Another friend in soft light

[Thiago Sigrist]

Hello again, folks!

You might remember one of my shots from an earlier post, which was a portrait of a smiling friend. (http://www.dgrin.com/showthread.php?t=4408)

Well, here she is again! Now I shot her in this very soft light, under the trees. Here's how the picture came out:

http://www.ic.unicamp.br/%7Era002560/greyce01.jpg

I tried to achieve a really crisp look, so I used sharpening selectively on her eyes, lips and everything else that was in focus. I used agressive amounts, don't remember what the number was exactly, and a radius of about 0.5.

The rest of processing (which I did BEFORE the sharpening) was basically local contrast enhancement, using Unsharp Mask with the settings 20, 60, 0. Also used a 'soft light' adjustment layer with 35% opacity and boosted saturation +12.

An additional trick regarding sharpness is the way I scaled my picture down to 532x800. I used 'Bicubic' interpolation on PS, and after resizing I applied extra Unsharp Mask with a radius of 0.1 and an amount of around 100. I found that does the 'crisp trick' for me. :-)

So... what do you guys think of it? :-)

Thanks in advance for all your attention!

-- thiago

[GREAPER]

I like it. There seems to be some loose hair that could use some cleanin up.

[4labs]

Thnxs for sharing how you came up with such a wonderful result.

[Khaos]

Nice bokeh. I would think about softening a little to work with the complexion (forehead and cheeks), and I agree that using the clone tool in PS to remove the loose hair on the face. The eyes and lips do look very good. Nice job.

[Thiago Sigrist]

Hey friends!

Took your advice and removed some of the stray hairs on her face (I replaced the original picture with the new one). This looks like a real improvement to my eyes! What do you guys think?

Thanks so much for the lovely compliments and for pointing that out: the hairs sure were distracting elements... :):

Take care!

-- thiago

[moti]

Hey Thiago,
This is a beautiful portrait for which you have captured the feelings and expression of a person in a lovely way.
I started to post in dgrin recently and I'm very glad to find you here.
I still remember the wonderful pictures you took last year on children's day in Brazil.
Cheers :D
Moti

[Yuri Pautov]

Great photo, thiago!
Like the sharpness and colors. The only thing that bothers me - the composition. Ithink that a more close-up crop will be better here. Maybe its only me, but I feel that her head is draw into her shoulders... That is because of the angle of taking shot, I think. Besides I don't think that background here playes any role to the composition, just as her shoulders and bust. You know I mean eyes - in case of more close cropping much more attention will be payed for her wonderful eyes!

What do you think?

[lynnma]

Lovely girl and lovely eyes.. I have to totally agree with Yuri here.. she does look a little "hunched up" with her shoulders. I love the crisp eyes, I'm noticing still that her hair is unruly on top and that destracts me a bit.. To me, if she was more three quarters with her head turned towards the camera.. but I'm not expert thats for sure.. what a great subject can you do more??:clap

[Michiel de Brieder]

cripy crispy crispy!!!!
Thiago my friend, again you have managed to shoot a beautiful woman! I must say you really do her justice with this photo :bow
I'm very anti-rules in this case, and I really regret not having seen the version with more unruly hair :D I love unruly hair, it makes the person more person, if you get what I mean :D
:1drinkthanks for sharing!

[JimFuglestad]

Hi Thiago,

The light here is wonderful. I love selective sharpening, especially the eyes. For portraits I really like a shallow depth of field... even throughout the subject, as that would further draw attention to the eyes and lips.

Nice photo of a pretty girl!

Jim

[canonguy]

Dude,

YOu got a great pic of a gorgeous girl. Your sharpening efforts paid off termendously.

[Thiago Sigrist]

Guys and gals, that's really a lot of feedback! :):

I'll be brief but I'll respond to you all...

Moti: Hey, now *I* am glad to see you here! I see you're doing pretty fine with your new camera, so keep us posted! :D

Yuri and Lynn: I understand exactly what you mean! Since this was the first photo from the shoot, I still hadn't tried to get closer or work the compo more, but I really liked this photo because of her expression! However, your desire to see her closer-up is an order, so stay tuned for my newer post! :):

Michiel: Thanks so much for your lovely compliments! Worry not because of the unruly hairs, because the only ones I removed were the ones that covered her eyes and lips, therefore being distracting in my opinion. :D

Jim: Thanks a lot! I remember some portraits you shot, back when you were testing a Sigma cam if I'm not mistaken, and they were pretty cool because of the very shallow DOF that drew attention to the girl's nice eyes! I love that as well! :thumb

canonguy: Hi man! Thanks a lot for your compliments! I'm really a sharpening freak so I always spend a lot of time trying to get the most detail from my shots!

Thanks so much for all the attention!

-- thiago