Alesha

[rpcrowe]

1. Alesha is a friend of a friend and asked me to shoot some portraits of her. Here are some...


2. I almost never process my images in this fashion but, in this case, I kind of like it. What do you think?


3. It was about this time that a wave covered my running shoes. I was concentrating on Alesha...

[IzzieK]

You did a good job on her! She is pretty too. I am a fan of #1. That was a perfect shot in my opinion.

[marlunn]

Very nice Richard, the #1st is a cracker, well taken and processed (all of them) - she is very photogenic and the camera really does like her !

[Rainforest]

I have a feeling she liked them all. The first one stands out to me. Well made. Your background choice works so well with her eyes and camo jacket in both the close up shots.

[James G]

Richard, for me #1 stands out. I quite like the softer look of #2.
There is something about her complexion in #3 that doesn't look as good to me as #1. It looks flat in comparison. Also the 'bare' right shoulder ...? is it actually bare?

That said, they are excellent, and not the kind of captures I am capable of delivering....

[rpcrowe]

Thanks friends...

Alesha has a complexion that has been marred by some acne and some scarring. I worked around that by using the spot healing tool in PSCC as well as lowering the structure of her cheeks in NIK Viveza and using the skin softening slider in NIK Color Efects. The problem with #3 might be somewhere in the combination of PP.

The shots are actually very sharp. Here is a crop of her eyes from one shot in this series. I used my 70-200mm f/4L IS lens at 1/400 second @ f/5.6 hand held with IS in mode #1. This lens along with my 7D Mark-2 is capable of some very sharp imagery.



Here is another way I worked around the acne problem...

[bje07]

# 1 good expression but too tight on the top
# 3 Framed too tight for my taste

[selig1656]

Nice PP and the lighting is great on the subject a very clean and crisp capture.

[rpcrowe]

Nice PP and the lighting is great on the subject a very clean and crisp capture.

Thanks Raymond. This was shot under the Oceanside California Pier against the rocks at the land side of the pier. It was about 4 pm and the sun was still pretty bright so that was the best place to shoot. Unfortunately, the tide was coming in so I had to scramble around on the rocks to keep from getting wet (didn't work, I ended up with my shoes full of water and sand). I am really to darned old to be doing this but, I do love shooting in all types of venues.



I lit the subject with a Canon 600EX-RC flash on a bracket. I modified the flash with a mini 12-inch collapsible softbox which I purchased on a whim a couple of years ago but had never gotten around to using. I like this softbox because in addition to the diffusing screen in front, it has an internal diffusion baffle. I don't remember the brand nor even where I purchased it. I suspect it was another of my off-the-wall purchases from eBay. This time though, it was successful. I increased and decreased the power of the flash throughout the shoot so I don't know what the power was on this shot. I used AV exposure at f/5.6 with the flash in ETTL.

I shot in auto white balance and adjusted the color temperature in Adobe Camera RAW using Alesha's white blouse as a target.

[rpcrowe]

[Urbanflyer]

I really like the lighting you have used!

[rpcrowe]

Thanks, Judith.

This looks like the softbox I used on my Canon 600EX RT flash.
http://www.ebay.com/itm/Universal-So...MAAOSwfZ1WXn0F

This is the flash bracket. The camera flip bracket keeps the flash above my lens in both horizontal and vertical shooting.
http://www.ebay.com/itm/Stroboframe-...eORKXTlMFrCPpA

Using the Canon 7D2 camera's "Q" Button. I can adjust the flash intensity with a simple and quick flip of my thumb...

[rpcrowe]

[Shadowman]

Very classical lighting on her, nicely done.

[rpcrowe]

Very classical lighting on her, nicely done.

Thanks... The shaded rocks in the background were worth getting my feet wet to capture.