deinfaces wrote:
Jon - Thanks. I don't know what a desat brush is.
You did use something in the color image to remove the color/desaturate portions of the image. Since areas are irregular and in the case of the necklace its long and irregular,the chances are good it was a brush. It is most obvious in the necklace where there is little to no color and it bleeds into her skin. As I also mentioned at the corners of her mouth and elsewhere.
It also appears that there is an overall desaturation which could be a Lightroom global adjustment or a Photoshop adjustment layer.
I see these PP glitches in a quite a bit of your work - it's not what PP you do, it could just use a tad more precision and finesse. Practice will get you there and thus the critique. If you didn't receive any critique, then you wouldn't be informed and hopefully motivated to improve. I stress that because my critique is not a personal attack - I don't even know you. Rather I see a photographer with a great street eye and I want to help by pointing out areas that could be improved. Feel free to PM me if you'd like to discuss technique or more specific suggestions.
Thank you for your interest. Critique is fine. Great, in fact.
I don't use lightroom. For the original B&W, I started with a Nik Silver Efex Pro layer, and then several curves adjustment layers - and a sharpening layer. Andre asked to see a color version. I took the working B&W and removed the Nik layer. All of the adjustment layers remained. I guess that explains the funky coloring, I should have started from scratch. Color doesn't interest me much. FYI, a jpeg SOOC is attached.
You had mentioned that her eyebrows were light in the middle. In the SOOC image, that's how they are. I guess she uses a pencil and likes it that way, for some reason. In my street portraiture, my interest is in showing the humanity in each of our faces. I make no attempt to glorify people, I'm not into beauty photography. My punchy, contrasty style sometimes (often) accentuates blotchiness, wrinkles, etc. Then I try to 'improve' things to get back to reality. I do not want to glorify features, but I don't want to accentuate negatives either. The gesture is everything to me.
I was too cavalier about the shortcut I took to make a B&W version. Again, thank you for your time and interest.
Bob, I visit your site frequently and what amazes me consistency of lighting and processing of these images. Considering you take these on streets possibly at different times of the day, I am curious how do you achieve that?
Bob, I visit your site frequently and what amazes me consistency of lighting and processing of these images. Considering you take these on streets possibly at different times of the day, I am curious how do you achieve that?
Thank you, Sagar. A few of my images are from downtown Tampa. Before approaching someone, I check out nearby (VERY nearby) locations for background and light. The spot has to be in shade, and hopefully with a bright building close by reflecting light. This keeps post processing to a reasonable level, and the results fairly consistent.
