Say Hello to ... Holly (again!)

[Colin Southern]

Another shot from earlier on in the week ...

[Dave Humphries]

Very nice Colin,

Love the curve of hair

[speedneeder]

Wow, I really like this. The parasol is a very nice touch.
This NOT a criticism at all, but a curiosity. There seems to be a hard line of light on the left side of the nose. I'm not sure how that would be accomplished? Is that on purpose?

[jeeperman]

Yes! The parosol makes this for me. I do see the harsh line of light that Brian mentioned, it is the only distraction. Very nicely done Colin.

[pono]

Love the umbrella.

[Colin Southern]

Hi Folks,

Thanks for the kind comments.

Looks like I'm a victim of the phanton nose / eye shadows again

I'm assuming that we're referring to model left / camera right, and at the bottom of the nose near where the nostril meets the cheek? If so, then it's just shadow ... most of the lighting is biased towards the left, and quite often the nose will block one of the lights whilst the reflector to camera right only reflects a portion of the lighting anyway - so we end up with a bit of a darker spot in some areas like that ... something that I treat as perfectly normal, as this is supposed to be soft - but none the less - contrasty lighting. It would be a different story if it were beauty lighting (which tends to be flat and high-key, which I don't like very much).

[Donald]

Looks like I'm a victim of the phanton nose / eye shadows again

It's probably quite frustrating to be wondering what on earth these people (me and the others) are going about.

In the first set, what I was referring to was this:


In the one above, I'm assuming that what people are referring to is this:

[speedneeder]

Donald, yes, that is the light on the nose I was referring to. Again, that isn't a criticism. I think it is a very nice portrait! I'm just wondering how that would be done? The rest of the light is fairly soft, so I don't understand how that one hard reflection appeared there like that?

Colin, in case you were wondering - the pbase link does display when I'm at work

[Colin Southern]

Donald, yes, that is the light on the nose I was referring to. Again, that isn't a criticism. I think it is a very nice portrait! I'm just wondering how that would be done? The rest of the light is fairly soft, so I don't understand how that one hard reflection appeared there like that?

Ah - now I know what you're meaning!

It's a specular reflection caused by the lighting bouncing off the oil on the very convex surface - probably from one of the rim lights.

[Alis]

Great shots, Colin, as always. What caught my attention the moment I looked at the one with the umbrella was the dark shadow right on the chest next to the hands.

I know it is very hard to get the light there but looks like it is a bit too dark. What you do think?

[Colin Southern]

Great shots, Colin, as always. What caught my attention the moment I looked at the one with the umbrella was the dark shadow right on the chest next to the hands.

I know it is very hard to get the light there but looks like it is a bit too dark. What you do think?

Hi Ali,

No - that's the way it should be - in fact, I actually add a vignette to make it more pronounced.

Reason being is we want to highlight the face - and draw the eye to it from the outside of the frame.