Beth

[kevinobrien]

According to all the rules this is how not to photograph a young lady. Lighting from below the sitter to her right. I also manipulated the image in Photoshop to create a softer look. I actually like it myself but it will be interesting to find out your opinions please.

[Marko]

Lovely portrait and pp work.
When the lady is gorgeous, many rules can be broken.

[Iguanasan]

First you know the rules and then you can break them. You broke them very well here. My only niggle with this one is that your PP work on her cheeks seems a bit overdone. To me, I can almost see the "brush strokes" if you got me... Gaussian blur? Love the catch lights in her eyes though and Mark is right, she's a very pretty lady.

[Runmonty]

Nice shot Kevin. Nicely composed and I love the eyes. The B & W works well. The low lighting gives an intimate feel to the image and due to the direction reminds me of shots taken by candlelight.

[kevinobrien]

Thanks for the critique Iguanasan. Your right I did create a layer and use gaussian blur then brushed back parts of the image. I actually thought her eyes were to sharp but she preferred it and insisted I keep it that way. until this shot i didn't really mess with my clients portraits and I still am very wary to do so now. I think by changing things your removing part of the atmosphere you have created during the shoot. It's different to my fine-art work, with that I have a really good idea what I want before I actually take the image then work on it to produce that effect.

[Jason]

Nicely done, Kevin! I agree with Iguanasan about the softness in the cheek--maybe just a bit more transition to the blur--and that is just a matter of taste. You nailed this!