Desert Beauty

[idcanyon]

The Alvord Desert in SE Oregon, 65 square miles of nothing--and everything. It is hard to take a bad picture here.

This is a brand new remake of a glamour portrait we did 6 years ago. The older one was awarded the grand champion ribbon at the county fair. I think this was a turning point for her self image. It was fun to go back and do it again.
Desert Beauty by Jeff Wurst, on Flickr

 

[Dean_Gretsch]

What type of lighting did you use here? Nice photo!

 

[idcanyon]

Single speedlight in small popup softbox (maybe 1.5 ft??) off to camera right. Speedlight has a green tinted gel on it. Yes, green.

 

[crimbfighter]

She almost looks superimposed. Beautiful landscape behind her. I'd love to have the chance to do a shoot out there!

 

[Destin]

Gorgeous location! Would definitely love to get the chance to shoot there!

 

[Braineack]

She almost looks superimposed.

jeez i wonder why?

 

[Destin]

She almost looks superimposed.

jeez i wonder why?

View attachment 146682

Busted.

 

[idcanyon]

Its selectively processed. I brought her exposure up and the background's exposure down, everywhere, but with a more pronounced change being lower down. The surface of the playa is actually quite light--that's the white/grey around her toes. Another thing that could be contributing to the floating feeling is that I evened out the color and exposure on the desert surface. It had a more neutral colored lighter area where flash spilled on to it. Hence the light on her looks more disconnected with the environment. That's part of the same problem you are seeing--How were her feet hit by flash and the ground wasn't?

Thanks for the feedback. I'll play around with pulling back on some of those edits and see if it comes out better.

 

[Gary A.]

Great location.

 

[crimbfighter]

She almost looks superimposed.

jeez i wonder why?

View attachment 146682

Haha, I honestly didn't look that close.

 

[Braineack]

That's part of the same problem you are seeing--How were her feet hit by flash and the ground wasn't?

my biggest problem is that she's composited onto the picture...

 

[idcanyon]

That's part of the same problem you are seeing--How were her feet hit by flash and the ground wasn't?

my biggest problem is that she's composited onto the picture...

I totally see how it looks that way, a total mess up on my part for sure, definitely too much editing. I thought this was a pretty nice photo. I was really surprised that it got hated on like this.

Curious, does this one look floating or composited?

 

[crimbfighter]

Your explanation does seem plausible. If that's the case, I think you just went too far with the edits. Leaving the flash on the ground would not bother me. We obviously know she is lit with flash, so removing it makes for a very disconnected scene. You could post the SOOC version to quell the uprising.

 

[MLCIII]

Your explanation does seem plausible. If that's the case, I think you just went too far with the edits. Leaving the flash on the ground would not bother me. We obviously know she is lit with flash, so removing it makes for a very disconnected scene. You could post the SOOC version to quell the uprising.

He could post the unedited version, or he could just ignore Braineack's bullying. Nice shot, idcanyon.

 

[Braineack]

Curious, does this one look floating or composited?

Nope. Cause you didn't try to edit out a light source.

He could post the unedited version, or he could just ignore Braineack's bullying.

try not to melt.