Riley
 

Could someone help me choose? This is one of those portraits where the mother said "Paint her any way you like, I think they turn out better that way". 276 digital photos later these were the best. Riley is at the age where to say "smile" means some goofy frozen look.

Do you think any of these would make a great portrait? The mother already has 3 full length oils of her children that I did, she has just decided that she liked the pastels so much that she wants one of those too, so she doesn't care if it is a traditional or fun pose.

For the record, I'm simply nuts about the second one. That picture captures Riley's mischievous spunk to me. However, I'm not sure how all of that dress over her knees would look painted.

Hi Mary!

For what it's worth.... I think the second photo is charming of her -- especially her face (I like the angle and soft lighting). I'm wondering if her left shoulder will be challenging? And It'd be nice to see a little more of her right hand supporting her lean (maybe you have another shot taken shortly before or after that you could use to show that hand?)

I also think the 3rd shot is adorable.

Mary,

When you post your images do you create some setting which disallows others to copy? I notice that they are jpeg, but my system won't allow me to see them after I copy.

Mike,
Not to my knowledge, but I'm technically challenged, so there is no telling. Would you like for me to email them to you so that you can do a little manipulating? ;)

I

This is a future winner of the Oscar for Best Actress!

I vote for #3, except that I'm not crazy about the hair over the shaded side of her face. I'd need to zoom in on this one.

Mike, I have this glitch occasionally. The "clue" is usually that when I "Save As", the default title is in quotation marks [e.g., "riley.JPG"]. You not only can't open that, but deleting the quotation marks won't get rid of the "invalid jpeg marker" problem.

Solution: Open up in Explorer instead of AOL. Open the image in a new window (an option in the drop-down menu when you click and hold on the image) and save (it will likely default to the title attachment.php), then you'll be able to reopen it in Photoshop. If you want to digitally alter it and re-post, you'll have to re-save from Photoshop in jpeg (or one of the other allowable extensions for Forum posting.)

Or.....just get a Mac and drag 'n drop it on the desktop.

Sorry Steve.....I thought about this little urge I just had about my Apple

Ok, I have decided, I'm going with number 2.

Linda, I like number 3 also, and cropped in and seen on a screen where she doesn't look so small, it is a good one, but to me-number two is just HER. She has been here since 1pm and it is now 9:30, so I have had plenty of time to observe her. (Her mother is sick so I volunteered to keep her tonight) I TRIED to get her to put the dress back on and redo that pose to see more hand-FORGET IT.Would it be better to just completely hide that bit of hand with the dress or no?

I have sketched her out, and will start with the color tomorrow. Just not sure how to handle the background. I really prefer it to be sort of non- descript, but I suppose I need to imply the step? Any thoughts before I get much further?

Mary,

The only ones I could diddle with successfully were these two. I would probably compose them like this if they were mine. This second one might be a bit narrow but you could fiddle with that.