Recently I was shooting a fitness assignment in Conn. and decided to use the 135L (which I just purchased a few weeks ago) while backstage and ran into Lindsay Messina, the new cover for underarmour. Going thru the photos it was extremely obvious which ones were the 135L and the 70-200L IS. I think I am going to sell the 70-200.

Anyways, I caught a few candids of Lindsay.
30D 135L f/4 1/60s ISO400, no PP, just resized for web.

What was your flash set up?

hot shoe mounted 580EX II, bounced, ETTL mode.

I almost alway use the 580 in manual mode but ettl was giving me good results that night.

Is that her real skin color? Would she rather not take those eye wrinkles out?

Very nice image. Great expression captured. A tad bright on the teeth I feel. Were you able to handheld this at 1/60th? It does look sharp at this size. Good job.

Marnix

Lovely shot. I noticed a few things that might make this shot even better. 1) her pupils are large, next time have more light in the room while shooting. 2) Here eyes in general are dark... some more light would help or even some work in PhotoShop™. 3) the skin tone looks very red on my calibrated monitor.

With your permission I would love to show you a retouched version.

pilles wrote:
Is that her real skin color? Would she rather not take those eye wrinkles out?

She kind of looks like a Oompa Loompa with that skin tone.

I would use your dodge/burn tool and lighten up her eyes a bit, and tone down the teach.

Dark sockets are a problem when you bounce off the ceiling.

White ballance is too warm. Otherwise, a great shot.

NIce shot, but the dark eye sockets and whites of the eyes are a result of using bounce flash: the brow shades the eye sockets.

Instead of using the dodging tool dupe the background, set mode to screen, add a mask filled with black, then selectively erase the mask to lighten the eye area..

Chuck

Edited by cgardner on May 09, 2008 at 06:33 PM GMT

All the technical critique above sounds valid but you caught the real person quite well. A beautiful expression, no wonder she is a cover.

Thanks for posting.

All,
Thanks for the critiques. I confess I was lazy (or more likely I was excited by the results of the 135L) and posted without any PP.

A few notes:
Piles, Curtis & Andre: Yes that is her skin color. Its the result of spray tan used at the competitions and yes her teeth really are that white.

Lighting: Backstage is close to pitch black. Here is a photo taken moments earlier that gives a better feel for how dark it is *edit* I used the 24-70 for this (same settings, except 70mm) and I had to apply a fair amount of smart sharpen. The 135L is just truly remarkable.



Edited by Mark McCardell on May 09, 2008 at 02:38 PM GMT

Chuck,
Thanks for the critique. You sent me an excellent PP, please feel free to post it. It's an excellent demonstration of the technique you described.

went to High School with her.

MarnixdS wrote:
Very nice image. Great expression captured. A tad bright on the teeth I feel. Were you able to handheld this at 1/60th? It does look sharp at this size. Good job.

Marnix

Yes hand held. It was so dark, the only thing you see is what is exposed by the flash. Flash duration is so short, shutter speed is not a factor.

M Vers wrote:
went to High School with her.
Hudson Valley?

Book her now while her rates are still reasonable. From her performance at the competition and the recent gigs she has done, her fitness career is about to explode.

Mark McCardell wrote:
Chuck,
Thanks for the critique. You sent me an excellent PP, please feel free to post it. It's an excellent demonstration of the technique you described.



Here it is:

Mark McCardell wrote:
M Vers wrote:
went to High School with her.
Hudson Valley?

Book her now while her rates are still reasonable. From her performance at the competition and the recent gigs she has done, her fitness career is about to explode.


Yes sir. Good ol' Washingtonville HS. If I may ask, merely out of pure curiosity, what are her current rates?

As for the image (Chucks PP) I feel as though areas such as the nose ridge, cheeks and forehead are a tad too hot, though the eyes have benefited from the additional tweaks. I also feel that you may want to smooth out the skin beneath and above the eyes...although altering the models appearance is entirely up to you, some do so, others do not.

Here's my retouch. Mark, with your permission I would like to showcase your image on my blog for the retouching. let me know.

Britt,
I sent you a PM discussing the details. Great work!

I would love to get the details of the retouch done by BrittMcT above. Excellent job!

Nice work Britt...Livened up the hair, brought out the eyes and killed the wrinkles and the red/orange skin tone, Highlights look very well controlled as well.

-Matt

Now, bring the gums down. No flossing = long teeth.

Just uploaded a 10 minute video walkthrough at www.astoundingimages.com under stylization in the right column.

A beautiful presentation - you are a master! THx....

Thanks.