Portrait for Learning/Practice - Feedback/Critiques please!
WsCG
Posts: 391
Hey all,
So, I posted this over in the DAZ Studio section. Forgot this forum section is here and thought it's probably a good place to post it. I made a few changes based on feedback there, so merged the original in case anyone wants to see those changes.
This started out as an exercise to work more with posing fingers and hands, etc. Ended up becoming a portrait, with 3-point lighting setup, etc.
Here's the final render. Feedback or critique is appreciated!
Thanks all :)
Daz 3D is part of 
Connect
DAZ Productions, Inc.
7533 S Center View Ct #4664
West Jordan, UT 84084
Licensing Agreement | Terms of Service | Privacy Policy | EULA
© 2024 Daz Productions Inc. All Rights Reserved.
Comments
Hi everyone,
Wanted to ask for some feedback and critique on a render. Basically just practicing with a simple portrait, composition and lighting. Can give feedback on choice of colors for makeup and such, too. I'm a guy, so coordinating makeup colors isn't something I'm terribly familiar with. Tried to keep it classy, though.
I'm using a basic 3-point lighting setup, at least as I understand it (Key, Fill and Rim lights). Not 100% on the brightness of each light.
I think it looks pretty good, but I don't have an experienced eye, so I'd appreciate feedback from more experienced folks, or anyone who'd like to share their thoughts.
I really dig putting together subtle facial details/expressions. It's fun tweaking things enough to make it interesting, but still natural and not exaggerated.
One thing that gave me a bit of trouble, at least to my eye, was the hand on the chin. I had to fuss with that a bit, because it just kept looking like I'd photoshopped it into the picture. It came down to the finger on the cheek being too straight. Had to bend and adjust that a bit. Looks better now, I think.
Anyway! Thanks!
it's simple and elegant.. colors work well together.
---
If you really want to boogle your mind .. go reseach whether your character is a winter, spring, summer or fall ...
---
there are probably more shades of makeup, clothes, and hair coloring then a high def monitor can display.
---
that said squint your eye .. just look at the colors, the shapes, the light patterns.
---
basically this shot is almost enhanced sepia toned photograph, like the old hand tinted black and white
---
look at photos etc.. often the best have a simple color scheme ... fields of spring flowers can have every color of the rainbow but cause that's what the are.
---
might try a little light in the eye to separate the iris from the pupil?
You know, that's a very good point lol.. The sepia tone part.
Truth to tell, I was originally using more varied colors, including in the eyes, but I couldn't find a color combo that I liked - call it a limited pallette. I don't have that much to work with yet. I spent at least 30 minutes trying different combos, but nothing was "clicking". So, I decided to go with a more "monochrome" approach, with everything based on the same/similar color. The eyes were originally a light green, but I almost always work with lighter eye colors, so I decided to go a bit darker. That eye color is just a really really dark brown. I could find a different color that's a little lighter. Else, I'm not sure how to light that so the color would come out more, without adding more light to the whole picture or the irises being covered up with reflection?
Let me see what else I can find if I dig around.
Thank you for the feedback!
Okay, so here's the same exact portrait/pose, but made it less sepia :p
Oh, and added earrings.
Very nice portrait render. I am not sure but there is a huge focus on the hand. The hand almost seems masculine in it bearing due to it's size and brightness. It is the most prominent thing in the render. If this was your intention then it works well. I do like that you did not center the subject too many new artist tend to do this and it is the normal thing to do. Nice black eyes but I would add some imperfectons the skins like wrinkles to make her less of a mannkin. Nice work and I say never be too self critical of your own work! Be childlike and proud of the creative process.
Looks really good -- only nit would be to perhaps change the specular on the lips... looks a little soft.
Hello.
Thanks for the feedback!
The skin is "as-is" from the figure I used (don't remember which it is.. Charlie, I think). Not sure how I would add more wrinkles and such without editing the maps directly. I think that's more than I'd want to do for this particular render.
As for the hand, that's almost incidental. Bascially, the render started out as me messing with the posing to get something more than the "open hand" poses I'd been doing. I wanted something more detailed. So I decided, why not do a pose like I did here, where I could work with the fingers more. As I was going I realized it was looking very portrait-like, so I decided to turn it into one. So, it ended up a portrait, but it didn't really start out that way.
I think if I were to do a pose like this again, I'd have her sitting at a table, with her left elbow resting on it, etc.
