Late last night

[BigNicG]

Shot this late the other night as we were talking. Caught her off guard with no makeup and poor lighting. Did very minimal PP other than the B&W conversion and cropping it. I hope for more help than I got last time. Hundreds of views and no critiques.

 

[Marcel]

She seems to be very nice but I don't think the picture does justice to her. The picture is way too flat (not enough contrast) and there seems to be area that were washed out (her nose is completely white). For good black and white, there should be a good gradation from the darkest to the lightest. Here, I only see pale grey and dark grey. There is no black.

But, this is only my opinion. I hope you get more than mine.

 

[ohkphoto]

I agree with Marcel.

Also, the neck folds are distracting and I will bet anything that it's the first thing she sees when she looks at this photo.

Her eyes are beautiful and the expression is very nice. I would try a little post processing in Lightroom, if you have it. Reduce the exposure and clarity (to put some softness in), then use the paint tool to up the clarity in the eyes again. I would also put a slight post-crop dark vignette well-feathered to draw more attention to the eyes and away from the neck folds.

 

[fotojack]

Yup, I have to agree with Marcel and Helene, too. Way too pale and white, and yes, the neck folds are too distracting, not to mention unflattering for a woman. Guys don't care about these things, but women do.

 

[BigNicG]

Thanks for the advice, I will run it through again. I was having trouble with her skin tones because the original was overexposed and it was causing some blotches when I tried to darken her skin a little.