Rasta Portrait

[Just Dave]

Hi

A candid from our day at the Big Drum Day, Astley Hall Walled Garden Astley Park Chorley Lancashire, C+C Welcome Thanks for looking



Exif Canon 400D, 1/500 Sec, F5.6, ISO 800, Focal Length 55mm

Dave

[ABERS]

Great picture. Would make a great mono.

[krennon]

Agree with Abers great shot and I reckon a conversion to mono with some judicious Dodge & Burn could really make this shot. Nice capture.

[picsfor]

it is sad indictment that as good as the shot is - it really has mono written all over it.

This really does have the look of a pre-processed Abers picture as well...

[Just Dave]

Many thanks Andrew, Keith and Abers, I saw him from across the green, I went over taking shots with my 150-550mm lens,as I got closer I then changed to my 18-55mm, just wished I have stuck the 50mm 1.8 on really, when I eventual spoke to him he was a really nice chap, he just couldn't understand why I wanted to take his photo,I told he was a very interesting guy, he was just laughing, turned out good for me as in the series of shots he looks so relaxed, I did a really quick mono version, please feel free to have a go yourselves I would be interested to see others techniques Edit oops forgot a faint vignette and to tne down the white blob near his left arm, so Ill add the extra image





Dave

[anglefire]

My 2 minute edit.

[ABERS]

Working on the premise it's always the face that's important I always think the background is superflous.

A few minutes fiddling around leads me to this

[alan1572]

Working on the premise it's always the face that's important I always think the background is superflous.

A few minutes fiddling around leads me to this

that's some good fiddling, great work

[nickt]

This is my humble attempt.

[Just Dave]

Good edits guys, not sure about the black BG one though, but it is a good bit of selecting PPing

[ABERS]

Backgrounds are always a point of discussion and are really a matter of personal choice. However when it is as distracting as the one behind the Rasta Man with large areas of blocked out white my immediate reaction is to get rid of it altogether, after all the face is the thing you want to show viewers.

I've been messing about recently trying to match people with backgrounds, either wildly disparate or complementary. Not as a 'new' discovery in PS, but totally new for me trying to expand my PS skills. So the two images below are a before and after exercise.





Same lady, different frame.

Perhaps our Rasta friend could benefit from it?

[bones615]

Great shot, looks better B&W.

@Abers. How did you cut him out from the background, I spent hours trying with the lasoo tool on a pic of my niece but the hair outside her face was impossible & i gave up in the end. A link to an idiots guide would be useful as I am not great with PS.

Simon

[ABERS]

Great shot, looks better B&W.

@Abers. How did you cut him out from the background, I spent hours trying with the lasoo tool on a pic of my niece but the hair outside her face was impossible & i gave up in the end. A link to an idiots guide would be useful as I am not great with PS.

Simon

Nothing too involved. Just 'magic wanded' around him and adjusted + or - where his whiskers were and feathered it a little, ten filled the area with solid colour balck. It's not too refined, some whiskers are blacked out by his chin, but I didn't spend too much time on it.

[Just Dave]

Thanks Simon, dont know if you use CS5 or not heres a easy tut on Compositing and Selecting Hair in Photoshop CS5 Clicky Linky

[bones615]

Thanks guys, Dave the video makes it look easy but I only have Photoshop CS so i guess its the hard way or not at all.