Archive 2014 · reworked color selfie

SargentRay
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p.1 #1 · p.1 #1 · reworked color selfie

You might remember the B&W version of this shot i did about a month ago as i was practicing short and broad lighting. Didn't quite get it before the next photo shoot but i still liked this one of me. But like many pictures of me i often don't even bother to process the original colour file because my face is always way to red as i am one of those people with rosacea all over my face. But having nothing better to do today, i gave it a try, was ok with my first attempt but when i showed it to one of my friends he felt obligated to run the file through Portrait professional software. Needless to say the skin was way over softened but interestingly enough the skin tones came out much better and mostly more even with the rest of the skin in the shot. So i downloaded the trial version which is impossible to save a file from, it's really just to try it out literally. But it made me want to figure out exactly what the program was doing. So step by step using several layers i managed to come pretty close with the P.P.'s rendition of the picture, but it took me at least 2 hours to achieve this. I wonder now if it would be worth it to buy the pro 64 bit version of the software, seems to me it would save me a lot of time once i get the hang of it. As long as i stay in control all the time, let the program work on itself and you'll have funny looking portraits.

Would like to read your thoughts about the software if you have 2 minutes to spare.

Thanks

Jan 19, 2014 at 08:02 PM

jackhopkins
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p.1 #2 · p.1 #2 · reworked color selfie

A flattering portrait of yourself and very nice lighting. I don't have the software so I can't address that. Hope you'll forgive my doing a little C & C on the image itself though.

Because of the low angle of the camera you appear to be leaning back and this accentuates your dbl chin. Short sleeves cause the arms to overpower the face and the pattern on the shirt is a real eye grabber. The position of your right arm across your torso is very eye catching also and is emphasized by the disturbance of the bold pattern in the shirt. Better to move that arm to your other leg. Clothing, though often and afterthought, is really important. The choice of a long sleeved, dark, plain shirt or sweater would take care of most of these problems.

Jan 19, 2014 at 10:14 PM

SargentRay
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p.1 #3 · p.1 #3 · reworked color selfie

jackhopkins wrote:
A flattering portrait of yourself and very nice lighting. I don't have the software so I can't address that. Hope you'll forgive my doing a little C & C on the image itself though.

Because of the low angle of the camera you appear to be leaning back and this accentuates your dbl chin. Short sleeves cause the arms to overpower the face and the pattern on the shirt is a real eye grabber. The position of your right arm across your torso is very eye catching also and is emphasized by the disturbance of the bold pattern in the shirt....Show more →

Hi Jack, thanks for dropping by.

I don't mind your C&C at all, i agree with everything and it was mentioned pretty much the same way when i posted the B&W version, except for the part about the arms; I always like to see hands in a portrait when they are in focus, well positioned and all that but further more i like my arms in the sense i find them a good feature on my body. Not athletic in any way but not skinny either. Granted a higher camera position would have made it look more proportionate we agree on this point. As a more general view i like the movement the forward arm brings to the composition and leads the eye outside the picture in a s or z pattern. But i may very well be the only one that sees that :-)

About the clothes again we agree it's a classic lighting pattern but with a subject dressed casually, i agree it doesn't work too well. But in my own defence and like i said before i was just trying to wrap my head around the broad and short lighting concept at the time, i really didn't pay any attention to what i was wearing when i started the session.

Had this picture been taken by a fellow photographer, i'm pretty sure i would have chosen it. It's one of the very fw i like of lil ol me, funny i had to be the one to snap it myself :-)

Again thanks for stopping, much appreciated. The question remains whole though, do most of the people photographer do their post processing by hand with Photoshop or do most photog use this Portrait Professional software. Felt pretty instinctive on my 1st try but i may find after a while it was just a gadget.

Edited on Jan 20, 2014 at 10:19 AM · View previous versions

Jan 19, 2014 at 11:49 PM

cadman342001
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p.1 #4 · p.1 #4 · reworked color selfie

I have PP and use it sometimes. It gets a bad rep but mainly because like you say if you let it, it can run a bit wild, reshaping faces / eyes / noses etc ! It's all adjustable though and as long as you don't go mad it works a treat, certainly a lot quicker than doing it by hand as you have found.
I have another plug in called "Portraiture" which is good, a little less extreme than PP, just can't remember who it's made by at the mo.

Good work on the selfie though, I can't imagine EVER doing one and liking it !

