My best portraiture for 2008

[hamster]

so please wreck my thoughts.



Taken at my old high school's musical. Lighting was from a single desk lamp. This was later excellently printed at 16 x 28 and the family loved it. I checked the EXIF and it said 105mm...now on an 18-200 that's pretty awesome i think. The EXIF also shows 1600 ISO, but in PP was pushed to a little over 2000...

my best fluke shot of the year. critique, anyone?

[vikin70]

i like the energy from her eye,
and i would tidy up her hair a bit...

[hamster]

haha yeah now that you mention it the hair is a bit tussled...this wasn't set up though, she was waiting at the back of the theatre getting ready to run through the crowd and onto stage.

[surenj]

I would get rid of the mic if the performer didn't mind. Is it possible to bring out some detail on the other side of the face (or is it my monitor!?) Otherwise great expression on her face.

[shakey]

I do like dark and moody shots. However I do think this one is a little underexposed and the WB is a bit off. I'd like more detail in the hair and bring out the red in the clothing a bit more. I'd agree with cloning out the mike. Your subject and her costume is very photogenic and you have done a great job.
I had a little play with the image. As it is a great photo it would be worth tweaking more. Alas my skills are limited. I hope you don't mind what I've done. Will delete if you would prefer.

[hamster]

This is my first large print i've successfully sold I personally think the microphone serves as a reminder to the family that she was indeed the principle lead, and perhaps that was why the bought it. No doubt if that was a staged shoot the mic would have had to go (if i could get something like that in a staged shoot i'd be over the moon ).

shakey: Nah it's fine I don't mind. While you've cloned out the mic you've left out the microphone support underneath the neck below the ear so it looks like she's got a massive mole. Also i notice in restoring detail to the hair you've also increased background noise. With careful cloning and healing I'm sure someone (not me, my skills do not extend to that) it is definitely possible to make this more presentable. While I can see the area changes do improve the image on a monitor level, I'm not willing to spend another 25 dollars printing out another 18x26 to see whether or not the changes affect the image quality at all. Does anyone have experience with printing A3/A2 sizes and the subsequent noise/colour issues? If it shows up on my monitor i'm sure it'll be even worse in print at such large sizes.

[methd]

print generally hides noise a lot more than what you'd see on the monitor.

With the photo, i would have liked to see the other side of her face, even if was exposed ever so slightly. Maybe it's just me but I'd like to see both eyes from almost front on shots. I also really don't like the shadow over her bottom lip... something I'd definitely clone out.