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Thank you for the tips.
I changed the pose, adjusted the pauldrons to reduce fur clipping, rotated the glaive so that it is in the right hand to allow the light to be reflected from the surface better, and I moved and downsized the light source. I made two versions. Which of them would you consider better, please?
After walking away for a few days, I came back and took everyone's critiques into consideration and restructured the render. I'm soooooo much happier with it now! I think the new framing is a lot of more successful than my previous, constrained version - I'd love to know what you guys think!
I think the DoF is much improved, but I'm ambigious about the amount of DoF. Her left hand and left foot are pretty blurry (and that's due entirely to the DoF, it's not an issue with render quality or anything. I'm also not thrilled with the lighting. Her face is still shadowed, and there's no catchlight for her eyes.I'm thinking the image needs some stronger lighting on that side - debating how strong, though. And then I have to figure out catchlights - never done that before :-p.
Critiques and comments very welcome!
First attempt (For Comparison):
@watchdog79. I love the way the light is reflecting off the glave now! It really elevates the portrait to a new level.
Personally, I like the second image a bit better, because it has more contrast. I'm the biggest fan of how saturated the image is, though - I think it's flattening everything out, and distracting my eye from the tiger. I wonder if changing the white point balance in your render settings might help tone that down?
@Galaxy - poses are hard! I find the arms give me the most trouble - daz arms aren't really rigged in a way that relates accurately to human arms. Personally, I like the revised version of your first image/pose the best, and the third pose is my second favorite. The one where she has her arms crossed looks much more awkward to me - I've never seen a human being cross their arms like that! On the other hand, I think you did the best job framing her in that image.
@katiedelongwriter - I second @Kismet2012's comments. I love that the background is light and the foreground is dark, which is the opposite of traditional black & white portraits. It gives the whole image an etherealness, and somehow I feel like it emphasizes the elegance of her black gown (as opposed to the sexiness) and keeps your image away from what I'll call "magazine ad sexpot."
I want my eye to focus on her face and hand, especially given your inspiration! I'm really familiar with the custom you're referring to. For those who aren't (but are curious), it's a tradition that many observant Jews include during the ceremony to the end of the Sabbath and the transition back into the working days of the week (known as havdalah). The basic idea behind it is that by examining your fingernails, you're symbolically using the candlelight for work, which is forbidden on the Sabbath.
I've heard a number of different interpretations of the deeper spiritual meaning of the tradition, but my favorite is the one I think best fits your concept. The idea is that by examining something as simple as the light of the candles on your fingernails, you're focusing on grounding yourself in that moment of transition in order to carry that Sabbath rest with you into the work week.
I'm not sure how much you want to take that sense of mindfulness from your inspiration into your actual image, but if you do want to include more of it I'd suggest shortening her fingernails, and changing her manicure to a more traditional white-tipped French manicure. Right now, they're pretty vampy.
I am afraid you totally lost me there. What does the bolded part mean, please?
It is probably due to strong light is coming from opposite direction i.e. back from the subject. I am not sure but my first thought is change of camera angle might improve light and my second thought is I am reluctant to change of camera angle because it is good enough.
This pose allows us to see her face but I'm not sure her arms are hanging naturally. I think they should be a little closer to her body.
Of the 3 versions you have this one is my personal favourite.
A trick you can try when figuring out poses is to apply the pose to yourself. Stand with your arms crossed and notice where your arms naturally sit and are comfortable. Stand in front of a mirror so you can see how you look. Or perhaps you can ask someone else to model the pose for you.
Both versions have appeal. I like the dark shadows and mystery of the darker version but the ligher version shows more detail.
It's not bad at all :)
I personnally prefer your first pose and the corrected version (it feels like her right hand is now resting correctly on her hips) . Now I'm sorry but I'm still wondering what she is doing with her left hand. At first I beleived it was like she was protecting her eyes from the sun or something that's why I though it would be more natural to twist her hand so the palm of her hand would be facing the camera. But may be your intention was something else ?
Anyway posing with a reference is good habits. All the character designer and Animator are working with reference :)
Woaw ! Good job :) I really like your 2nd version !
About the lighting, I personnally love how natural the light is right now but maybe that's my personnal taste for underexposition :). If you feel it's a bit too dark may be you can play with the tone mapping : push the gamma up to 3 or lower the F/ stop by 1 or 2.
I don't know why the DoF is going blurry and noisy :s. It's a shame because the bokeh on the window is very pretty.
Also, If I'm being very picky ^^ : In photography with tend to open the frame in the same direction where the subject is looking (like what you did in the first version). Now, it doesn't feel bad she is looking to the left, she is enought centered. But may be it worth to try with her looking to the right ... I'm not sure. Anyway it is just a small tips for next portrait :)
You have opened her up. Her face is easier to see.
I agree she needs some more light. What is behind her on the image right? Is that fabric? Could light be filtered through there?
@Kismet2012 - Thank you. I DID find the original file and have tweaked it some more including toning down her forehead. As to the glow behind her, that was post-processing. I rendered the face and background separately, put a layer in between them, and with a big, soft, white brush painted in the glow and then turned the opacity right down. Thanks for your suggestions :-)
This is my second entry - same concept - dark environment, and I love the curls with lighting. I set two primary light colors to match light blue/pink eye makeup the character had. Took some tweaking to cut down on blowouts and strong shadows. Also a more aggressive depth of field, which was fun to get figured out.
Hi Everyone
This is my first time entering for a beginner. I used Daz3d. I hope I have reached the requirements :)
Any advise would be great.
Thank you.
Here's my entry. Hope you guys like it!
