Thank you ALL for participating this round. We have a huge amount of entries this time - excellent !! I hope it gave everyone a chance to try something a little bit different. I wish that "Lucy Herself" would be here with me to help judge, but she's busy with online school & such.
Portrait work has always been a little (a LOT) intimidating to me - with good reason: Landscapes are very open to "artistic interpretation" and creative liberties, but people are acutely aware of what they look like (or *think* they look like!). Getting the skin tones, features and flaws "just so" as to enhance, but not overstep the bounds of reality requires a bit of 'voodoo magic' that takes lots of practice to reliably master. Subtlety and a light touch seem to be the #1 skill in this realm.
Diving right in.....
Ivan: Very natural approach. Got her face out of the dark without the background glaring at us. Whatever you did, helped the red in her face and ever so slightly smoothed her appearance. Very nice. This was the subtlety that I was speaking of.
mixalis_kalymnos1611: "cine look" - you did a great job of getting that throughout the entire frame. You can see you worked to keep the background from being over done whilst still maintaining the "cine" ambiance. Gave us here in the Seattle area a dose of warm sun. Great job with the crop too. Gives it a "pro" feel. The whites on her eyes just have a little too much "pop" for me in this case, though.
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I hear you on the monitor calibration - I'm sure it's even more important than ever for good portrait processing. And color profiles - another reminder to us all - use the correct profile for the final use - export in sRBG for web use like this can make a huge difference! - Thank you for the reminders!!
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mariwalt: You are a brave soul to switch up the background
Dealing with hair "fly-away" like we have in ths photo is a complete puzzle to me! The "improved selection tools" in PS never seem to cut it I've found... when someone finds the answer - please let us all know! I like the color gradient effect of the second photo as well. Good crop and positioning for the photo.
Andrej: phone - not a sin, you just gave yourself an extra challenge
Using the tools at hand is all part of the game! I actually like the color and vignetting you got for us. The skin might be a tad too smooth, and the eyes are a bit unnaturally white - if there was a way to tone those down a bit, this would be really quite nice.
stevejo: you also went with a sunnier look for Lucy. Sunning her up a bit is great, but I think it may have been helpful to use the effect throughout the rest of the frame. Her hair seems a bit dull without the same "sun" as on her face. Thanks for not going overboard on the eyes, and kudos for some blemish touch up. Nice crop - I like the balance and positioning in the frame.
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Thoughts on blemish touch-up - only a couple of you caught the bruise on her arm, and a few of you went for the "beauty marks" as well. There are a lot of approaches to "should I zap this out or not?" when doing portraits. I've always went with the "will this still be there long after the photo was taken?" approach to correction. Bruises, pimples, little boo-boo scratches - fine to go. I've kept the freckles and moles in. Orthodontia stayed in high-school photos, even though we had the option to PS them out. Where do folks think we should draw the line??
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tuggie76: Merry Christmas! I absolutely adore the Christmas theme! (She must have snuck off to AUS to be in that summer top for xmas LOL - jealous!) All three are good renderings. I like the color tones and vignetting in the background. Maybe just a tad too far with the eyes again. ( It seems to be a reoccuring theme) The B&W seems to meld a little better w/ the very bright white eyes - the green makes them more obvious.
savoche: as Ivan said - "you have a good approach to color". I think of all the warmer- toned versions, yours is the most natural and balanced. It might have used just a tad more brighness in the face, but overall a very, very nice entry.
Tas: 5 Lucies! I'm glad they're just pictures - she's hard to keep up with as-is! LOL All lovely versions. I notice that the B&W helps a lot with the otherwise distracting background. Glad you got a chance to play around with some new software - it looks like it does a great job - no obvious over-doing it that I can see.
tmlawes: I like your crop & positioning - it gives some "breathing room" in the picture, while still helping to clear the clutter. Another very nice, very natural approach to the photo
todd: some more warm entries - looks good, you've got even color temp throughout the photo, restrained background highlights. - I'm thinking I prefer the second one, as it highlights her face a bit more. (but not so light you completely lose the light-directional shadow stage right. Nice smoothing and eye-treatment too.
noelcmn: another nice three entries. I like that you embraced the rosy cheeks! I think her hair actually looks the most defined in your versions too - together they hint at a much more playful side of Lucy than some of the other entries. Your b&W (second entry) really gets me too - her gaze seems so realistic, it's like she's right there with you. Cool! Thank you !
graeme83: nice b&W film look! This version of Lucy is very nice indeed! I'm a big fan of careful use of that effect too. I know it can be over-done and trendy sometimes, (is VSCO dead yet ?LOL) but you managed to get a great balance for a timeless look on your version. And yes... it really does help with the background too. ( I've often used it for automotive shots where busy carshows make terrible backgrounds - a little gentle masking to retain foregound contrast works a treat!).
jmacias: our last two color versions - you've embraced the warm side of the day in a balanced fashion- without taking it as far as some of the other entries. A way more realistic "summer in Washington state" version for sure. As with the other entries, the greeness of our surroundings can be a bit tricky to deal with - getting the balance of warm, with the grass coming through as bright yellow is a challenge for all! I like the first one a bit better, as her face seems a bit smoother in it, while still retaining the 7 year old at play look.
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OK - this was a LOT to go through! First, for my sanity's sake, I'll break it down into categories for finalists.
B&W: between Tas's first B&W and graeme83's film look - both equally well done - have to give this category graeme83 - his version provides for a bit more separation of subject & background.
Color - super warm beachy look: todd's second version hits all the marks in this category
Color - natural: bewteen savoche's slightly warm, natural version and Tas's second color - vignetted version. Giving it to Tas, as the lighter expoure in the face is giving Lucy the focus here.
From there - I'm going to pick Tas as our final winner for PP352!
I appreciate everyone's participation (and patience!) - I'm so happy to see such grand participation in the PPC again.
Turning it over to Tas...
thanks,
~~Laurie