Judging from the example you posted I\'d say your problems are more related to pose, exposure and sharpening of the files than the lighting.
The way she is posed with arm so much closer to the key light than the dress you can\'t correctly expose the arm without significantly under exposing the dress as it is in you example. Start by using a pose that puts the face and dress closer to the key light than the shoulders or other body parts so you can correctly expose the whites on the dress without clipping the skin tones.
You can\'t expect highlights to pop when they are underexposed. White-on-white requires very precise control over exposure to put the specular reflections just at the point of clipping (255 value) while retaining the textured whites in the 240-245 range.
You also can\'t expect highlights to pop if the file is soft. In a situation where I want added sparkle I make a dupe layer, over-sharpen it a bit, then blend in the over-sharpened layer with a mask. Try doing that with USM set to 500, .3, 0
Oct 07, 2008 at 10:11 AM
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