My favorite model

[Mitchell]

Playing with natural light today with my daughter. Any thoughts?

mitch

[Mitchell]

or this one

[tmlphoto]

They are both very nice, but I prefer the pose in the first one. The light on her face is wonderful, with very nice catchlights in her eyes and very soft light on her face. My only suggestion would be to use the highlight /shadow feature to recover some of the detail in her hair. I tried it on the first one and found I could use a fairly strong setting and still get a natural look. I use this alot for portraits of people with fairly dark hair. Very nice work. Thanks for sharing.

[Angelo]

two really nice shots but I prefer #1. everything about it is interesting, especially her expression. nice job :thumb

[SusanB]

Playing with natural light today with my daughter. Any thoughts?

mitch
Lovely portrait:thumb Super colors, expression and composition. A bit soft maybe?:dunno I usually think that it is a dof issue but have read a bit that sometimes it is holding back on sharpening that also can contribute to the softer look. That said tho', I like the overall soft tone of the portrait. So, go figure!:scratch

Susan

[Mitchell]

Lovely portrait:thumb Super colors, expression and composition. A bit soft maybe?:dunno I usually think that it is a dof issue but have read a bit that sometimes it is holding back on sharpening that also can contribute to the softer look. That said tho', I like the overall soft tone of the portrait. So, go figure!:scratch

Susan
I did soften them a bit, but tried to leave the eyes sharp. I went back and forth on whether or not to soften. I love the opinions here on this topic. Softening is still something that I'm not quite sure when and how to use.

mitch

[bkriete]

I like 'em both...the first one looks a little mysterious - the "Mitchell Lisa!"

[Mitchell]

They are both very nice, but I prefer the pose in the first one. The light on her face is wonderful, with very nice catchlights in her eyes and very soft light on her face. My only suggestion would be to use the highlight /shadow feature to recover some of the detail in her hair. I tried it on the first one and found I could use a fairly strong setting and still get a natural look. I use this alot for portraits of people with fairly dark skin. Very nice work. Thanks for sharing.
Thanks, Thomas. Do you just use highlight/shadow on selected areas (hair)? Or do you create a separate layer and do the whole thing?

By the way, I am a great admirer of your work.

mitch

[Mitchell]

They are both very nice, but I prefer the pose in the first one. The light on her face is wonderful, with very nice catchlights in her eyes and very soft light on her face. My only suggestion would be to use the highlight /shadow feature to recover some of the detail in her hair. I tried it on the first one and found I could use a fairly strong setting and still get a natural look. I use this alot for portraits of people with fairly dark skin. Very nice work. Thanks for sharing.Thanks for the tip, Thomas.
What do you think of this? Too much?

mitch

[tmlphoto]

Thanks for the tip, Thomas.
What do you think of this? Too much?

mitch
Looks good. I usually just use highlight/shadow on the entire picture and adjust the width to effect only the tones I'm interested in. If you have similar tones and you only want to change one area I think you could select the area of interest and apply it only to that area. Thanks for the nice comment about my pics.

[ginger_55]

I like the first one. Just in my humble opinion, the smile in the second one doesn't look quite real.

Although I do have a dog who smiles just like that, and my daughter, Julie, she had a Shetland Sheepdog whose smile was like that but worse.

On softening. I like your photos. I would never leave the pupils softened, probably not the lips, eyebrows or hair. She is a child, so I would tone the softening down. Or think of the occasion or impression you want to give.

I like what you did very much.

ginger

[Yuri Pautov]

Playing with natural light today with my daughter. Any thoughts?

mitch
Fantastic 'model', Mitchell!
If only you could add some space to the left side of the photo...
What were the settings? They seem to be a bit blured...
Anyway - I like the first one better!
Spasibo,
Yuri

[Mitchell]

Fantastic 'model', Mitchell!
If only you could add some space to the left side of the photo...
What were the settings? They seem to be a bit blured...
Anyway - I like the first one better!
Spasibo,
YuriYuri, thank you for your insights. I do admire your portrait work and appreciate your comments. I tried to add some room on the left and did not soften this one at all. Any better?

[Yuri Pautov]

Yuri, thank you for your insights. I do admire your portrait work and appreciate your comments. I tried to add some room on the left and did not soften this one at all. Any better?
For me - yes!
Yuri