Hi To All__Thought I'd try a female subject in this style of Photo/Painting. I photographed this with my Fuji 2800 at 1 meg at full telephoto (6x) in the shade.

Loooking forward to your comments_____MH

As always your retouching is wonderful and I love the drawn collar and broach (sp?).

On the down side - I find lighting that comes from "below" a subject (in this case - below and to the side) very unflattering, and this one is no exception. I suspect that this lighting is not native to the original shot - which looks to me like it had side lighting - it is something that you may want to rethink.

Sorry to be critical - I am a big fan of your work.

Best
Toad

This one is good, but not as good as your two previous posts. I think that women expect more "softening" in the editing process. We wear make-up to soften our skin tone, etc. And there are books that have sections devoted to editing women's portraits as opposed to portraits in general. I think the problem may have arisen that while softening, you lost some of the natural lines that should be there--for example, her head is turned but the neck doesn't show the lines that even a young woman would have.

One other thing I noticed on a repeat look. There's a halo effect around the top of her hair--she's not as well blended as you usually do.

Still--I've enjoyed seeing the portraits you post. They are extremely good. This one is still very good--just not quite as much as the last two.

Hi__As the famous detective requested "just the facts". I live in a senior community and one of the terrors for the resident women is to have a photograph taken of them. I had the opportunity to take one candid capture of Nancy in a situation where she was half in the sun and upper half in the shade. The unusual lighting was a natural result of reflection from her white clothing, which I thought looked interesting. She admired the results and purchased the rendering as you see it, stating her immense pleasure at the results.

Thanks for your comments and your interest____MH