[bossa]

Thanks for an opinion anyway. This is what actually drives and encourages a photog. Me at least. I think your impression has a lot to do with: a low contrast scene(I deal with the existing uncontrolled light often - this what I enjoy a lot about K-5), the downsize engine makes the image look softer (what I hate the most about any forums - it killes a lot of details and skin tecsture which are actually there), my PP techniques and approaches need to be improved at least for low res screen presentation - all of it has it's input respectively.
But...just to give you the idea I publish the original unmanipulated image here, too. I don't find it overprocessed, at least to the degree which makes the ladies keep contacting me, besides shooting. PP is one of the reasons to order pictures. None of them want them raw as is.
And the overall idea was so. Kinda vintage style since her outfit and overall surroundings are up to it.
I dont' insist this is my best shot though,-) I hate many of them But still post just to know what people think.

OK I see what's happened. You've retouched it in Photoshop and have probably gone a little too far. Did you use the clone tool or did you smooth and blur? The clone tool is best because it also samples noise and you shouldn't use a % either as that promotes smoothing of said noise. The smoothing looks unnatural in my opinion, hence my 'drawing' remark.. I should have said pastel painting though.

I could rework that shot (from the original) for you to give you an idea of what I mean if you are interested.

[Prosto]

.........I could rework that shot (from the original) for you to give you an idea of what I mean if you are interested.

Go ahead if you want to play with it: http://www.filedropper.com/sev3108

I got you - I have no problems saving the skin and other deatails when present. This is just not this case. I use different tools depending on the picture and model skin condition. Usually some combination of clone, patch tools in conjunction with all kinds of layers and image apply and high pass filters, etc.

[bossa]

Go ahead if you want to play with it: http://www.filedropper.com/sev3108

I got you - I have no problems saving the skin and other deatails when present. This is just not this case. I use different tools depending on the picture and model skin condition. Usually some combination of clone, patch tools in conjunction with all kinds of layers and image apply and high pass filters, etc.

OK, I was presumptuous as I can see that you know what you are doing by those other shots. I feel that the shot in question is still capable of being 'ok' but just not as glossy-glamorous as your usual stuff. Sometimes you have to allow a little character into the frame even though the client may not really want it.

I'll grab the picture though and see if I am all talk.. I'll let you know. ;-)

[Patajac]

First of all this shot is beautiful.

Regarding editing, possible improvements i can see are leveling the table, equalizing skintones, reducing noise, darkening surroundings to emphasize the model and slight desaturation of reds and yellows.

Quick try, hope u dont mind.

---

Last edited by Patajac; 03-22-2013 at 05:24 AM.

[mark lj]

I've rather enjoyed this page. I've never done any form of portrait work and have no pp skills at in this area. Fascinating to watch.

Some beautiful work Prosto. More than a touch envious.

[TOUGEFC]

I had a quick crack at it, hope you dont mind Prosto?
The lighting is very dirty and wasnt happy with the colour output, so I did a quick BW conversion,

[JimDickinson]

Just my 2 cents worth - but I have yet to see anyone improve on Prosto's orginal product for this shot. I agree it looked a bit over PP'd at first and I suspect it is largely a result of viewing it on this forum.

I love your work Posto - and not just because you almost always are capturing very beautiful women - although that certainly does not hurt!

[fs999]

I must say that I love the warm tones of Prosto's photo, but Simon, you have magnified the beauty of this model. It is just perfect !

Prosto, you B&W montage is superb !

[bossa]

Really, I thought you guys could actually see but I'm now not convinced,

Simon's effort is to be applauded but the poor girl as hard rings under her eyes and the whites of her eyes are now grey - the B&W makes the lack of contrast worse - the lighting in this picture is too flat to really do anything with so a B&W conversion is a pretty good idea though. I beg to differ on the unsurpassed original "comment" though.

[bossa]

First of all this shot is beautiful.

Regarding editing, possible improvements i can see are leveling the table, equalizing skintones, reducing noise, darkening surroundings to emphasize the model and slight desaturation of reds and yellows.

Quick try, hope u dont mind.

This is the better version though.. mine is too saturated and heavy.

This one could have benefited from a little colour cast though.. to make up for the flat lighting and to give some coherence.

[Belcik]

The lighting is very dirty and wasnt happy with the colour output, so I did a quick BW conversion,

+1 on that for TOUGEFC
+2 for Prosto

[Vorture]

Well let me join the fun I would've processed it like this:
Original picture by Prosto (hope you don't mind )

[jbinpg]

Love this one, Vorture. The killer femme fatale look contrasts so well with the softened background. Too bad it wasn't some Paris sidewalk cafe rather than a 60s type diner. Would have offered a better mood.

Jack

[steliost]

And my own version of the model, still I like more the version of prosto, which thank you for shared with us this wonderful photo ...
Sorry for my english...

[mark lj]

I'm not going to get involved in the debate - in any event if I tried doing some pp on the image I'd probably add in a nice tree :-)

I think #2852 is a superb image. Excellent mono.