taken that route here. Maybe a little correction here and there as in my second post is more pleasing?

I'm currently putting the young man in the picture to sleep after he woke up for a bottle. He still wakes up twice poor lad during the night for feeds whilst his twin sister wakes up too but doesn't like milk and prefers a little water. My wife and I have had to sleep, (you can put sleep in brackets as we really can't sleep a full nights sleep with these two for 15 months now), in separate rooms so they don't wake up each other. Hard work. I'm actually primarily a portrait painter first and then photographer but photography gives results quicker so had to put painting to the side to concentrate more on helping with the twins.





Edited on Jul 23, 2015 at 12:38 AM · View previous versions



Jul 22, 2015 at 05:48 PM
zunkus
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p.1 #17 · p.1 #17 · Candid moment; I listened to your advice. Any better?


beavens
...with these backlit shots it seems that reflectors, flash or some other fill light is needed to help give the subject some pop...
Jeff


I shy away from using flash outside without a modifier but do use reflectors. With this one I used a conveniently parked van right behind me as a giant reflector



Jul 22, 2015 at 05:58 PM
AuntiPode
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p.1 #18 · p.1 #18 · Candid moment; I listened to your advice. Any better?


Color is subjective. Obviously if you are shooting for yourself, the right color is whatever your wife prefers.

Years ago when I earned my living shooting family portraits, it got an education on the difference between what was technically correct and what folks liked to see in color photos. Two rather different things. Of course tastes change and so do circumstances. Best we can do is make suggestions, but you naturally should only consider them only suggestions.



Jul 22, 2015 at 11:04 PM
zunkus
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p.1 #19 · p.1 #19 · Candid moment; I listened to your advice. Any better?


AuntiPode wrote:
...Best we can do is make suggestions, but you naturally should only consider them only suggestions.


Your suggestions are not those coming from everyday folk but from people who are constantly thinking about the subject and so are very much appreciated and I've a lot of weight. Thank you for all your thoughts.




Jul 23, 2015 at 10:15 PM
zunkus
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p.1 #20 · p.1 #20 · Candid moment; I listened to your advice. Any better?


beavens wrote:
...I'm seeing some slight greens around the top of her head and in the background cliff, and her white shirt is looking quite cool for such an otherwise warm scene. Jeff


Those greens are CA from my not so expensive lens, although to be fair to my trusty Nikkor 35G DX f/1.8 much more expensive lenses have as much CA sometimes. If there is a lens flaw that I hate most is CA especially that that shows in the distance. I know that nowadays most software can be corrected by post but sometimes it is difficult to correct.



Jul 24, 2015 at 04:21 PM
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