A few people have asked me if I'd do some tutorials on photography and post-processing. I think this is a very cool idea, as long as people are interested
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This is so far over my head it's not even funny. But I understand a little now why your portraits always look so much more "finished" than the studio portraits most people have. Also, I cannot see any difference between the photo in steps 5 and 6. Which is, I suppose, the point ;) The whole process is very subtle.
I love how you explained the reasoning behind what you are trying to do: make a photo look like the eye sees a real person. I never thought about it before. I also understand now why I love the pictures you took of me in a way I've never liked pictures of myself before. I wish I had the capacity to do this sort of processing for my own pictures. I'd have to learn a whole new language though. Lol.
The only thing I've noticed with your photos, and this example in particular, is you make your subjects a little TOO soft-focused and smooth. It makes them look rather dreamy and fake. In step 2, she still looks like a real person. By the end, her skin is too perfect to be realistic.
What you're probably noticing is web compression and size (loss of finer detail due to downsizing) over everything else - as I never, ever use soft focus, and any skin smoothing I do never loses detail like visible pores, hair on the skin, etc... however, none of those things will ever be seen in a photo sized/compressed for the web. Unfortunately, everyone looks smoother here unless someone has put a superbad web sharp action on them.
Though in the end, you may simply have different preferences than I do. :)
Wow, thank you.blackwingedroseSeptember 23 2009, 07:38:58 UTC
This is amazing, Heather! I've never had much practice with portraits (I'm just an amateur who shoots dogs most of the time) and this will seriously help so much with the few portraits that I do get roped into taking. :)
A most helpful and cogent lesson. Do you do any batch processing of whole folders outside of Aperture?
What I think would really be ubercool is to have one of your portraits of your daughter - the almost dreamy ones with the hand-tinted photo look - and go through the steps.
But any gems you pass along are so very much appreciated. Thanks again.
The only batching I do is to put my watermark (using the 'place' command) on my client proofs. :) However, in lightroom I very often "sync" large sections of photos that were taken in the same lighting situations once I've tweaked one how I like it.
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I love how you explained the reasoning behind what you are trying to do: make a photo look like the eye sees a real person. I never thought about it before. I also understand now why I love the pictures you took of me in a way I've never liked pictures of myself before. I wish I had the capacity to do this sort of processing for my own pictures. I'd have to learn a whole new language though. Lol.
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Though in the end, you may simply have different preferences than I do. :)
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A most helpful and cogent lesson. Do you do any batch processing of whole folders outside of Aperture?
What I think would really be ubercool is to have one of your portraits of your daughter - the almost dreamy ones with the hand-tinted photo look - and go through the steps.
But any gems you pass along are so very much appreciated. Thanks again.
Reply
However, in lightroom I very often "sync" large sections of photos that were taken in the same lighting situations once I've tweaked one how I like it.
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You start with a calibrated monitor, I assume?
I learned new things. I like learning new things.
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