To show my fiancée your comments, Walter.
We worked on that image side-by-side and that was the look SHE preferred over one I had with more natural skin tones. Gives us something to think about when doing the rest of the shots later this week (I'm up to my eyeballs working on a 2-page photo spread of the high school prom for the paper this week, otherwise I'd be working on them right now).
HOWEVER, the band's bass player has already added his comments to the shot on our MySpace account. I guess it all boils down to how you like the images processed.
I'll have to give your background trick a try when I take another swing at the image.
BTW, the crop results in a standard 8x10 print at full resolution and size. That's how I size them for upload to our Photoreflect site.
Jamie "Shooter" Taylor
Photographer
TailWind Imaging
"Do not dwell in the past, do not dream of the future, concentrate the mind on the present moment." -- Buddha
http://www.myspace.com/tailwindimaging
http://tradewindimaging.photoreflect.com
I actually prefer the skin tones in the original image. The second image (adjusted) looks over processed and washed out, and has too much contrast, at least for my taste. I agree it is better to leave too much room around the subject and crop during post production vs cropping tightly in-camera and risking that you miss something.
I also agree with eliminating the disturbing background to clean up and simplify the composition. Another method to achieve that is to make a selection of just the background and drop the levels. You can lower the levels enough to leave just a hint of detail in the background without removing it altogether. That gives some semblance of atmosphere without being distracting.
Walter Rowe - Rowe Images
Professional Photographer
Columbia, Maryland - USA
Founder, MusicPhotographers.net
Walter Rowe Photography
Columbia, Maryland - USA
www.WalterRowePhotography.com