Portrait

[Antonio Correia]

I shot this man a couple of months ago and now while reviewing some shots I have worked on this one.

He was inside a mill where we bought flour to make our own bread

 

[Asher Kelman]

I shot this man a couple of months ago and now while reviewing some shots I have worked on this one.

He was inside a mill where we bought flour to make our own bread

Did you experiment with color grading here?

 

[Antonio Correia]

No Asher, I did not.
Perhaps I will

 

[Antonio Correia]

Just a tad of color grading...

 

[Asher Kelman]

Excellent!

I recommend a long but worthwhile 2 hours with Amy Dresser retouching a portrait in many, many small changes, often with slight alterations in luminance or saturation of one color until the portrait character has fully developed!

Everything is so simple but done according to judging carefully what needs adjustment. So one has to look carefully for what is flat, poorly defined or the wrong hue or shade!

 

[Antonio Correia]

Thank you for the link, Asher !
The last work I have done on the portrait was a just a very small adjustments in shadows and highlights using yellow and orange.
This combination made the portrait pop just a small bit but more peasant, for me !
Thank you for commenting, Asher !

 

[Asher Kelman]

This is a wonderful advance for our editing of portraits.

The special value of Amy’s approach is a very large number of small changes.

The benefit of being patient and following her for the entire program is that we get to start to think as she does.

She is a detective who recognizes slight marks of character, and knowing facial anatomy and shadows is able to bring out character as I have never seen before!

It’s color grading on a much higher level together with sculptural carving!

….and brave experimenting!

Asher

 

[Asher Kelman]

Antonio,

I am now looking at my best work and ask myself about the corrections we might “need” to do today.

I really believe color grading, which was always part of painting with oils, should have been part of our training!

Unfortunately, it was missing from B&W photography, the curriculum of the 20th Century portrait photographer!

We should have studied oils and film first!

Asher

 

[Antonio Correia]

Asher,
Perhaps color and it's theory instead to begin with !

 

[Asher Kelman]

Yes! I was so concerned with B&W by such as Ans Adams and working with my father in law in his darkroom, that color was a foreign world!

Asher

 

[Unnamed Photographer]

It's great to hear that you have found Amy's approach to portrait editing to be so effective and valuable. It's true that sometimes it's the small changes that can make the biggest difference in bringing out the character and essence of a person in a portrait.
Color grading and sculptural carving are both important aspects of portrait editing, and it's great that Amy is able to combine these techniques in such an effective way. And, of course, experimentation is key to discovering new techniques and approaches to editing.

 

[nicolas claris]

It's quite amusing to read Asher's posts about his change of heart regarding color versus black and white...
Actually, I've always been a strong advocate of color photography...
But I have to admit that in recent years, I've tended to like doing portraits in black and white.
For example, this photo of my son Romain (who is usually behind his video camera, but on this occasion wanted to be the male model for my recent photoshoot of a 50-foot catamaran in Cannes) with the beautiful Virginie, a pro model I adore and with whom I love working...

PS more about this series on my website: https://www.nicolas-claris.com/en/galeries/lifestyle/lifestyle-virginie-and-romain/

 

[Asher Kelman]

Romain is a natural in these pictures. He’s so at home on the multimillion euro boat with the high ranking modern woman!

Asher

 

[nicolas claris]

Romain is a natural in these pictures. He’s so at home on the multimillion euro boat with the high ranking, very modern woman!

Asher

Indeed!

He’s a natural for the challenge!

 

[Asher Kelman]

Asher Kelman: “Redhead from Central Park”
New York 2015​