I do not know enough about PS to make him pop more off the page in basic editing. In colour he did pop, so apart from leaving it in colour and keeing the sepia, how would you do it. I want to learn, so any suggestions would be good!!
Here's all I did:
New layer, fill with white, change blending mode to soft light, set opacity to 14%
Merge Down
Apply USM at 40, 40, 0
Crop
SFW
And that's it. I do think the higher contrast makes him pop a bit more and I cropped out the side of the cactus because I felt it a bit distracting. I hope this helps. ?
I could not do it in pp, at least not under basic, but I think that the use of one or two strobes during the shoot would have helped a lot. Had you put a strobe on a stand behind the cactus and used one (or a reflector) as a fill, I think the model would have popped out (after some trial-and-error). I like to look for sollutions in lighting rather than post processing. That said, I think it's a great pic and a fantastic model.
I could not do it in pp, at least not under basic, but I think that the use of one or two strobes during the shoot would have helped a lot. Had you put a strobe on a stand behind the cactus and used one (or a reflector) as a fill, I think the model would have popped out (after some trial-and-error). I like to look for sollutions in lighting rather than post processing. That said, I think it's a great pic and a fantastic model.
Ohhhhh yeah, speaking of basic editing, my soft light layer is an illegal move (normal blending mode only) BUT the USM was not ;)
[thumb]685651[/thumb]
Not Basic Editing.
IMO, this is an image with great potential. You just need to reshoot it. The problems are not so much the processing, but the set up. The rock looks like a scarp, on which the brave is looking out from. But the cactus is in the way. It either needs to be fully included in the visual story or eliminated. The rock needs to look a bit like it is taller. Perhaps adjust the angle of shot. I like the DOF. It is not an overly contrived shallow depth of field look. The background context is important. I prefer b/w to sepia sometimes since sepia tone can look a bit "new" at times. B/w usually looks timeless. 0.02 cents
I'll be honest with you, I actually only gave the shot a 5 during voting. I thought that the sepia was too strong, maybe pulling that back a little would have helped, also adding some contrast would have helped. It is shot with a lot of potential, and here is a quick edit I did:
Some nice PP hints in this thread, but ultimately I think Camabs was right -- I think you needed more light on the model, even if just from a reflecting board. Anyway, you did very well as is, and I imagine this was fun to shoot!
:-)