And my second entry, Harley Quinn!
This one is great!
July 2020 New User Beginner Challenge Entry - Victoria the 1st
So I'm pretty much brand new to Daz3d, or 3d art in general. I've had the product for about a month, running it on my Mac with no Nvidia card. If I decide to continue this new hobby, I'll eventually break down an build/buy a budget PC for rendering work.
As I am new, I don't have a lot of assets. I sprang for the Victoria 8 starter bundle and her HD expansion, and pretty much stuck with it, along with a backdrop photo that I got from a thread here on the forums. I watched a couple you tube tutorials, and was able to put this together. I still have a long way to go, obviously - but I'm pleased for my first effort at something being submitted. It's using a sky environment lighting along with a spot from the front/side...
I'm very open to any suggestions, critiques, comments, etc... I'm doing the challenge to learn.
Tools: Daz3d only, no post
Assets: Victoria 8 HD, Voss Hair, Boho Shorts outfit, Z Strike A Pose (with some manual tweaking)
~ Andy
Those curls look amazing. Great concept and execution. I love the camera angle.
Name: Waiting For You
Daz Studio Iray with post work skin tone
All my previous entry cancelled due to pose errors and also I not saved separate scene versions to modify a particular version. New entry, restart from scratch.
Original skins are here:
https://www.daz3d.com/sisi-for-genesis-8-female
You have created a really nice portrait. There are just a couple of small details that need to be adjusted slightly.
One is her earring and that strand of hair. They are on a bit of an angle like they are being affected by a strong breeze. I am not sure the rest of her hair is giving the same impression.
The second detail that is bothering me is the white line down the right side of the image. That side of the wall of the building behind her looks like it might be getting blown out by a strong light. You could try either toning down the light or maybe adding some darker colour to that section of wall in the surfaces section.
This is a great start. She looks quite relaxed and I like the colour palette you have chosen.
What a character. He has such a great face.
You might want to consider darkening the background slightly...perhaps a mid-gray tone...but not on the lighter side. Just enough to allow his hair and the smoke from his cigar to be a bit more visible. They are getting lost and blending into the light background.
The lighter background works in this image. Her blond hair frames her face and provides the framing and break from the white face makeup and the light background.
This is a great start. You have a nice monochrome colour palette. I love the Voss Hair. I have used it myself.
Something you need to be careful of is the clipping. The Vos hair is intersection her shoulder on the left side of the image, Victoria's right shoulder. I haven't used this hair for a while but it should have some morphs to either adjust the length or move it forward or back a bit.
This is a great start. You have a nice monochrome colour palette. I love the Voss Hair. I have used it myself.
Something you need to be careful of is the clipping. The Vos hair is intersection her shoulder on the left side of the image, Victoria's right shoulder. I haven't used this hair for a while but it should have some morphs to either adjust the length or move it forward or back a bit.
Ahh, I see what you mean. Looking closer, I can see it clipping. I’ll check and see if I can adjust. Thank you for your kind words and the suggestion!I have wanted to go back to an earlier version and I did not save one. It can be frustrating.
Your figure's albow is intersecting with the door slightly. You can either try and adjust her arm, which may or may not affect the hand on the hip which is looking quite good at the moment, or you could either move her forward slightly or move the set back slightly. If you have all your lighting set up on her I would try moving the set back slightly.
I cannot tell you the number of times I see some little thing like the hair clipping a part of the body after I have completely finished a render.
Version 2 change log:
Door open increased, Door xscale increased, Lights changed along with Camera DOF, Subject Ztranslate increased, Pose edited, Second camera added for full view, Version 2 scene saved separately
Another edit: Looks like left thumb pose changed. I will update it...
That's what happens. You make adjustments and see things you missed earlier.
I really like this version.
So, went away for a few days and decided to play with something else before maybe looking back at the first work. This time I played with DoF and lighting as well as posing. The expression said sadness to me and the pose screamed, "Give me a gun!" So I did and then tweaked the shaders. I just like the dichotomy of the Preppy girl carrying the deadly weapon.
@Kismet2012 Thank you so much for your feedback!
The strong DOF was a conscious decision on my part, an experiment if you will, and I am rather happy how it turned out. The narrow area of focus was intentional. You are right that it is not easy to get it right, when one wants the DOF to be this strong. It would be interesting to rerender this image with a weaker DOF to see what works better in this particular instance. Unfortunately I do not know, if I will find the time to do that. I do not have a strong graphic card and it takes forever to render a high quality render on my computer. The WIP's I render for myself are such grainy, low quality renders that I do not feel they are worth showing here. I have decided I will try to think about your advice while working on something new. I have rendered another simple portrait where the DOF isn't this strong. Hopefully I will share it with you soon. :)
I had some trouble with the materials of the blouse. I think they and the light are mostly to blame for its appearance. I think that it looks a bit like the effect you get when a white material is seen in UV light. In any case I've decided to move on, since I wasn't sure how to fix this issue, it doesn't bother me as much anymore. I think I even got to like the result, but next time I will certainly pay closer attention to the materials to gain better control of the end result, especially when dealing with white materials. I think here I used satin shader preset. It had its own strong shine and coupled with the lights it came out a bit too strong. I think I might check later if the strong DOF is to blame as you have suggested, I did not think it could be responsible, thank you for suggesting it!
I am uplouding a newer version of the image. I got rid of some fireflies on her collar in postwork. It is a subtle change, but they were really bothering me, and I think it looks better now.
Beginner Challenge: Portrait Rendering (Expressions and Lighting)
Rendered in Daz Studio with Iray.
Title: Fragile