Headshot to beatup

[SFJ Photography]

Shot this today at a local get together of about 60+ photogs. I shot it at f11, 1/200, @ iso 100. Used a 5' octobox and a reflector to her left.

[PhotosbyChuck]

No beating from me -- she has great eyes and your B&W conversion is excellent!

[jestersncourt]

I'm definitely not one to beat any headshot up, but I would like to see her skin smoothed a little bit more... especially on the forehead. It just seems to me that there is some uneven look about it.

Jeff

necessary photo:

[SFJ Photography]

Thanks you the critique guys. I didn't smooth out her skin because I think she has great skin and the few flaws she did have the light hid very well. I only smooth skin when the client asks for as I just hate the the look. What can I say, i'm an old-fashioned fan of real skin but that's just me.

[koisanke]

I think they both are great. I really like the way the first one sets up.

[R_Fredrick_Smith]

Originally Posted by SFJ Photography

Thanks you the critique guys. I didn't smooth out her skin because I think she has great skin and the few flaws she did have the light hid very well. I only smooth skin when the client asks for as I just hate the the look. What can I say, i'm an old-fashioned fan of real skin but that's just me.

Just by way of discussion, I wonder if a very subtle skin softening might not help the photo a bit. Here is a fast 10 second example snip:



What do you all think?

Cheers,
rfs

[SFJ Photography]

This I like, it's not overdone. If you don't mind my asking what kind of steps did you take here? I just about never smooth out skin, my typical skin doctoring involves the clone tool to fix problem areas. I don't have much experiance with skin smoothing like I see alot of in the glamour/fashion industry. I've tried a few techniques which were based on blur and I didn't care for how they came out.

[R_Fredrick_Smith]

Originally Posted by SFJ Photography

This I like, it's not overdone. If you don't mind my asking what kind of steps did you take here? I just about never smooth out skin, my typical skin doctoring involves the clone tool to fix problem areas. I don't have much experience with skin smoothing like I see alot of in the glamour/fashion industry. I've tried a few techniques which were based on blur and I didn't care for how they came out.

For the example I posted, I used CEP 3.0's Dynamic Skin Softener filter. This package used to be called NIK Color eFex. It has 50 or so filters and a rather fantastic interface that allows lots of variations. It also allows you to set control points to exclude or include various parts of the photo from the effect without having to do masking or selecting. In addition it offers a paint mode where you can apply the effect by painting it just where you want it. For the example of yours I used the paint method (only takes a few seconds once you understand the process).

For more difficult photos where the model has not done a good job with her make-up, I use a set of actions called Photoshop Mama's Powder Actions. This allows you to apply a powder base to the skin and can really work wonders on difficult photos.

Cheers,
rfs