Australia Day Portrait

[Alpha_7]

This was an impromptu portrait taken in the pub while we were celebrating Australia Day, there was brilliant orange afternoon sunlight, but I found it was too overpowering so have brought back the saturation to what I thought was an appealing level.

Please thoughts comments, suggestions, fire away.

[Alex]

I like it, Craig. I think partial desaturation works well here and in fact his face looks like it has normal skin tones. I really can't fault this image and I like the crop you chose as well.

Alex

[gstark]

Craig,

The crop, pose, exposure are spot on.

The desaturation works, but I'm wondering about the wb. I have a suspicion that this is not quite right, and the skin tones look to me to have a cyan hue.

Please have a play with this and warm up the overall image, but keep it desaturatied.

Cheerz.

[Alpha_7]

Craig,

The crop, pose, exposure are spot on.

The desaturation works, but I'm wondering about the wb. I have a suspicion that this is not quite right, and the skin tones look to me to have a cyan hue.

Please have a play with this and warm up the overall image, but keep it desaturatied.

Cheerz.

Thanks Gary, here is the same shot the only setting I change in ACR was moving the the WB back to "As Shot". How does this look ? All the other settings were left untouched. BTW, Alex and Gary I'm glad you both like the "crop" as this is the full frame, If I was going to be super picky on my own shot I'd I"ve liked the rest of the Australia on the hat.. but that is just me being a perfectionist.

[colin_12]

I like his intense expression as well as the new wb Craig.
Great effort for an impromtu.
Regards Colin

[Alpha_7]

I like his intense expression as well as the new wb Craig.
Great effort for an impromtu.
Regards Colin

Thanks Colin, it helps to have posers as friends.

[gstark]

Craig,

Better, but still not quite there.

What had you changed the setting to, and what is the "as shot" value? Work out the variation, and apply something similar again.

In this image I would normally try to see the actual colour of the white of his right eye - whites in shadow are a great way to find a colour cast - but while you have the shadow detail there (which is an example of how well you've nailed the exposure on this one) it's not enought for me to assess the wb here.

Instead I have to rely upon the skin tones, which, for the bright light that's obviously the light source here, are still not quite there, IMHO.

Let's take a slightly different approach though: look at the clothing your subject is wearing, and compare how that looks in this image with your recollection of reality. I have to add that I wasn't there making the image, and you were, so you know what was right, and I do not.

So at the end of the day, it's your call as to what's right or not, and that also includes how you want/expect the image to look. I'm simply offering my comments from a PoV of what I think I would want it to look like, but it's your image, and you're the final judge of fact.

[MATT]

Nice shot Craig, has all the elements for a good image..and best of all spontaneous.

I prefer the first as the whole white balance thing doesn't worry me. It now looks a bit to orangy on my monitor . But even that is good.

Cheers
MATT

[Alpha_7]

Thanks Gary, I think I've nailed a spot in the middle that looks natural, while not what it looked like at the time (he was bright orange due to the late afternoon night) this is close to what I'd have expected to see had the lighting been more run of the mill, or just straight mid day sun outside.



I'll send it to him tomorrow and see what my model thinks