Photographer's Comment: Until recently I've usually taken seniors out to a park which worked well, but recently have found the joys of old cemetaries and dirty grity alleys and now I'm hooked. It's good to go to different places just to explore and see what you find. This was shot using totally natural light, no fill of any kind. As always just looking for what I did right or wrong, I'm still learning which is what is so great about photography, there's always something else to learn. Some new technique to use. PS work consisted of three duplicate layers, one was gradiant bw conversion, one boosted the darks and lights using curves, the other was a small surface blur with his face masked out. The curves layer was the top layer and blending mode set to soft light with opacity set to liking and masked to preference.

Tags: senior portrait urban alley street

Viewer Comments:

By smokeydawg (2007-11-20 00:39:38 ): Thanks Diana. The effect seems to work really well on brick and or stone walls. I did also use it on the image from my son's wedding in my bv.

By DianaShay (2007-11-19 00:25:58 ): I am intrigued with your newly explored techniques, Carl. Very exciting twist to the usual portraits....quite fitting for today's young people. The colors, pov, feeling tone - all very well done. Thanks for sharing how you did it as well. I can't wait to try it out on my own kiddos as 2 of them are quickly approaching the end of the high school years.

By smokeydawg (2007-11-15 00:08:56 ): Thanks Maureen, the shadow suggestion is a good one, LoL he's a big boy, Linebacker on football team, and has no chin. :) But adding a shadow would definately make it look like one exists, thanks again.

By maureenyoung52 (2007-11-14 07:59:22 ): Very nice, I love the lines, the toning and the effects all work very well together. The only thing, there's always something, is that he looks like he has no chin, he's all neck. He may be all neck and this may not bother him ,it just bothers me. I would add a little more shadow to create the apperance of a neck, but you know how I like everyone perfect in my photoshop world.

By johnwillems (2007-11-13 22:06:59 ): Has rated this image

By johnwillems (2007-11-13 22:06:44 ): Great photograph!!

By clwhitney (2007-11-13 20:56:43 ): Carl-the tonality and leading lines are really nice to help portray the subject. I like your idea of trying different settings for your portraits.

By Jim915 (2007-11-13 20:04:18 ): Carl - This is a wonderful photo. Your use of lines creates a very dynamic image. The PS work is supurb!

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