"School of Portraiture" - Lesson 08 - Taking it to the next level ("The Reunion")

[Colin Southern]

Here's a quick edit on one to give you an idea of what I mean ...

[lumicks]

Here's a quick edit on one to give you an idea of what I mean ...

Great! Colin, thanks. I'd always thought that I shouldn't crop portions of the head. "One has to try to see it work!"

Anyway, my monitor is not calibrated. Default setting

[Colin Southern]

Great! Colin, thanks. I'd always thought that I shouldn't crop portions of the head. "One has to try to see it work!"

Anyway, my monitor is not calibrated. Default setting

You'll see heads cropped off all the time in the magazines -- quite normal. Don't worry, everyone knows it's really still there

You definitely need to get your monitor calibrated and profiled -- otherwise your edits are just a lottery. Do you feel lucky today?

[lumicks]

You'll see heads cropped off all the time in the magazines -- quite normal. Don't worry, everyone knows it's really still there

Here are my attempts:

[lumicks]

Here's another one in monochrome
[/I

[Colin Southern]

Here are my attempts:

Getting there - you need to crop it to emphasise the face though, not the side of the head.

Images are still very blurry though. Are you shooting RAW or JPEG? What sharpening are you applying?

Try shooting horizontal to give your subject so space to look into. eg:

[lumicks]

Images are still very blurry though. Are you shooting RAW or JPEG? What sharpening are you applying?

Try shooting horizontal to give your subject so space to look into. eg:

I'm using Adobe Lightroom 4 to sharpen the images. The images are in JPEG, though my camera can shoot RAW too.
I'm using a bridge camera (Lumix FZ200) with a 1/2.3 sensor size. Sharpness and IQ could be the issues. I've been trying to optimize its capability. Hope to have an DSLR someday.
But for now, I'm grateful for the lessons I've learned from you and from CiC.

[Colin Southern]

I'm using Adobe Lightroom 4 to sharpen the images. The images are in JPEG, though my camera can shoot RAW too.
I'm using a bridge camera (Lumix FZ200) with a 1/2.3 sensor size. Sharpness and IQ could be the issues. I've been trying to optimize its capability. Hope to have an DSLR someday.
But for now, I'm grateful for the lessons I've learned from you and from CiC.

It still should be able to get images sharper than this though - much sharper. I'd suggest doing some tests to see if we can pinpoint where the source of the problem is.

[jounpla]

portrait retouching software or PS

[Dave Humphries]

It still should be able to get images sharper than this though - much sharper. I'd suggest doing some tests to see if we can pinpoint where the source of the problem is.

Hi Colin, Justin,

On all four, the point sharpest focus is well behind where it should be - which is the nearest eye.

So whether the problem is an inappropriate focus mode, or a back focus issue (actually a faulty camera since the lens is fixed) I don't know - I suspect inappropriate focusing, or movement forward after focus lock. Worth more investigation.

[mihaich]

Hi dear friends. I recently discovered this great community and this is my first post. I have started for a little while a small pet photography business to fill up my weekends. The shot below is from a fair where we offered one image for free to be downloaded from our website, just to show people here what we can do.

For the below image: Nikon D600 | 70-300 | F/9 | ISO 160 | two strobes, one in softbox and one bounced lighting the dog, one light above in a shoot-through umbrella, one slave flash on the background

[Cantab]

Hi dear friends. I recently discovered this great community and this is my first post. I have started for a little while a small pet photography business to fill up my weekends. The shot below is from a fair where we offered one image for free to be downloaded from our website, just to show people here what we can do.

For the below image: Nikon D600 | 70-300 | F/9 | ISO 160 | two strobes, one in softbox and one bounced lighting the dog, one light above in a shoot-through umbrella, one slave flash on the background

Mihaich, welcome to CiC. I know nothing about dog portraits so shall leave comments to others.

In order to get a greater response to your post, you may wish to repost it in the people and pets part of the forum.

This particular thread "School of Portraiture" has very much focussed on portraits of people. But there are lots of dog lovers on CiC who will look at your photo if you give your post a label that indicates it has a dog.

[DakarthanbluPhotography]

New here and hope I'm sharing this in proper forum. I am trying to infuse my portraiture with the visceral feeling I experience on location, but I feel my work is rather pedestrian at this juncture. Any feedback the community can offer will be most helpful and appreciated. Well it seems I cannot upload from mobile device. Hold that thought until I'm at desktop.

[carl89]

Here's a quick edit on one to give you an idea of what I mean ...

Love this one

[saea501]

I love portraiture and it looks like this thread could use a little boost.

So here is one of my friend the Goddess....

[elfbob]

[IMG][/IMG]this is one of the 2 "girls" next door, I was dog sitting & used the opportunity to wait for the their rough housing to end, I mainly make macro images but this is a good capture, at least to me

[Shadowman]

[IMG][/IMG]this is one of the 2 "girls" next door, I was dog sitting & used the opportunity to wait for the their rough housing to end, I mainly make macro images but this is a good capture, at least to me

Nicely done.

[conlizjay]

This is a very nice portraits. I wouldn't change nothing on this. I'm in school taking photography and I hope I can do this kind of portraits.

[Shadowman]

This is a very nice portraits. I wouldn't change nothing on this. I'm in school taking photography and I hope I can do this kind of portraits.

Welcome Connie,

Looking forward to seeing some of your assignments.

[harmon1]