"School of Portraiture" - Lesson 08 - Taking it to the next level ("The Reunion")

[speedneeder]

Colin, LOVE your edit

[peterindb]

Colin,

Thanks for your comments. It was a technical exercise to a degree, to attempt to expose everything properly.
Time to work on composition and cropping .

Peter

[Colin Southern]

Colin, LOVE your edit

Yay

On a serious note though, I'd suggest using hard light for "gritty" portraits - so throw away the shoot-through for this kind of shot. By the way, if you were trying for the lighting setup I described before, you need to get the lights behind the subject, but off to the side so that the light glances off the cheeks (and use a reflector for fill if you don't have a 3rd light source).

[Colin Southern]

Colin,

Thanks for your comments. It was a technical exercise to a degree, to attempt to expose everything properly.
Time to work on composition and cropping .

Peter

Hi Peter,

I think you did really well exposure wise.

I think the trick to photography is to ferret out just the bits that are useful (and get the camera to capture them) -- you shot was a great example of how the sun probably detracted from the shot, but with the crop (or different composition in the first place) it none-the-less made for a most excellent backdrop.

[wilgk]

I have been very busy with Basketball season 'work' but am still attempting to apply what I have learned so far whenever I can.
I will post 1 of the player portraits as well tonight, as they are a bit different, but in the meantime, some of my old friends might remember this young lady...

[Donald]

but in the meantime, some of my old friends might remember this young lady...

We do. We do. Hope she is well. What's she doing these days?

[wilgk]

We do. We do. Hope she is well. What's she doing these days?

Hi Thanks Donald - she is 19 now! - At University studying Arts/Journalsim/Indonesian I am hoping this will lead to her using her powers for good instead of evil & perhaps championing the refugee asylum seeker cause here. At the same time working part-time at a telco sales store, where her young person phone geek knowledge coupled with her 'charm' has her doing very well.

[speedneeder]

Yay

On a serious note though, I'd suggest using hard light for "gritty" portraits - so throw away the shoot-through for this kind of shot. By the way, if you were trying for the lighting setup I described before, you need to get the lights behind the subject, but off to the side so that the light glances off the cheeks (and use a reflector for fill if you don't have a 3rd light source).

Colin, I should have explained...
I had two bare flashes on either side behind my son aimed in front of him. The reflector didnt return enough light to his face for my liking, AND The reflector was VERY visible in the TV screen behind him
So, I cheated and broke out my umbrella because a figured a bare flash in front of him would surely create that which was to be avoided! In short, I didn't follow directions and I failed to achieve the results I wanted. But I did have fun

[Sam Smith]

Ok I have not taken a beating for portraiture in a long time. This was taken at 21:30 with a 580exII with a shoot through umbrella camera left, twin halogen shop lights going through the diffuser of my 5 in 1 reflector camera right. (Such high quality gear).


I know Colin " Ugly Background" at least it not the side of the house.

[Colin Southern]

Colin, I should have explained...
I had two bare flashes on either side behind my son aimed in front of him. The reflector didnt return enough light to his face for my liking, AND The reflector was VERY visible in the TV screen behind him
So, I cheated and broke out my umbrella because a figured a bare flash in front of him would surely create that which was to be avoided! In short, I didn't follow directions and I failed to achieve the results I wanted. But I did have fun

Hi Brian,

You need to aim them AT him (so the light glances off) - and you'll want them pretty bright too. In terms of the TV, I just attach a black light sink to it "in case of emergency". Could still be touch and go with the reflector though (might be time for speedlight #3!).

[Colin Southern]

I have been very busy with Basketball season 'work' but am still attempting to apply what I have learned so far whenever I can.
I will post 1 of the player portraits as well tonight, as they are a bit different, but in the meantime, some of my old friends might remember this young lady...

Hi Kay,

Before I say anything, what do YOU think of the shot in terms of strengths and weaknesses?

[speedneeder]

Hi Brian,

You need to aim them AT him (so the light glances off) - and you'll want them pretty bright too. In terms of the TV, I just attach a black light sink to it "in case of emergency". Could still be touch and go with the reflector though (might be time for speedlight #3!).

Thanks for the advice Colin! I already have speedlight #3, all in the form of YN-560's and a Canon 430 EX II.
I think to make this work I will need a different back drop, so.... Working on that.

