Another lifestyle shoot in one of LA's great canyon parks. Dealt with some pretty harsh/challenging light, tried to make the best of it with too much wind for the ol' one handed reflector dance. I've shared a mix of retouched and SOOC shots here... Everything shot with a D700 and 85mm 1.4G, 3-stop ND and an assistant who couldnt make it to the shoot. . C/C welcome.
You'd be served well by adding a Color Checker Passport to the workflows here. And non-assisted notwithstanding. I'd be looking at a scrim of some kind or another. That difference between LIGHT & SHADOW is just a little too overwhelming.
I definitely need to do something about color consistency.
As you noted, a scrim would have been great -- but with the strong gusts of wind and no assistant, it just wasn't happening. I made do and tried to find shade, but compromised to get some hard light into the hair. I may try to go back into LR/PS and ease up some of the contrast between light and shadow.
some real decent attempts here, but I cannot get past the cookie cutter facial expression in all of them. remember, it is the responsibility of the photographer to direct.
thanks for your comments, everyone. I ALWAYS get the same comment on facial expressions, no matter who the model is (and I generally shoot with experienced, agency-repped models). I'll have to give this more effort and thought next time out.
I'll be honest though: I like the blank, vapid look.
I dig the serious look myself. She's gorgeous and I love your posing. Not so sure on the lighting...I'd try for some back lighting if you cant find shade. Filter it through a bush or something...works great.
Lisa_Holloway wrote:
I dig the serious look myself. She's gorgeous and I love your posing. Not so sure on the lighting...I'd try for some back lighting if you cant find shade. Filter it through a bush or something...works great.
Thanks! I will try, but when backlighting in such bright light light I start to battle with viciously blown backgrounds... with an assistant I can use a reflector or a strobe, but I'd give a pinky finger to have your mastery of this skill.
If I can jump in using Lisa's example, the one major difference is that Lisa's subject has the direct sun directly behind her so the sunlight doesn't actually touch her face. Aside from what Lisa mentioned, to me that's the key. The lighting is not going to be dramatic, but direct sunlight is too harsh to be used to create dramatic lighting. So instead of going for a dramatic lighting look, you have this even lighting on the face, and the back light from the sun to create depth. And in this case, she took it a step further. With the direct light rimming the subject's hair, she placed the subject in front of a darker background, and boom! There you have it! (Now if only I could do it like that...)
. C/C welcome.
I suppose it's not as tight as some might say a headshot should be, but I think I've taken a safe, small liberty 