Another attempt at That Pro Look

[vladimir]

Hi Vladimir,

I thought your boarder in the above example was 100% perfect -- no issues with over-bright areas what-so-ever. In fact, if you'd be so kind as to tell me how you do them I'd love to copy it!

It's Picasa!

Their latest versions have this "edit", which is SO easy to apply! They give you two sliders for the inner width and outer width, and two eye droplets - for the colors. It's called "Museum Matte" if I remember correctly. I use it after I export jpeg for the web - the very last step.

[vladimir]

Vladimir, looks great to me. I agree with Colin on the lighting, this is a very nice light. I can't imagine this setup would work with glamour shot lighting

I got this lighting setup because of you, mister! You probably don't know this, but it's the shot of your son here, that made me go get a softbox and reflectors. That's when I realized I had to have those things.
And that's all it is: a softbox (26x32 - I think. Forgot exact size already) on the left at 45 degrees, and a white reflector on the right, a black blanket as a background and a black foam display board on the floor. Inside the softbox - one flash Sunpak-383 at 1/2 power (so it recycles faster).

[vladimir]

... beautiful dog ... and he knows he is special!

...Wanted to address this, but almost forgot...

No, he doesn't. I am glad I managed to make it look like he does, but in reality - this guy has 0% self-respect, 100% love for his humans, full tolerance for all other humans (children included) and almost no interest in other dogs.

Somebody told me back when he was a little puppy - "English Springers have hearts of gold". After 4+ years living with this guy - I agree completely.