nolaguy
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The lighting is flat, yes, but on my monitor at least the primarily problem is the shot is simply underexposed.
In Lightroom:
Exposure: +1.20
For the slight greenish overtone (look at her hair):
Tint: +7
For the pop:
Clarity: +30
Vibrance: +30
Saturation +15
Your background is fine, she’s just too close to it for your aperture setting and lens length. 75mm is great for portraits but at her distance from the background and your f/4.5 the sheet is too in-focus. Move her 6 feet or so forward to create greater separation from and blur the background.
Check out this depth of field calculator.
Regarding the flat lighting, if it doesn’t make sense to you, the gist of it is there are few shadows and those present are very subtle. The problem is highlights and shadows are how we see and understand 3D form. If the lighting is too flat/soft, our brains get all pissed off because the subject looks two dimensional and that goes against a gillion years of evolution and conditioning.
The opposite would be to have super harsh lighting resulting in little transition between light and shadow on the surface of the subject – which can be dramatic but reminds our mind too much of midday sun and sweating our ass off.
Generally portraitists want something in between. Softboxes can be a useful alternative to umbrellas because they help us control light spill. Too much light spill often = flat lighting.
Spend an hour here:
Regards,
Chuck
Edit: Hmmm. Viewing my post (using IE) the image is redder and slightly brighter than the editing image in Lightroom. On my browser at least, I like Rico's color better.
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