tainkc Loc: Kansas City

It doesn't seem like I am getting any better. I don't know why. I do know that I had a hell of a time in post with her hair. I do know that it is natural with no highlights. Being colorblind, I could not tell if she was a redhead or a brunette. I have good lenses and I now have some decent lighting tools, but I am about t give up.

Of course C&C is welcome.

I don't know.


This was weird. The light was the same distance away (About 3ft) and I bumped up the intensity about 1/4 and her freckles disappeared.


This one is the best one, I think. Perhaps I should have cropped it differently.

Erv Loc: Medina Ohio

Good morning Tom. The skin tones don't look right to me. I would like to see a before picture of her too. The hair looks pretty good to me. The other thing is her nose. She should look straighter to the camera and look up just a little.

tainkc Loc: Kansas City

The skin tones I can change. There was not much I could do about the nose... It is that pointy.

Erv Loc: Medina Ohio

I should have said that the nose was making a shadow and raising her head and turning it to the camera might have helped.:)

tainkc Loc: Kansas City

Perhaps you are right. It may have helped with the neck flab also.

LLucas Loc: Upstate South Carolina, USA

Good eye, Erv! After closer inspection, the shadow from her nose does make it look longer/pointier. That's a great tip you offered and I'll use it myself!

Rich2236 Loc: E. Hampstead, New Hampshire

I don't know why you are complaining, Tom...The color tone of her skin is excellent. Her hair appears to be very good. But, I do have to agree with Erv...because her nose is just slightly more prominent, i would either have her raise her head a little and turn slightly front, or move the camera a little down so that you are shooting up to her, which in essence would foreshorten her nose so it wouldn't look so prominent.
Rich...

dnathan

Always shoot into the point of the nose. Other solutions mentioned here are also correct. I like to keep it simple. Always flattering, regardless of length or shape of nose. Trust me. Almost 3000 weddings photographed. Not everyone has "perfect" features.

tainkc Loc: Kansas City

Thanks, Rich. Yeah, this is the first nose I encountered like this. To be honest, I had no idea that it would show up like this. It is hard for a novice to keep up with everything.

tainkc Loc: Kansas City

Thank you. The only thing that I don't quite understand is that what I have been told here, and from what I have read, is never to shoot upward. and yet that has been mentioned and sort of makes sense.

Good thing my mother is not still alive (what?). She had a schnoz like Jimmy Durante. I know I would have messed that one up for sure, I would be laughing so hard.

bkyser Loc: Fly over country in Indiana

I would also ask if you were using a wide lens on the first shot, vs the next 2? The bottom two don't look as distorted. This is why the 70-200 is a popular portrait lens, the lens compression will also help make prominent proboscises a little less noticeable.

The second two are actually pretty flattering.

I still say that something about your PP is still just "too much" The eyes get too white, and have no blood vessels any more. The lips get a little wonky too. I'm almost thinking it is Portrait Professional or something along that lines.

I'm not trying to insult you, but I think your images would actually look better if you backed off on the PP.

These are young, pretty girls, other than maybe fixing blemishes, they really don't need all that skin smoothing and stuff.

Just my two cents. (worth probably half that)
bk

tainkc Loc: Kansas City

It is kind of weird. I use lightroom for the whitening. perhaps I over did it. I gave up on whitening teeth because I end up with too many artifacts. I use the liquefy tool in photoshop a lot as well as frequency separation. But that is the weird part. Now that I got a softbox, i no longer get that harshness that I used to have. Both of my daughters are relatively blemish free and now I seek out other women that are that way also. I get tired of removing pimples and stuff. I did do a lot of work with this girl. She is very pretty but she has a red face from lots of sun.
That, and the fact that she actually has a heavy jowl was a real trip to work with. I thought this a bit strange since she is not overweight by any means. She does have those high cheek bones that I do like.

I also had a tough time keeping the background the same color and hue while trying to make a more natural skin tone. Trying to keep the background curtain from looking distorted while using the liquefy tool was also very difficult. All three photos were shot with the same lens. It was a Sigma 16-250mm lens.

She also was not very comfortable being in front of the camera. I do appreciate her taking the time to allow for a few photos to be taken of her. And as always, I appreciate your input. Still learning.

SHLeM52 Loc: Jacksonville, FL

You could diffuse the light a little, and maybe put a reflector so it fills in a little under the nose and under her chin.
You got the eyes right. Nice set. Pretty young Lady.

S

alissaspieces Loc: New York

Tom.you have come so far in such a short amount of time. Go take a little look back at your images from the beginning till now and you will be amazed at your progress. It takes time and I think it's a forever learning experience. Keep going. :)

tainkc Loc: Kansas City

Crap! It was diffused. I give up.