C&C Portrait Please

[speedneeder]

Hi again
With my new toys this year I also got some gels. This photo was taken with a bounce flash off of the ceiling from the camera hot shoe and a flash pointed at the wall with a pink gel on it. After a couple of shoots, I'm thinking I really probably need two more flash setups to get the results I would like indoors in a relatively small room. In this shot I would have like to ditch the bounce flash and put an umbrella or softbox on either side slightly front.
The only editing I did was to clone out some spaghetti on the model's shirt

[Dave Humphries]

An interesting shot Brian, well done for trying something different.

Two things strike me;
I think you could selectively raise the exposure on her face to good effect in PP, and
I wonder what it would look like with a focus stack so that the hand is also sharp?

[speedneeder]

Thanks Dave. I'll give brightening a try. PP is not my forte at this point, but a good suggestion.
I agree that the pointing hand probably would have looked better. It was an impromtu shot when I told my daughter to strike any pose she wanted. I'm just glad I was able to catch the expression on her face. I'll give some editing a try and repost - have to figure out how to selectively brighten first!

I also noticed the white flare to the right near the bottom. Apparently the gel had moved - I just had it layed over the top of the flash.

[speedneeder]

I had a chance to play around with GIMP today, here are the results. I lightened up the face and then the eyes some more, and then irises some more.

Looks better, but could be better still.

[Dave Humphries]

Yes that is much better Brian, good work

[djg05478]

Thanks for posting and sharing. I like it. She looks like a happy lively young lady who deserves a fun pink background - it suits her, I think its appropriate. Yeah - would probably be a cool image if her hand was in focus too, but I can also appreciate the blurry hand, it keeps the attention on her mischievous lil grin.

Debbie

[speedneeder]

Thanks for the feedback. I'll post some more when we play supermodel again

[Dave Humphries]

Thanks for posting and sharing. I like it. She looks like a happy lively young lady who deserves a fun pink background - it suits her, I think its appropriate. Yeah - would probably be a cool image if her hand was in focus too, but I can also appreciate the blurry hand, it keeps the attention on her mischievous lil grin.

Hi Brian, Debbie,

Yes, I agree, I am still not sure whether a version with her hand sharp would distract more from the face.

I suspect that due to the camera to face and camera to hand distances being so different, traditional means (f/16 or f/22) may not be sufficient, hence my suggestion of a second shot and focus stack, but I might be completely wrong - put that down to a lack of experience on my part

Cheers,

[speedneeder]

I'm off to find a tutorial on selective brightening. Maybe it's just me because I know what I did to the photo, but the more I look at the edited version, the more obvious it is, and I think I need to find a way to 'blur' the increased brightness of her face.

[Dave Humphries]

I'm off to find a tutorial on selective brightening. Maybe it's just me because I know what I did to the photo, but the more I look at the edited version, the more obvious it is, and I think I need to find a way to 'blur' the increased brightness of her face.

Hi Brian,

I think it is just you

I can't see any obvious 'joins', so to speak.

[Hans]

Maybe it's just me because I know what I did to the photo, but the more I look at the edited version, the more obvious it is

Not "maybe." 2nd looks much better than the first. Looks like a lot fun playing with gels!

[speedneeder]

Thanks Dave and Hans. I need to come up with some sort of rim light. I have a couple of shop lights laying around...

[Hans]

You could try shooting at her from the back with a light which would produce a halo type rim light.
Go on , try it...I've got nothing to lose

[speedneeder]

Hans you are correct that does work. I have tried it with my flash and it does give interesting options, though I only have one off camera flash... I will try the shop light some time.