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Portrait Help

sbeme

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p.1 #1 · Portrait Help

a semi-candid, natural light
What would you do differently?
Any processing tweaks?
If anyone wants OOC let me know.

thanks
Scott


	GoetzPhotoz 2012

Canon EOS 5D Mark II 50 mm f/4.5 1/750 sec 100 ISO 0.0 EV

Jan 03, 2013 at 01:39 AM

Steve Wylie
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p.1 #2 · Portrait Help

I would place the sun behind her, rather than to her right (camera left), have her take off her sunglasses so we can see her eyes (she won't have to squint), and expose for the face, letting the already overexposed background go wherever it goes. It looks like there is some source of bounce back into her left cheek (camera right), so if it's indeed a handheld or moveable reflector, I'd place it overhead, reflecting some light back into the face, but lightly. I would also ask her to reposition herself so she's not square to the camera, but more oblique.

As for processing, I'm not a big fan of quirky processing, but doing what I suggest above to properly expose the face will result in a higher key image than what you have here, which is a good look.

Jan 03, 2013 at 04:33 AM

AuntiPode
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p.1 #3 · Portrait Help

I'd suggest posing with her shoulders less square and tweaking the color to reduce the red/pink of her skin, followed by some retouching and some cropping.

Jan 03, 2013 at 08:16 AM

RustyBug

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p.1 #4 · Portrait Help

+1 @ Karen & Steve ... preference to have more uniform/even lighting (color & luminance) across the face.

Imo, using lighting at an angle to create modeling works well in the studio where you have both key & fill lighting of similar color ... but in conditions such as this, having warm (direct sun) & cool (indirect overhead/shadows) mixed lighting is always a tough gig to balance skin tones well. Unless you are filling with flash or reflector, it creates a challenge.

Blowing out the BG isn't ideal, but that can be offset by use of fill flash ... or sans flash, underexpose the subject by about 1 stop ... then in post you can push/pull on the subject/bg ... or just let the BG blow like Steve mentions. But here we have not only the subject vs. BG difference, but also the left vs. right side of the subject diff.

If you compare her right shoulder vs. her left shoulder (brightest area @ each) ... you can see about 40-50 points diff (i.e. about 2 stops) between direct vs. shadow. If you place the subject orientation as Steve mentions, there will be about a 2 - 2 1/2 stop diff between the subject face and the BG, hence the above option @ -1 for the subject which puts the BG @ +1 or so. recovering each from about +/- 1 is manageable.

Even a partial swing can help. As is, there is a strong divide between the left side vs. the right side (see shadow line placement @ neck)

Adjustments using sunglasses frame (4 points) as assumed black to try and balance the lighting between warm direct sun & cool shadow side of her face.

Color Balance
Shadows -2,+43,0
Midtones 0,+3,0
Highlights 0,-11,+9

Levels adjustment for BG, while masking subject.

Curious to work from ooc

Jan 03, 2013 at 11:24 AM

AuntiPode
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p.1 #5 · Portrait Help

Actually, my posing suggestion was to give her a more flattering pose. The potential improvement in lighting would be secondary because repositioning her shoulders wouldn't necessarily reposition her face.

Jan 03, 2013 at 06:58 PM

RustyBug

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p.1 #6 · Portrait Help

Gotcha ... a little of both could work well together ... but now we're probably moving out of "semi-candid" more into "controlled" portrait. Kind of a gray area where one leaves off and the other begins.

For the more "candid" or at least to retain a bit more spontaneity ... I'd opt for fill flash, pre-dialed to about -1 to - 1 1/2 FEC.

Jan 03, 2013 at 07:20 PM

AuntiPode
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p.1 #7 · Portrait Help

Oh, to be spontaneous, it's fairly simple to change the angle my moving the photographer's feet.

Jan 03, 2013 at 07:40 PM

sbeme

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p.1 #8 · Portrait Help

AuntiPode wrote:
Oh, to be spontaneous, it's fairly simple to change the angle my moving the photographer's feet.

Wish I thought of that more often

Scott

Jan 08, 2013 at 02:27 AM

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