cgardner
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 p.1 #6 · My first "portrait" shots. Input please. | |
There are two fundamentals in portraiture:
1) Pose the face to the light in a naturally flattering way
2) Then move the camera around the face to find the most flattering points of view.
Your shot has an nicely balanced oblique view for the shape of her face in terms of sideways camera angle, but whenever you wind up seeing the nose holes you should raise the camera and check the view from slightly above, looking down which reveals the more attractive gull-wing curve of the top of the nostrils and tip of nose.
The lighting on the face isn't totally flat an non-dimensional but its not flattering either. Even with direct flash in on camera light the spill bouncing off the ceiling and walls will create some direction to the lighting. That's likely what is creating what little modeling there is in your shot.
When looking at a flat 2D photo most of the clues about shape come from the contrast pattern and placement of the highlights and shadows by the key light direction. One of the basic characteristics of natural light and how it models is that is comes from overhead during daylight hours. That creates a pattern of highlights on top / shadows below our brains associate with "normal" when looking at a photo.
http://super.nova.org/TP/Comp3.jpg
http://super.nova.org/TP/Comp6.jpg
The low angle of built-in and hotshoe flash, and the resulting lack of downward angle clues, is the main reason on-camera lighting is immediately obvious and artificial looking. The simplest solution when using hotshoe flash is to bounce it off a ceiling, if possible, to create a more natural downward angle, but you must take care not to make the angle so steep that the brow shades the eyes as in outdoor lighting. Another simple for single solution, the one I use, is to raise the flash on a bracket so it hits faces at a more natural downward angle without needing to worry about bounce angles. An even better solution for oblique views like yours is use two flashes with the off camera flash controlling the pattern and highlight exposure overlapping even fill provided by the flash on a bracket over the lens.
Photoshop is a poor substitute for lighting a face well at capture, but if one knows how flattering light falls on a face the results of flat lighting can be improved to some degree by creating a similar highlight/shadow pattern with adjustment layers...
Step One is to look at the basics: exposure. Did the scene match the sensor?
The simplest way to determine that is the histogram and the clipping warning at capture. Here I've opened it In CS5 Levels...
http://super.nova.org/EDITS/Portrait1.jpg
When shooting if see a big gap on the right side of the histogram it indicates underexposed highlights. An even better indicator is the clipping warning which blacks out the blown highlights in the playback. Raise flash intensity until you see the warning, then back off slightly until it disappears to better utilize the limited range of the sensor. After you have exposed the highlights correctly look on the left side of the histogram. If it is still running off the side it means your sensor can't handle the contrast of the scene and its time to add fill into the lighting equation.
Here I did the best I could to normalize the exposure — i.e. fit the scene to sensor range — by moving the Levels highlight and midtone sliders...
http://super.nova.org/EDITS/Portrait2.jpg
Now I'm going to shift gears and show how you could have improved the results by using two flashes. To simulate the fill and key lights I created two screen layers in CS5. They work to lighten any area opened on the adjustment layer mask...
http://super.nova.org/EDITS/Portrait3.jpg
A fill light at chin level would light the entire foreground evenly. A key light placed 45° to the left and about 45° above the eye line would only hit and highlight the front of the face, the areas I opened on the screen - key light mask...
http://super.nova.org/EDITS/Portrait4.jpg
When setting a key light you look for light in both eyes and the mouth area and how the nose shadow falls along side and over the top of the nostril to guide placement. Here's your first image with the key light simulation applied:
http://super.nova.org/EDITS/Portrait5.jpg
The directional light models the face, but the shadows are dark to the point of becoming unflattering. Moving a flash from centered to the side increases the scene contrast. That's why fill is needed, to fit the scene to sensor range. So let's turn off the key light for a moment and adjust the shadows with fill...
Some old timers swear they will be buried clutching their trusty light meter, but I've found it much simpler, faster, and more accurate to just use the advantage digital offers, instant feedback, for setting lighting. If the goal is light, smooth "soft" looking shadows how better to judge them than by eye. So I just start with the fill and raise its power until the shadows look as soft as I want them to look. That varies depending on the gender, age, and implied mood I want in the photo. For a smiling young woman light open shadows are, I feel, more in context with the expression and more flattering. The lighter the shadows, the less wrinkles and other imperfections are noticed...
http://super.nova.org/EDITS/Portrait6.jpg
If you had set the key light, turned it on, then set fill, when you turned the key light on again it would be too bright because there would be the foundation of fill under it. That's why when you use two flashes vs. one your range increases... Here's the key layer and fill layer both turned on and adjusted visually for balance...
http://super.nova.org/EDITS/Portrait7.jpg
The results above aren't as good looking as if actually lit with two lights because I started with your poorly lit original. The main point was to illustrate how you could apply a few ounces of prevention via better lighting technique vs. a pound of cure in post processing.
There are other things besides the lighting of the face which could improve the overall effectiveness, such as a slightly darker background to make highlighted front of the face contrast more and darker clothing in the same color range as the background to blend in and not distract. If the subject is wearing white the best strategy is to find a white background to make the clothing not distract from the face, which should be the star of the show...
http://super.nova.org/EDITS/Portrait8.jpg
WIth Canon's wireless ETTL or Nikon's CLS it is a simple as setting a ratio you know matches foreground to sensor range. I find A:B = 1:2 works well for that with Canon and use that as a starting baseline. Then I wheel my OCF — mounted on a modified IV stand — around until I see the face obliquely from behind the stand. The key light winds up 45° from the nose and 45° above the eye line....
http://super.nova.org/TP/BBBwide.jpg
...then it's just a matter of walking 90° around to the other oblique view to take the shot.
http://super.nova.org/TP/BBBhs.jpg
The only adjustment necessary is FEC to adjust the overall exposure in the the highlights to just below clipping. The ETTL metering takes care of the power calculations for the flashes. If I decide I want lighter or darker shadows its simply a matter of reaching up, turning the dial, and changing the ratio. For the cost of a second flash, bracket, TTL extension cord and a single stand you can get much more flattering lighting patterns which fit the sensor range perfectly and don't need much, if any post processing.
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