Hey Larry, Hmmmm, see, for me, I almost ALWAYS shoot as wide open as possible with portraits, without sacrificing quality, depending upon which lens I am using. I frequently shoot my FA 50mm/1.7 (my favourite lens!) on about f2.8-3.5 for portraits (any wider and it is a little soft). I like to use DOF creatively, and never move my focus point from anything but the centre, choosing to use focus lock to do this, rather than AF points. I always shoot IN focus, especially the eyes. Any softening that I wish to do, I do it after the fact in PS to avoid any of those focus "misfires". It really sucks when you think you have "the" shot, only to find that it is out of focus after the fact. You can always soften skin, but you can't recreate lost focus.
I LOVE really sharp, deep textured portraiture. I also LOVE smooth, creamy skin, but usually in babies/kids. The old days of "soft", glamour type focus are so passé and make images look so dated, I have rarely seen it used in portraiture or commercially these days, and never to good effect anyways. Using the Patch tool or the Spot Healing Brush tool will give you much more natural results in PS and allow you to be more selective than an over all, soft focus or blur effect anyways. I say, hit that focus, and play with it afterwards if you choose to. Looking at your first set (4 years ago), these look to me to be out of focus (this could also be the low resolution), but the new set, have great depth, texture and character, primarily due to the tack sharp focus. But, to be honest, I'm not loving the hair tossing thing. That is totally just a personal preference though. HTH! Tan. :) -----Original Message----- From: pdml-boun...@pdml.net [mailto:pdml-boun...@pdml.net] On Behalf Of Peter Loveday Sent: Tuesday, 28 December 2010 7:47 AM To: Pentax-Discuss Mail List Subject: Re: Facebook discussion on sharpness in portraits To me that's a relatively useless generalisation. There are times you want a softer look in nature and many times you want a sharp look in portraits. Sure if you're trying to hide someone's age, you can blur it a bit (not really any need to use vaseline or a diffusion filter these days), but more often than not I'd rather reveal the detail, the character, of the subject. It all comes down to opinion and style at the end of the day, but really I think you have to assess the subject and the purpose of the photo. No bride wants to look wrinkly on their wedding day, of course. But a grandmother and baby in sharp focus can provide a wonderful textural contrast, or an old bushman with a wonderful face formed by years of experiences can give such a sense of character. I'm sure you know this, but for the sake of the conversation.. "Soft Focus" is also, to me, a slightly misleading term. What you don't want is for the subject (esp. eyes) to be out of focus and something else in focus... it just looks unintentional and unprofessional. If you must, a diffused look is preferable to an incorrect focus look. Where possible I prefer to use lighting to soften, or indeed harden, such details too, rather than making a soft photo. - Peter -----Original Message----- From: Larry Colen Sent: Tuesday, December 28, 2010 3:06 AM To: Pentax-Discuss Mail List Subject: Facebook discussion on sharpness in portraits I posted a link in facebook to some photos of Zab that I took during the photo shoot of Matthew: http://www.flickr.com/photos/ellarsee/sets/72157625554834337/ which I think are a big improvement over photos I took of her on Boxing day four years previously: http://www.red4est.com/lrc/pix/efllrc061226/ This has led to a discussion on sharpness in portraits, or as someone said: Sharp focus for nature, soft focus for portraits. I'd love to hear people's views on this subject. If you're able to weigh in there, the link is: http://www.facebook.com/ellarsee/posts/128415210554550 -- Larry Colen l...@red4est.com sent from i4est -- PDML Pentax-Discuss Mail List PDML@pdml.net http://pdml.net/mailman/listinfo/pdml_pdml.net to UNSUBSCRIBE from the PDML, please visit the link directly above and follow the directions. -- PDML Pentax-Discuss Mail List PDML@pdml.net http://pdml.net/mailman/listinfo/pdml_pdml.net to UNSUBSCRIBE from the PDML, please visit the link directly above and follow the directions. -- PDML Pentax-Discuss Mail List PDML@pdml.net http://pdml.net/mailman/listinfo/pdml_pdml.net to UNSUBSCRIBE from the PDML, please visit the link directly above and follow the directions.