[Colin Southern]

Thanks for the advice Colin! I already have speedlight #3, all in the form of YN-560's and a Canon 430 EX II.
I think to make this work I will need a different back drop, so.... Working on that.

Hi Brian,

A good investment is to pop down to your local fabric shop and pick up some black velvet (sew it into strips to get a backdrop wide enough if you have to). That stuff just SOAKS up the light - it's waaaaay less reflective than even the black seamless backdrop I use.

[Colin Southern]

Ok I have not taken a beating for portraiture in a long time. This was taken at 21:30 with a 580exII with a shoot through umbrella camera left, twin halogen shop lights going through the diffuser of my 5 in 1 reflector camera right. (Such high quality gear).


I know Colin " Ugly Background" at least it not the side of the house.

Hi Sam,

So what are YOUR thoughts on the image's strengths & weaknesses? If this was a canvas print hanging on your wall, what would you think of it?

[Sam Smith]

So what are YOUR thoughts on the image's strengths & weaknesses? If this was a canvas print hanging on your wall, what would you think of it?

What a waste of money on a sister in-law.
I would give it a look and walk on. It looks kinda flat, I don't like not seeing all of her hair. The necklace I am unsure about since we can not see the whole thing. I don't like the background. (Again). He hair on the right blends in with her brow. I do like the pose, it makes her look relaxed. The lighting looks correct to me, and the colors are right on my monitor anyway. I did manage to get the catch lights in the eyes.

[Crovean]

I know I posted this here before but here's a portrait that I have done applying all the stuff I learned from this forum and Collin's Portraiture University.



and my ever fast growing daughter.

[Davidd]

Hope this isn't too 'off message' for the thread, Colin and everyone, but I'd appreciate some comments. This young lady asked if I could take some headshots for drama work. I happily agreed to do them for free, as it would be good practice for me. She explicitly wanted natural looking shots so that anyone interested would know what they were getting, but on the other hand she obviously wants to look as good as possible. I took lots of photos, mainly three-quarters angle, but she wanted some face-on ones too. She picked this out herself as one she would like me to process to see how it comes out. This is more or less the RAW file saved as a jpeg, just a bit auto-sharpened by LR3. What would you do with this to strike a balance between staying natural and improving? Obviously the highlights in the eyes need attention, and I'll deal with the little skin blemishes but I don't want to smooth it too much.... Would you crop the pic? I'd prefer there to be more of the hair in view on the left side, though I do have plenty of other images with all the hair there... Any thoughts welcome.

cheers, David

[Colin Southern]

Hi David,

Thanks for posting

I think it's a nice image ... what I would suggest is just some "attention to detail".

I've given it a quick workover for you, with the following tweaks ...

- White Balance. The original has a bit too much yellow.

- Pushed the exposure 0.7 stop (with a touch of recovery, and tweaks to brightness & blacks)

- A bit of spot removal

- I thought the crop was a bit loose (the chest area doesn't really add anything to the image, nor does the extra space around the top of the head -- so cropping tighter gives an opportunity to inject a bit of "energy" by rotating the shot slightly.

- I've applied some output sharpening

- Retouched "bags" under eyes

- Brightened / saturated irises

- Increased saturation on lips

[Davidd]

Brilliant Colin - actually I'd left a bit of space just so I could have options re rotating etc. You've solved the problem of the hair imbalance - crop off some from both sides rather than just from one side. You've kept the skin texture for the natural look just as she wanted.

Interesting about the white balance - I used a grey card. I'm speculating that there was some reflection from the walls to give the slight yellow cast - shows that the grey card by itself doesn't achieve perfection! Interesting that you pushed the exposure a bit - I've noted your comments on pushing to the right, works really well in your version, as you say adding a bit of recovery and black...

My remianing thought is about the reflections in the eyes (the triangular ones at the bottom of the irises) - the eyes have picked up something in the room. I'm tempted to clone them away, but am undecided whether they're decorative or distracting?

I'll show the model your version Colin and see if she's as happy as I am with the direction you've taken the photo. Its fantastically helpful to us both to have your expert input.

She wants 10in x 8in prints, which wouldn't fit your crop - I think I'll solve it by using a white border.

Perhaps I'll post the final version or another pic from the same series when I've worked on it.

Thanks again, David

[Colin Southern]

No worries David

Happy to re-touch the original for you if you like too (some things are hard to make decisions on when working on a low-res copy).