Pimp My Portrait: February 2011 Selections

PORTRAITURE

I thought I would be ambitious and go for four portraits to pimp. Wow, next time I will stick to only two portraits. Time wise it is more efficient.

Thank you to all who submitted portraits for me to pimp. Here is what I have for your viewing.

Jenny from the Bronx, NY submitted this photo

The original photo was less than two inches in size which did not provide a whole lot of information in the image. I am a fan of this portrait of Jenny so I was glad to work with it. The first thing I did was add contrast and definition to her face and body. Then I cleaned her skin to minimize the pixelation and color grain which was in the photo. I added some glow. Then I played with a yellowish filter to enhance both the sunlight behind her and the overall ambient light. This brought out both her and her outfit. The resulting image is a richer, dreamier version of Miss Jenny.

Julissa from Warwick, NY submitted this photo.

This baby looked so cute I was not sure what direction I should go. I cropped the photo to draw more attention to the face. I removed the hair on her face and added some contrast and texture. Then I started to play with the coloring. It was only at the end I decided to add this old newspaper look to highlight the structure of her face and hat. The eyes popped out more when I did this and seeing both her and the hat with their tongue out was precious to me.

Melissa from Florida submitted this photo:

This was another photo which was small in size. I did not like the positioning of the body because it made Melissa's left arm appear bigger than it actually is. Because it is the closest element to the camera, the wide angle lens makes her arm look similar in size to her head. So I wanted to remove the focus from her arm to her face. One way I did that was by removing the distracting elements in the room. I settled my focus on her and not the room, which did not add anything to the portrait. I added a moonlight texture and cleaned up her skin. Then I added some more brightness to her face and brought down slightly the brightness of her left arm. I then topped it off with a lil glow.

Michael from Brooklyn, NY submitted this photo.

Michael photographs his family which he loves dearly. So I know this subject is his wife. I went to his Flickr site to see the other photos he has taken of her so I could go in a direction that was different than what he had already done.

The first thing I did was go to her face and remove a few strands of hair which did not need to be there. Had I had more time I would have removed more in the forehead area. However I thought for this photo it worked. I cleaned up the skin on her face and added some more contrast. I topped that off with a little glow which highlighted how Michael lit this portrait. If you notice he had his main light concentrated on the right side of her face. Then I started playing with pastel colors. I really liked her blue shirt so I wanted to stay in that color range. Once I found the coloring I liked I added a small frame to the edges.

So those are the photos for the "Pimp My Portrait" Contest of February 2011.

Stay tuned for the next round of submissions at the end of March. Thanks for enjoying the blog.