Thanks!
Heylo :)
It's cool that you point that out. I started looking into working with materials and shaders today (reallllly slow day at work, so had plenty of time to research). The lips are a bit dull. They're basically how they came "out of the box", and I didn't tweak them at all. I'll work with that and see if I can get them to look a bit glossier.
Thanks!
And voila... Shiny lips...
Was actually kinda funny nailing down the exact parameter to adjust for this. I goofed up the first time and she ended up with plastic-wrapped skin. I don't think she appreciated it.
Anyways.. here we go.
I think I'm gonna take on any further feedback on this for my next projects.
Thanks again!
Hello
I would put the face in the exact middle (right/left) of the picture.
I would also add a background: simple square / brown color / point light very soft to "extract" the hair
looks good
That's a really good portrait. Very nice lighting - lots of depth there with the shadowing, but it's controlled really well so that it's not 'blacked out'. Excellent job, lighting, composition, and posing.
Only thing I'd really suggest would be a backlight, but I assume there's already one there given this is a three-point setup. in which case I'd suggest a stonger one. Personally, I would set it up on the left side of the image, so that it would bring out that locke of hair that's down around her cheek. Nothing overpowering, just enough to make her stand out from the background a bit more. As it stands, that locke of hair, as well as the top of her hair, is fading into the black background. Backlighting will make her 'pop' more. Also, maybe a bit of a larger set of earrings so they catch & reflect more light, as right now they're not very noticeable. I only seen them when I flicked back and forth between this image, and the original.
Excellent job! And going back to the original for comparison, you've made some marked improvements to it, particularly the lips. Keep it up!
Threads Merged
Looks like a decent 3 point lighting setup. In theory you could intensify the rim light to have the figure's hair highlight against the background.
Thanks.
Looks good, although dark hair on the black background is missing something. But it is just my opinion.
I love the shadows on her face and the colour combination of green and red.
In regards to the lighting, as Bastion said, I would increase the rim lighting a little so you have a nice contour from the back.
In regards to the pose itself it doesn't look very natural. Did you have a reference pose you saw that you wanted to replicate? I feels like it is somewhere in between functional and artistic but it is neither.
If you want that hand to kind of support the chin, I think it would go lower on the face, to actually support the chin, if it is something artistic just to look nice, I feel it is missing something.
Also, did you use DoF ? Maybe it's just an optical illusion because I focused on the hand so much but to me it looks like the hand is more in focus than her eyes.
Again, really nice render, these are just my 2 cents in case you want to change something.
Thanks everyone for the comments! :)
The pose kinda came out exactly as I envisioned it. You can't see it, but she'd be resting her jawbone on her thumb. Sometimes I'll sit my hand/arm in that same position. It's how I came to pose it that way. Probably not exactly the way I hold my hand, and the camera angle doesn't really reveal the thumb placement (camera position/angle is something I'm not confident with and really need to work on). So, while it is intentional, there's certainly plenty I could do to improve it so it looks more natural and less "weird".
The rim lighting is another thing I would definitely work on more. I guess it would be better if it were off behind her to her right? I currently have it off behind her to her left.
I won't be making any changes to this particular render. I could continue making tweaks on it forever if I wanted. But I would rather move on and apply what I've learned and advice I've been given to my next project(s).I might return to a similar pose in the future and apply what I've learned by then.
Thanks again everyone :)
I'd adjust the angle of the camera. Her hand is very prominent and almost as large as her head at that angle.
So, I've taken a complete left turn with this.
I've been watching videos on YT about different lighting setups, etc, and was intrigued with all the different interesting things you can do with it, especially with portraits.
So, I've decided to start working on implementing those styles/setups, using this same character.
The first one I decided to tackle is a Rembrandt, which places emphasis on shadow, and is characterized by a "triangle" shaped loop of light on the "shadowed" side of the subject's face. At least that's how I understand it :p. Took me some fidgeting with the key light to get the right effect, but I think I've mostly gotten there. Certainly not perfect, but I'm happy with it as a rookie attempt.
You'll notice the hand is gone, it's a different pose, different hair and I've added some light/color to the background to create some separation.
Not sure what I'll tackle next.
Here's a link to the video I was watching, incidentally...
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=D_O6pbT7Ovw
Can't provide anything in the way of useful feedback sadly, but these do look good.