This is my friend and co-worker Stephanie. This image was taken in our office on a light table with a black backdrop. I'm not good at portrait photography but I hope this one makes up for the lack luster performance I've had in portraiture. We took so many photos and I really thank Stephanie for being so patient with me. This image by far stands out to me than the rest. I have so many favorites from the set but this is a bit different and hopefully folks would consider this a portrait.
Shot in RAW and converted with RSE. Multiple adjustment layers for the eyes, skin, lips. Ran though NI @ 10%. No crop here. This is the full frame and just resized. Saved for web. This image was shot with Meera's 100mm macro. This marks the second challenge I've used this lens. I definitely have to have this beauty of a lens in my bag. Thanks Meera!
I might be going up against Kiwiness or Judi on this challenge. Both are GREAT portrait photographers. Both are professionals. Yikes! I just hope to finish within 20 places of them and hopefully above a 6. This looks like my last hurrah for Achoo's League of Death. It was fun and I've definitely pushed my skills beyond my usual ;) Great job Doc!
Good luck all! Cheers!
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Post Challenge Well I knew it. Facing Gary is next to impossible! Anyway, I had a fun shoot for this one and I am glad that it did very well in the challenge considering portraits are not my strong suit.
For those that commented that I seemed to have overdone it with NI, guess again. Stephanie's skin is really that smooth and clear. The perfect model for portraits if I may say so ;)
Thanks for all the comments and the vote of confidence that this image would take a top 10 place or even possibly ribbon. It was definitely a thrill and I lost to a very, very worthy opponent. Congrats Gary!
Outtakes
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Place: 11 out of 199 Avg (all users): 6.7564 Avg (commenters): 8.1923 Avg (participants): 6.3874 Avg (non-participants): 7.0061 Views since voting: 4041 Views during voting: 599 Votes: 275 Comments: 49 Favorites: 8 (view)
Great shot. I love how you included her reflection. Let me get this straight, the lighting was from a light table. Did you use any reflectors, or just that? Is the reflection surface just the glass on top of the light then?
Congratulations Rikki. A really splendid portrait. Though I didn't get how the title relates to the image, and at the end didn't care because this is a wonderfully composed and lit shot.
I think this is a nice image Rikki and what can I say about this beautiful model? The composition is lovely along with the lighting. I find it odd that when someone first uses a post processing program or technique like Neat Image everyone wonders in amazement, then after most people know what it is or how to use it it's considered a hindrance. I realize that you didn't use NI but the fact that your model's skin is so beautiful here may have hurt your score. Isn't that ironic?
This is one of the very few images I scored lower than the group. I only gave it a 6. I review images scored lower than the group to see what I overlooked and most of the time the group is right.
Image composition here is fantastic, especially with the hair and reflection. Lighting and color are basically good. But a couple technical issues were bothersome. The whiteness of the eyes seems unnatural. Focus on your model is in that never, never land where it is not soft enough to be considered artistically soft focused but not quite sharp enough to be considered in best focus. The ear ring draws strong attention to this fact. The reflection in the mirror (a very nice touch I might add) appears to be in better focus than your model. That should be the other way around.
Love this Rikki, especially the pose allowing us to visually see her reflection as well.....I am so proud of you, as this is a great image, well done.....
Sooo you beat me by .005. LMAO!!! You can't get much closer than that. But anyways...fantastic job for someone who was really panicking with this challenge in the beginning.
I love the eyes, the color, the reflection alot, however I want to turn my head sideways to "get a better look" if thats the effect your aiming for then way to go!
first of all, that is such a lovely face!
I like the warm and serene feeling about this photo.
sorry I'm not that good with the technicals, but I find the lighting perfect.
8 - Very nice. The gaze in the reflection works well. Not sure how easy focal-wise it would be to do (still retaining the reflection), but a little more skin/eyes/hair detail may have made this even better in my opinion. Wonder about it flipped horizontally, but I don't think it'd work the same, who knows.
Super image and I do like the idea with the reflection. The processing looks good, the skin tones come over well, the composition and lighting is very fitting, and I love the flow of her hair. Only something about the eyes gets me though, I am not too sure what it is though, maybe it is the whites that are too white and have lost their detail. Yep that is it, especially the bottom eye, it is too white, there should be more shadow there. My guess is this will be top ten though for sure.
Very cool! I love that in her relection, the eye is looking right at the camera. A subtle element that makes this great. The picture looks like it could have been a bit sharper (just barely). Great job! -8
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