Bmac Loc: Long Island, NY

This candid was taken during the Egg Rolls & Egg Creams Festival on Eldridge St, Manhattan, NYC. I was drawn to the subject by her orange hat and outfit and the contrast with her white framed glasses. Unfortunately, she did not exhibit much emotion during the time I was photographing her. Hopefully, the colors can carry the picture.

Critique, comments or suggestions on improvement are welcomed. Thanks 8-)

Settings: ISO 800, 466mm, f/5.6, 1/800 sec

(Download)

rlaugh Loc: Michigan & Florida

Colors pop on an unusual outfit!!

Bobby Deal Loc: Loveland Colorado

Color is strong but there seems to be a attitude of disgruntlement in her face. Was she aware you were photographing her and simply dsinterested or is this a true candid?

Her skin tone reads as very very blotchy and I am at this point unsure if that is reality or a result of attempted blemish removal and skin smoothing.

Something to beware of when photographing people wearing prescription glasses is the distortion and inability to lock an accurate focus on the eyes do to the diffraction of e prescription lenses. It can be impossible to see on the back of a camera but is very evident in the posted image, particularly in the near eye. When photographing people in glasses it is advisable to attempt multiple shots from various angles and camera positions to try and find one that will play nice with the lens. I find this problem more prevalent in those who have severe astigmatism correction or strong prescriptions to correct being farsighted. The extra close in magnification of the lenses can literally wreak havoc I on focus and distortion

Update
In viewing the download I am going to guess the skin is a result of post production trying to clone out blemishes. There are a lot of what appear to be cloning artifacts, particularly along the bows of the glasses and over smoothing the skin on a global layer. The blurred eye brows speak to the heavy skin smoothing as they are blurred far beyond the level that should be seen in the natural DOF for this shot. I can also see that you attempted to correct the focus issue on the eyes by going in and selectively sharpening them but the work is too extreme and shows a lot of sharpening artifacts

dpullum Loc: Tampa Florida

Bobby, like you I downloaded and zoomed in. I think the cloning blotches are cloning by the subject with Acne Coverup stuff and not camera artifacts. I have found that sensors react differently to different wave length of light, our eyes make excuses by moving and blending and ignoring... cameras are not as charitable.

I taught HS for 3 years after retiring, too often young ladies are not skilled in using makeup... some have bad hair days others bad complexion days. The 9th grade boys just make sure they wash their faces at least once a week.

Bobby Deal Loc: Loveland Colorado

Of course I could be wrong it has happened at least once before. I have been looking at and critiquing images for a long time and would say there is at least a clone trail along the edge of the right side bow of her glasses and the sharpening artifacts around the eyes are pretty clear as well.

Like I said though I could be reading it completely wrong but I don't think I am. The one thing that is for sure is that the subject indeed has acne

dpullum Loc: Tampa Florida

Lets hope you are right, much easier to re-edit than to get rid of Acne. However, jacking up the magnification,,,, big ,,,, the areas have a faint head in them characteristic of acne, mild. So I will go 5050 on that and clone or better yet 33/33/33 clone acne and medication make up. Also some int the eye...

But, we are pixpickin

Bmac Loc: Long Island, NY

Thanks Rlaugh. 8-)

Bmac Loc: Long Island, NY

Thank you Bobby for taking the time for the detailed critique and comments, you obviously know your stuff. I will try to address your points as best I can.


I do not believe she was aware of me taking her picture. She was an accordion player in a band that was performing in the street earlier before the posted image. I tried to get a good picture of her at that time but due to folks dancing around the band and the tight quarters it was too difficult. I noticed then that she did not smile. Later, when this photograph was taken, she was sitting on a stage and the band was getting ready to play again and still no smile or hint of joy in that face. I was quite a distance away, the shot was taken at a focal length of 466mm and althought cropped, it's not extreme. So to the best of my knowledge it is a candid.


Her skin was blotchy. I used "heal" for two small blemishes on her face and one on her chin and then considered trying to improve on her overall skin but decided against it, as it was a candid and I am not proficient in the ways of portraiture post processing.

There was no skin smoothing involved but......the shot was taken with an ISO of 800 with a camera with a small sensor (Canon SX50), so even though noise was not very evident in the original, I took the precaution of de-noising causing the apparent smoothness.


An excellent point and something that I will consider in the future. Thank you.


I think it's a combination of both my post processing and the lass' skin.


Great eye Bobby! Yes, I did selectively sharpen around the eyes in an attempt to overcome the smoothing due to de-noising. Too much so evidently.

Thank you again for the professional critique. Your points are well taken and hopefully have taught me something. :thumbup:

jonsommer Loc: Usually, somewhere on the U.S. west coast.

So, looking at the camera settings, could the high ISO, the fast shutter speed and the long lens all contribute to some of the issues you have identified, especially if the camera was hand held or didn't have VC?

Bmac Loc: Long Island, NY

Thank you DPullum for you detailed input regarding the photograph, I appreciate it.



As stated on the posted explanation to Bobby, except for three small "heal" improvements (two on the face, one on the chin) the subject did have blemishes on her skin and I do not know if she even tried to cover them with make-up. Keep in mind that this is a street candid of someone at a festival, not a controlled studio shooting. As such, I made a decision not to attempt to make many improvements on the face as it appeared. 8-)

Bmac Loc: Long Island, NY

The high ISO is why I made the decision in to de-noise, rather than having to face (:-D) that problem during later post processing. But, alas, de-noising reduces sharpness, so in addressing the balancing act I attempted to selectively sharpen around the eyes.....causing the artifacts noticed by Bobby. The long focal length necessitated the faster shutter, hence, the high ISO. Candid photography at an urban street fair would make tripod use more problematic so the photo was shot hand held, and the image stabilization in this camera is very efficient. 8-)

Bobby Deal Loc: Loveland Colorado

I would suspect that the smoothing resulting from the denoising is what spread the blotchiness so much.

Bmac Loc: Long Island, NY

Something done in post processing that I had forgotten to mention was that in addition to selectively sharpening around the eyes, I did the same to the hat in order to accentuate the texture of it. 8-)

Bmac Loc: Long Island, NY

To a certain extent that may be, but do you see that large blotch on her cheek close to her hair? I know that was quite prominent as I considered trying to fix it.....the de-noising may actually have helped that particular area. 8-)

Nightski

:thumbup: