Lucía - Headshot
Young model Lucía, from Uruguay.
Background added in post.
Hope you enjoy it, and comments are welcome.
More Posts in: Headshot Photography
4
Last: Jul 27, 2026
Alan Brown
Bluristic mirror mode
I must admit I have been lax in both my shooting and posting recently, perhaps due to the fact my wife has now retired, and we are spending a LOT more time together doing various activities.
1
Last: Jul 27, 2026
Don L
An afternoon out on the water
It was mid September late in the afternoon, a group of sailboats were out on the water enjoying the weather, there was a soft breeze blowing, pushing on the sails.
5
Last: Jul 27, 2026
Santillo Photography
Waiting ... in Paris
... a 'grab' just after I changed lens and model was not posing
1
Last: Jul 27, 2026
Dean Wilson
Photographing Pareidolia
"Pareidolia is the tendency for perception to impose a meaningful interpretation on a nebulous stimulus, usually visual, so that one detects an object, pattern, or meaning where there is none.*"
2
Last: Jul 26, 2026
4 Comments
Retouching on face/skin is a little heavy handed. The background replacement is a little too obvious, especially at the top of her head where you can see a bit of the original background peeking through.
Yeah, the retouching is a little heavy indeed. The background part is in fact part of the smoke. Although now that I see it again, I can see what you mean, it does look as if some part of the previous background is there. Thanks Alex for the comment.
Fake looking face. Fake looking eyes. Obvious faked background.
No bueno.
Were you just experimenting? I notice most of your photos aren't like this.
My advise: don't get caught up in lazy editing by using those one-click-wonder portrait "retouching" software.
I think the others have pointed out the processing problems with the image. What you could try to recover the shot is use the refine edge brush to soften the edge between subject and background currently it’s too hard. You may want to blur the background and reduce the opacity/saturation as the shot currently is smoke with someone standing in front of it. You may also want to scale the smoke to remove the two areas of black. The smoke could also do with some d and b to match the direction of the light on the subject. To finish a radial filter or vignette might also help.