Andy

Jan 20, 2014 at 07:28 AM

SargentRay
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p.1 #5 · p.1 #5 · reworked color selfie

cadman342001 wrote:
I have PP and use it sometimes. It gets a bad rep but mainly because like you say if you let it, it can run a bit wild, reshaping faces / eyes / noses etc ! It's all adjustable though and as long as you don't go mad it works a treat, certainly a lot quicker than doing it by hand as you have found.
I have another plug in called "Portraiture" which is good, a little less extreme than PP, just can't remember who it's made by at the mo.

Good work on the selfie though, I can't imagine EVER doing...Show more →

Thanks Cadman, i heard the name often, Portraiture is made by Imagenomic from what i have seen on the web. Pretty much the same comments, too plasticky of a look, changes people too much, and it's quite pricey at 200$. The more hardcore ones claim very loudly that we should all learn how to do it properly in Photoshop ourselves. Can't argue with that i suppose, but at the same time don't some people make the same over processing mistakes trying to do everything themselves ? I mean i often see over smoothen skin, eyes way to saturated, bad use of the liquify filter and so on, all this without the use of portrait dedicated software. Or at the other end of the spectrum drab pictures of people taken by photographers claiming they went for the super natural and honest look.

Again nothing against that per say but after posting this picture along with one of my buddy Gilbert (also taken to practice Short lighting) 2 people asked me to do their portraits within minutes after placing them on FB. Namely my next door neighbour who is currently in L.A. on a business trip. She first complimented me on my portrait and told me just how handsome i looked (not kidding here). So i explained the source of the flattering look being from the lighting and post processing. She answered: Don't care i want one like that" We laughed and i agreed to do her portrait once she gets back from L.A. Then an old friend who is currently a photographer for the city of Montreal asked pretty much the same thing and i also agreed to do his portrait and i already have a vision in my head of how i'm going to shoot them both.

But all this got me thinking. Funny how people who know me very well like this obviously "enhanced" portrait of me, to the point of asking me to do their own portrait in this same exact style. So the next question for me was: Am i too concerned with doing honest portraits or are ordinary people seeking in fact a good picture of them showing them at their best or at least in a way that makes them look better, younger, leaner, less tired and this sort of things ? From the two requests i got the answer seems to be yes as long as it remains true and believable, or yes to an extent if you will.

So not being super comfortable with portraits just yet i was wondering if i should seek a software program to help me "Standardize" my portraiture. I know any purist would say everything starts at shooting and should be perfectly lit and posed to begin with. But realistically if i pursue this venture, i know i'll never have a big studio with all the lights and light mods, Make up artist and fashion designer either. I'll most probably be doing simple portraits of ordinary people, hence my question about software in hopes of getting my work at least constant from shoot to shoot.

I understand completely after briefly trying out Portrait professional just how easy it is to go overboard when retouching a portrait but the way i see it this mistake is just as likely to happen with a conventional "manual" workflow. What i found interesting in this particular software especially for the price, is that every possibilities are placed in a menu on the right side of the screen and they are simply suggestions. It's really up to the user to use them or not and mostly to use them with judgement. For instance if you do choose to lighten the eyes just don't over do it just like any retouching.

Not sure i'll ever change the shape of a face or any such extreme modifications but i found it nice to be able to do it rather quickly if i ever need it. So at the moment i'm leaning towards buying the software, but i just thought i'd get your view on the matter.

Again thanks for stopping Cadman :-)

Jan 20, 2014 at 09:25 AM

cbbr
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p.1 #6 · p.1 #6 · reworked color selfie

I have PP and love it, but I turn the "shaping" part way down if not off. Its quick to use and when used with a light touch yields a great result.

Jan 20, 2014 at 10:38 PM

SargentRay
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p.1 #7 · p.1 #7 · reworked color selfie

cbbr wrote:
I have PP and love it, but I turn the "shaping" part way down if not off. Its quick to use and when used with a light touch yields a great result.

Exactly cbbr, it's exactly what i sensed after playing with it for about an hour. Very nice to have but got to be careful and not get caught up in the retouching craze :-)

Jan 20, 2014 at 11:29 PM

blutch
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p.1 #8 · p.1 #8 · reworked color selfie

I use PP and love it as well. I do a custom preset for each client... I don't use most of the features, but it is a big time saver for basic skin softening and eye popping.

B

Jan 21, 2014 at 01:12 AM

SargentRay
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p.1 #9 · p.1 #9 · reworked color selfie

blutch wrote:
I use PP and love it as well. I do a custom preset for each client... I don't use most of the features, but it is a big time saver for basic skin softening and eye popping.

B

Exactly what i found worked best when i tried it.

Thanks Blutch

Jan 21, 2014 at 03:41 AM


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