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Archive 2014 · Kevin McMahon...author/educator

rdphotos
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p.1 #1 · p.1 #1 · Kevin McMahon...author/educator

just had the pleasure of doing some images for a local author that wanted to update his headshot and get some other images for an upcoming book.

blew out the background to allow the graphics design team to create the background for the book and to allow text

any advice...pointers...critiques or offers of a beer are always welcome!

http://ppcdn.500px.org/77466935/68f2a86831845c5633917070ad508cad6c6037d8/4.jpg

http://ppcdn.500px.org/77594819/5373a3697495e18776c5358109daa68ee2272bad/4.jpg

Jul 24, 2014 at 12:54 PM

Peter Figen
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p.1 #2 · p.1 #2 · Kevin McMahon...author/educator

It looks like when you were in the process of blowing out the background, some of that explosion hit his face too. He feels more than a bit on the hot side. Also, depending on what background is going to be put behind him, unless it's white, white might not be the best BG color to start with. In the first shot especially, you can see how you've lost hair detail on the top of his head, and it looks like some masking issues with his right (camera left) ear.

Jul 24, 2014 at 01:31 PM

rdphotos
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p.1 #3 · p.1 #3 · Kevin McMahon...author/educator

what would be a better background color to use? I figured white was rather neutral and could be manipulated easily.

I do tend to shoot a little on the hot side, I will bring the exposure down and check the ear you are talking about as well

Thanks for feedback...helps me learn and get better!

Jul 24, 2014 at 04:57 PM

jefferies1
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p.1 #4 · p.1 #4 · Kevin McMahon...author/educator

As mentioned it is on the hot side. A lot of places lost all the detail in the first and even the teeth in the second are blended. That can't be fixed. I would not worry about going too bright on the background. Near white can always be adjusted to be pure white or even removed if you have detail in the whole photo and edges to work with.

I would have also shot wider to include the whole upper body, long headshot. This way you can move the person left or right, up or down on the cover as needed and still have one or two whole shoulders in view plus almost unlimited size adjustment. I usually move off center showing only one shoulder. That allows more placement options and adjustment for text. As shot you are forced to keep him in the center or create a box which distracts from the flow.

Jul 24, 2014 at 05:02 PM

rdphotos
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p.1 #5 · p.1 #5 · Kevin McMahon...author/educator

Hey Jefferies,
I blew out the background to get rid of the shadows thinking it would be best for whoever does the book cover stuff.

I wish I could have shot wider, we were limited to his very small living room (which was cluttered) and I used my large reflector as the backdrop. I would have loved to have done here at the house with my seamless and more space

Here is a re-edit with the exposure dropped and the shadows left on the background. Is this better?

Thanks for the feedback!

http://ppcdn.500px.org/77621187/fb2ab8369b22b08875e4d78f7a484b966dca616c/4.jpg

Jul 24, 2014 at 05:59 PM

friscoron
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p.1 #6 · p.1 #6 · Kevin McMahon...author/educator

I think the issue is, with your effort to blow out the background, he was way too close to the background, and as the others mentioned, he was blown out a bit in the process. No matter what, I'd always recommend to get your subjects away from your background, create some separation.

Jul 24, 2014 at 07:19 PM

Peter Figen
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p.1 #7 · p.1 #7 · Kevin McMahon...author/educator

"I blew out the background to get rid of the shadows thinking it would be best for whoever does the book cover stuff."

This is the sort of conversation you should have with the art director, publisher, whoever is going to be responsible, prior to the shoot, so you shoot it the best way possible, anticipating rather than just guessing what might happen.

It's not that you can't put any background behind this. It's that white or near white makes it harder to put a dark background due to background spill into the hair. I did a quick version here on a laptop with a trackpad and not my best tools, but it's good enough to get the idea across. Your new darkened exposure was still pretty hot. I took it down and then a special little L*a*b trick to the skin highlights, then a simple gradated background. Anyhow it's just an idea.

Jul 24, 2014 at 10:36 PM

Peter Figen
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p.1 #8 · p.1 #8 · Kevin McMahon...author/educator

Also took his overall saturation down a tick and took some yellow out of his teeth. If I were delivering this, I'd deliver a layered file with a perfect mask that would let them drop in whatever background they wanted. I would not trust that any art director would have the chops to pull this off at a professional level. You might even have to make multiple versions depending on whether a dark or light bg or color is used, and how that affects the edges.

Jul 24, 2014 at 10:40 PM

swordfishphoto
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p.1 #9 · p.1 #9 · Kevin McMahon...author/educator

Not a bad job Peter. Looks a bit choppy, could just be the resolution.

Basically, I echo what everyone else above just said. Except a little more drunkenly.

Jul 25, 2014 at 12:02 AM

Peter Figen
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p.1 #10 · p.1 #10 · Kevin McMahon...author/educator

Like I said, it's the best (well not quite) that I could do on a laptop only using a trackpad. It's just to get the idea across. Y'know, a picture is how many words.

Jul 25, 2014 at 01:15 AM

rdphotos
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p.1 #11 · p.1 #11 · Kevin McMahon...author/educator

Wow!
clearly I still have a lot to learn when it comes to post processing. I admit that it is not my strength at all.
I thought mine looked good until I saw yours!
How about I send you the files and you edit for me!! I'll buy you a six pack!

Thanks for the feedback and tips!

Jul 25, 2014 at 05:33 AM

miguellara
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p.1 #12 · p.1 #12 · Kevin McMahon...author/educator

Hi rdphotos....

I am not an expert but I think that the issue here is not the post processing, you need to plan ahead before you even take the shoot, the post processing is supposed to enhance the image, not to fix problems with the image, specially lighting problems.

For a shot like this you need to get the subject much further from the background so the light that you use to blow the background is not spilled into the subject.
The best method I've seen to do this is to have one or preferable two lights pointing at the background... totally separated of any influence of the subjects lighting, and then light your subject with its own set of lights. I don't know if I make any sense.

Try these, set your lights and turn off the speedlights/strobe that light the subject and just leave on the ones that light the background.... take a shot of it..... the subject should be shown as silhouette only (or almost), that will tell you that the background light is not contributing in the subjects lighting, which is they way it is supposed to be.... then turn the background lights off and just leave the subjects lights on..... that should give you an almos black background with your subject well lit...... now turn everything on and the shoot should be a well lit subject with a perfect white background.

Also, when you light the background, don't overexpose it, because the extra light bounced from it to your lens will cause ghosting and loose detail on the subject.

Like I said, I am not expert, but this is what I've been reading and been experimenting with and it seems to work.

Good luck.

Edited on Jul 25, 2014 at 12:32 PM · View previous versions

Jul 25, 2014 at 11:40 AM

Peter Figen
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p.1 #13 · p.1 #13 · Kevin McMahon...author/educator

In Ron's defense here, he did say he was shooting in a very small apartment/room, which makes it doubly hard to light and separate. Sometimes you just have to do the best you can under the circumstances and then fix it later. At least these days you can fix it later, as opposed to twenty years ago when you would just have to live with it.

Jul 25, 2014 at 12:15 PM


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