Portrait of my daughter using shadows. Trying out the site. Let me know your thoughts please.
Love the image, but I would like it more if there was less shadow on her right cheek. Bud
Hi Kristina. This is a very alluring portrait. Her eye and eyebrow simply will not let the viewer look away. Your use of shadows is very important to the effect.
a few thoughts … remember, this is from a guy who thinks that rocks and bushes are alluring … not a portrait expert at all. Maybe we can get @Dorinda Wills to comment.
If you were willing to change the aspect to 4x5, then cropping out the dark expanse to the right would put her eye right on the upper right rule-of-thirds intersection, and give it even more prominence.
- Her shoulder is a bit bright and being on the corner, which tends to draw the eye out of the frame. Might burn some of that.
- The highlighted strands of hair on her right side are to me very attractive. On her left, bringing out some of the bright areas might be something to try. In LR, a brush with highlight exposure might do the job. In PS, one could select that hair area, and add a curves layer for that selected area. Increasing the curve on the bright end, while not allowing the dark side to curve down might work. Or the Dodge tool set to dodge Midtones or Highlights might work.
- Blown up to full size, the gloss on the right lower lip in this jpeg rendition comes across like broken glass, so those highlights need to come down … maybe with a decreased Clarity.
Overall, you have a dazzling model, and she has a talented photographer. Cool stuff!
Re Bud’s comment about dark left cheek, it depends on the monitor being used. On my monitor that is set to a little lower brightness, that cheek is really dark. I have that monitor adjusted to better match printing. On my other monitor, the left cheek is not so deeply shadowed.
Here is her left hair updated with PS Select and Curve technique.
Thanks for the info Bud. I actually really like the shadow & that’s the look I was going for.
Kristina Allums
Thanks Bud. I actually did add some highlights to both sides of her hair in PS. Maybe I didn’t do enough. I will look at it on my computer & see the difference when I get home. I appreciate the critique. This is a nifty site. Is it fairly new? Not many people have posted on here yet.
I like it on the back side… a lot. Just not on the front
The forehead and chin are much brighter than the cheek. For me, I would like the front cheek lightened:)
Oh, I get it Bud. That makes sense. I will see what I can do.
Kristina Allums
Kristina: A very nice portrait. I agree with Dick about the crop, but other than that I would probably not do much more to it. What direction was the light source coming from? If there was a light source coming from over her right shoulder you might get a little shadow on the right cheek because of the loop of hair shading that side.