Mother and Daughter

[Craig]

Taken at the same shoot as my shot titled Lily.
Craig

 

[ChrisLumix]

Another brilliant composition! Just one thing though, why do you want things so sharp? Makes the portrait rather harsh in my opinion.

[Leon]

you have the eye for portraits

 

Something I have yet to learn...

[annie]

Yes I love the composition very professional looking, and it's one of those that work in mono for me too.

 

However I am with Chris on the sharpness issue..

[Craig]

Hi guys,

The problem I find is with a portrait its very difficult to get the right mix of softness and pin sharpness in an image.

Some people love a sharp image others like it softer. But I do see where you are coming from though.

The main reason I made sure this image (the original image is a lot sharper, as have lost some through down resolution for the forum) is that the top Lily was wearing is very metallic and having it sharp made it punch out as the original was in colour.

 

Lily and Traci who I did this for have it printed on a large scale print in colour, I do think however I could have done better with the skin tones and smoothing though that's for sure.

 

Thank you for your very valid and constructive comments and as always very much appreciated.
Craig

 

[ChrisLumix]

Hi guys,

The problem I find is with a portrait its very difficult to get the right mix of softness and pin sharpness in an image.

Some people love a sharp image others like it softer. But I do see where you are coming from though.

The main reason I made sure this image (the original image is a lot sharper, as have lost some through down resolution for the forum) is that the top Lily was wearing is very metallic and having it sharp made it punch out as the original was in colour.

 

Lily and Traci who I did this for have it printed on a large scale print in colour, I do think however I could have done better with the skin tones and smoothing though that's for sure.

 

Thank you for your very valid and constructive comments and as always very much appreciated.

Craig

 

 

I do like a minimum level of sharpness in my own pictures, or it all looks a bit blurry. But for portraits, unless you're shooting someone with lots of wrinkles and/or cragginess, it's often preferable to dial the sharpness down - it's more flattering for a start! What you could have done is take the image into Photoshop and apply the Blur tool selectively (with low opacity and a soft brush) on the skin tones. OR you could have done the opposite - apply the Sharpness tool just to the jacket. Though if the original image was very sharp (why? do you have your camera's sharpness turned up to maximum?) the former approach is your only option.

[Martyn]

Love it! A great fun portrait you must all be pleased with. I'm hoping to learn from you as you seem to have the knack with portraits. My only criticism (and it is small) is that I thought I had a spot on my screen until I moved the picture. Along the bottom edge in the white area is a small black object, easily fixed; but I can't help looking at it now I've seen it!

 

 

 

[Craig]

Hi Martyn yes your dead right I totally missed that spot!  
I'll have to clone that bad boy out lol
Craig

[Craig]

Hi Chris,

I see where you are coming from totally, but IMHO its all about degree of softness.
I do however agree with you totally that this shot definitely could have done with some skin smoothing.
Thank you again for the very valid comments and as always they are very much appreciated.

 

Craig

[Craig]

Having taken on board Chris' very valid comments I have decided to revisit this image and softened out the skin tones considerably.
Also... I have removed that annoying black spot at the bottom of the image (thanks Martyn for pointing that bad boy out for me!)
Craig

[NannyFerret]

There is less shine on the skin on your edit, Craig, and the who picture is lovely,  but then, I like the first one as well.
?I think the second one will print nicely though. 

[FUJI]

One hundred percent better......a great portrait.

FUJI

[Craig]

Thank you guys and a special thank you to Chris for putting me on the right track!

[Guest]

I really like that, its a fun image