Isn't the dish typically used for more closeup work, like faces or tight body shots? It seems to me that a shot like this nullifies the desired effect of the beauty dish. Just wondering.
Isn't the dish typically used for more closeup work, like faces or tight body shots? It seems to me that a shot like this nullifies the desired effect of the beauty dish. Just wondering.
My opinion of course, but I love the contrasty light a dish produces at all lengths, I especially like it in close up, but I think it also performs at distance. It is like a gigantic reflector, and you can grid it.
As light modifiers go, beauty dishes grew from other smaller polished reflectors in an effort (prior to softboxes and umbrellas) to achieve a larger light source. But, large is only relative to the distance the light is from the subject. Thus, a beauty dish performs it design function best placed as close to the subject as possible since most are smaller that 24 inches, to achieve maximum soft light effect they need to be about 2 feet from the subject.
Pablo Vicente wrote:
Not at all, check your info palette in PS, no 255 255 255 anywhere
Sorry but you are not correct, at least not in the file you posted.
Check the file you posted in Levels. Hold down the alt/opt key and click the highlight slider. You'll see something similar to this (from a previous thread) any part of the image you see in color is clipping. Yours is clipping in red in the skintones and blue in the background.
The reds normally don't start clipping in a skintone until a point about 1/3 stop below where the whites start clipping. Clipping in the red obliterates the detail in the highlights of the skin which is why it wind up looking flat and burned out, even though the color seems to looks OK and the whites also look neutral.
If you look at your image in Levels you will note that at the same time your skintones are clipping in the red channel the background behind the model is clipping only in the blue channel. That situation is very common if you use a softbox or white umbrella to light the model and direct light to light the background - there is about a 600K difference in color temp. Even when the color temp of the lighting is identical a background containing any fluorescent brighteners can cause the background to clip the blue channel before green and red.
The clipping may be occurring while making the jpg screen image...
really, nice to see those pointers, I'm not that 'technical' so it's good to see those
We could go on for ages of course, I'm more of a "what-pleases-the-eye" guy ... on the other hand, we get to see enough 'clipping' on enough covers here, and I don't like to do my 'safe shots' all the time
The highlight slider alt thing is something I remember, we could 'mulpliply' the highlights or push the slider down ... what then ?
Then again, I like it when people really like something while others really do not, don't ask me why tho ... but this is the feedback I look for so thanks again
saludos,
Pablo
www.pablovicente.com
www.digitalpixels.net
Edited by Pablo Vicente on Mar 28, 2008 at 10:20 PM GMT
Edited by Pablo Vicente on Mar 28, 2008 at 10:39 PM GMT
It looks like the first shot of a shoot where you were testing the lights. In a sense that the lighting isn't the best (no I don't think everything should be exposed a certain way, it just doesn't look all that great here), and her expression just looks like shes waiting on you.
With regards to exposure and clipping, its a bell that can't be un-rung if it occurs in the camera. Highlight detail which is blown in any channel cannot be recovered in post processing.
But there is really no penalty at all from being conservative when shooting and keeping everything except mirror reflections, below the point of clipping. If you want them clipped intentionally a slight tweek in levels is all that is needed. The huge difference adjusting during editing vs shooting on the bleeding edge of clipping in the camera is DETAIL in the highlights just below the point of clipping, esp. in the red channel which is the brightest one of RGB in a skin tone.
If you open a file in Levels, hold down alt/opt, then move the highlight slider to the right you will see the reds on the face clip first, followed by the green channel (making the highlights turn yellow on screen) and finally the blue channel (making the highlights white in the alt levels display). When red starts to clip above about 240 on the numeric scale the overall appearance of the skintone usually will be patching and burned out looking in the highlights due to the lack detail in red channel which carries most of the detail in the lightest areas.
Simply cut back exposure by about 1/3 stop from how you are currently exposing and compare the difference. I use a white terry towel as an exposure guide. I raise exposure to the point where the brightest parts of the towel begin to clip and black out in the overexposure warning, then back off 1/3 stop. This is a test shot used to calibrate my L-358 meter which shows my target values:
Here's a typical test shot with the subject holding the towel. When the towel looks like a towel should, white with texture, the file is optimally exposed:
