I took this in Edinburgh, July last year, in the Princes Street gardens. My mother was out with me while I was taking advantage of the beautiful day, testing out my Finepix camera which I had only recently bought. I was shooting flowers when I spotted her looking up at a singing blackbird; I thought she looked beautiful and I loved the light, so I snapped her. I think this is one of the best shots I've ever managed, despite the sun glare and the fact that her face is kinda shadowed.
Edit: Crop, resize, brightness/contrast using levels, burned the bright spot on the grass a little, some hue tweaking, denoise and sharpen.
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oh sorry but this is not so good for portrait... the angle, and the light too...
doesnt do for me in this challenge just two ... and pls dont take it personally ;D
I like this as a portrait. The background could be a little more out of focus, but is still pretty good.
I think the colour balance is a bit off.
I loaded it into photoshop and opened the colour balance tool. There I added +40 to Red and -10 to blue and I think it looks better.
you managed quite well given the strong lighting. Hope your image does not penalize you too much for the burnt out highlights. Normally a little is tolerated, 6
Nice portrait. Pity that her face is in the shade. You have the light coming from behind. Always better to use a flash in such a situation or position your subject so that the light is behind you. Even then a flash is recommended to get rid of the shadows.
Recently I've been watching a TV show called "Lie to Me" which deals with microexpressions, so forgive me if I'm way off here: brows furrowed, apparent smile but the corners of the mouth are turned down...it's almost as though the subject is only pretending to be happy about whatever she is looking at. Backlighting is nice, DOF is appropriate, composition is good, looking off-frame creates interest. Still, the facial expression leads me to believe she's either watching a wedding she doesn't approve of or has seen someone she once was very close to while at a funeral.
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