My wife, listening to conversation at the table. I don't expect this to do well as the subject isn't interactive with the camera (I'm expecting quite a few comments on that). Really just a candid/snapshot.
post work done in Capture NX:
Some LCH adjustment.
Color enhancements
Some Gaussian blur (my first use of it ever...)
It's an okay shot. I need to get more serious about the challenges though. I'm too nonchalant. I'm guessing in the low 5 range, as it really isn't a "popper" nor well conceived for a portrait.
Post Challenge Comments:
NOTE to SELF, don't post-process. Thought it wasn't that good of a picture anyhow. I'd show an out-take but it is fairly similar to my FreeStudy.
Statistics
Place: 272 out of 366 Avg (all users): 4.9726 Avg (commenters): 4.8000 Avg (participants): 4.6471 Avg (non-participants): 5.1791 Views since voting: 814 Views during voting: 312 Votes: 219 Comments: 14 Favorites: 0
Your wife is very pretty and has a beautiful natural smile. You did not need to blur her out lol. It's a very good candid and the lighting is very nice as well. Good luck on the free study shot!
Jason, I think the gausian blur hurt this photo. Your wife has a beautifully natural expression and a very winning smile. When I first looked at it I couldn't understand why her face was in focus and the rest of her body was not.
I think gausian blur can help a subject stand out from a distracting background, and it can help smooth skin, when used very lightly, but surface blur is better for skin smoothing. But in this case the blur becomes the distracting element.
I'd love to see this excellent shot reprocessed. The lighting is nice.
A pleasing portrait let down by heavy use of post-processing. The Gaussian blur isn't convincing - bits that should be in focus, that would have been on the same plane as the face, aren't. Go back to your original, treat it with a very gentle hand, and I am convinced you will have a portrait you and your model will wish to keep for posterity.
looks like a low aperature was used. Maybe try a tripod next time with a higher aperature. the only thing in focus is her eyes. - that may be a good effect if the picture was only of her eyes.
I find it a bit distracting to have a strip of her face in focus, but not anything else, especially what appears to be a vertical strip. Perhaps if it were more horizontal so that her eyes were both very focused, it wouldn't be as distracting.
Add photograph to your favorites
Add photographer to your favorites
Photographer found comment helpful.
