USM 40/0.3
USM 0.8 0.1 X3
Levels (increase detail in shadows),
brightness, contrast
Enhanced highlights on face
Darkened rest of the image with curves
brightened eye
Statistics
Place: 104 out of 271 Avg (all users): 5.5789 Avg (commenters): 6.2500 Avg (participants): 5.3095 Avg (non-participants): 5.7178 Views since voting: 1268 Views during voting: 327 Votes: 247 Comments: 11 Favorites: 2 (view)
Greetings from the Critique Club: I have been assigned your photo to critique and here are my thoughts:
Personal Reaction: My initial reaction to your photo was very positive. Good looking model. Thoughtful pose. Very good photo.
Composition: Composition is excellent. It really brings attention to the eye, and then to the rest of the face. The shoulder in the background diminishes this a bit. I am sure it is an optical illusion, but the shoulder looks folded forward unnaturally, almost like it is someone else’s shoulder. A bit distracting.
Technicals: Lighting is excellent. Good DoF although blurring the shoulder a bit more might have helped, either with shallower DoF or with Gaussian blur. Color is interesting. There is a bit of a color cast. I am wondering if it would be better with a conversion to B&W. And if possibly subsequent conversion to Sepia would have strengthened it. A third possibility would be to use a Hue/Saturation layer and take out a little bit of yellow. I don’t have the original to play with but you might try that.
Conclusions: Excellent image. It’s publication or advertising worthy and deserved a higher score than it received in my opinion. Color cast and shoulder treatment probably cost you 1-2 points in voting. You are pretty new to DPC. I hope you will remain an active participant. I like you style and would like to see more of it.
As always, this is my personal opinion. Feel free to PM me if you’d like further dialog.
I love the drama in this... love the shadows, the contrasts and the mood: I just find it too orange/red and leaning to the warm glow saturation...hints of "morning and a new day, and hope etc as opposed to loss and the coldness of despair...but that's just a personal respones...nothing to do with technical insights :)
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