Officemate - Impromptu portrait

[theveed]

Just an impromptu shot... taken in my office...

Room light (window + florescent + folder as reflector), 50mm 1.8
50mm 1.8
1/125
f/1.8
RAW adjusted
B&W processing



Please give suggestions for improvements.

[dw2chan]

because you cant really see or make out the neck...it looks like a floating head. maybe try pulling the hair back a bit to reveal more of the neck?

and i think this picture would look better with a closer crop... i just tried cropping a little off the top of her head, right side i brought it in till it just had some space before her cheek. left side crop until u like

i'd also clone out the forground (left) and background (bottom right). this makes for a very simple picture


other than that, i like the picture! great focus on the eyes, good shallow DOF and excellent b+w conversion! good job!

[theveed]

dw2chan: Ahh, the neck, never noticed that... Thanks for pointing that out. It does look like a floating head, now that you've mentioned it...

As for the foreground vertical lines, I thought about cloning that out but decided to keep it there since it sort of acts like a frame, but the blinds and terrace (bottom right) are indeed annoying... Can you give me some ideas on how to clone out the bottom right without affecting the hair? Not a very good clone/stamper here hehe.

I'll try again when she drops by the office hehe.

Thanks again for commenting, much appreciated advices.

[dw2chan]

Originally Posted by theveed As for the foreground vertical lines, I thought about cloning that out but decided to keep it there since it sort of acts like a frame, but the blinds and terrace (bottom right) are indeed annoying... Can you give me some ideas on how to clone out the bottom right without affecting the hair? Not a very good clone/stamper here hehe.

i'm not too sure myself...haha
i'll give it a go when i get home (dont have PS here at work)

[Bored Dad]

Well, since it's really an impromtu and a snap shot, I don't think one will have the time to adjust the hair or whatever, so I think it's still pretty well taken and nice smile.

[dw2chan]

ok here's my shot at it



things i've done:
- cropped
- cloned out the dark stuff on the left and bottom right
- softened the skin a little
- curves
- sharpened

if i were to spend more time, i'd also clone out some of the stray hairs

as for the hair thing, her hair is great, she just needs to pull it back a little to show more of her neck

[catchlights]

#1, cropping too tight, only have head with no body.
#2, shoot at wrong side of the face, eye one big one small.

[theveed]

dw2chan: Nice, nice... thanks for the visual suggestion

catchlights: Thanks. I purposely didn't include her body as it tends to "overpower" her facial features since she has a pretty stunning body. Regarding the eyes, do you suggest a more frontal angle?

bored dad: You mean the ear area? I wished I asked her to fix that too in addition to dw2chan's suggestion of pulling hair back... The floating head result still bothers me right now hehe.

Maybe I can re-process the RAW file and add a bit of shadows near her jaw/neck area... Will try to do so over the weekend.

Appreciate your time for commenting, folks.

[catchlights]

don't know find very scary if just showing head?

what is portraits? you suppose to enhance the beauty of your subject, and not emphasize the flaws. think along the line and will know what to do.

[theveed]

I thought enhancing the beauty is glamour, not exactly portraits only... In my context, I like to snap portraits to record and portray the actual mood and condition of the subject... I guess that's subjective.