Head Shot Troubles

[jfrancho]

What can you do with this one? I'm not worried about it being perfect, but if you want a larger version, PM me and I'll send you one.



My result is posted here: http://www.photocamel.com/index.php/...html#msg110057.

[macmaam]

Now that i've had a play with it, i can go check yours out.

[jfrancho]

Don't get too fancy with the crop. I should have laid out the silly "Headshot Ground Rules." Basically all they wanted was head and shoulders centered in the frame, in black and white, with a white background. Really fun huh?

Anyway, the crop isn't really important for this, since the trouble is in the areas you addressed as well. I do like that you croped out the American Eagle logo on the shirt. I see you went for the irises. I have a hell of a time with eyeballs. Nice job zapping the zits. The skin may be a little too smoothed out for my taste, but it's your interpretation, so it's still a nice job. Those bags were a nobrainer, too. Did you use the patch tool, or clone them?

[macmaam]

I admit, i went a little over the top with this, and didn't take time to do it well. For the bags, actually, i painted over them on another layer, and then adjusted the opacity. I see, now that i take another look, that the catchlights got a little carried away, too. Skin was just a blurred layer, with a mask over the details, so it could easily be toned down. Oh, i also did a bit of liquefying on the eyes, and painted in a better haircut--a lot of techniques i wouldn't normally use, at least to this extreme, but it was fun.

Don't suppose you can talk them out of a centered crop? They nearly always look like mug shots!

An easy trick for catchlights (which i didn't use here) is to set the brush to fade in a few steps.

[craftysnapper]

Had a play with it in PSE5

[kgphoto]

WOW !

[MorningDusk]

Well done Peano! What an amazing difference!