Friend In Natural Light

[Donde]

 

[Rick50]

Nice. The lighting worked very well.

 

[tirediron]

Agreed, it does, 'though the shadows seem to have just a bit too much red in them.

 

[Chrispyphotos]

I agree with tirediron. Dark color tones are difficult to post process because you figure that they should be dark, but then too dark starts to look red/orangish. A simple hue & sat adjustment layer will fix it right up.

 

[Watchful]

How do you know what her natural tone is? Have you met her? Are you speaking in general, or this person in particular?
Just curious why you would assume all skin tones are the same with only variations in lightness-darkness.

 

[mgblunt]

The crop seems to be a bit close on the right side part of a shoulder and arm just my opinion.I love the light.

 

[manaheim]

Uuuuuuuuuuusually when someone puts the words "natural light" in the subject, the photo is a train wreck, so I was expecting the worst.

Not so in this case. Nicely done.

I agree that the crop is tough. I also think the angle of her body and head through the frame contributes to it, because it makes us feel somewhat like there is an element of motion (to the picture, not the subject) implied that leads us to the right... but then there is nothing TO the right.

You may be able to compensate a bit through a bit of a counter-tilt or some cropping on the left. Just speculation.

 

[manaheim]

Yeah, I think I was right. The problem is that there's not a lot of room left to work with in the picture as you've posted and her (I say this without any intention of being crass or childish) breasts are non-trivial and more cropping puts them in a weird spot (or whacks off a portion of them).

BTW, the reds are not nearly as visible when viewed outside a browser. In photoshop the colors look perfect (possibly not red enough) to me.

More and more I'm thinking my computer has lost its mind.

 

[Donde]

Thank you for all those suggestions. Very helpful. I processed the image on a small laptop being away from my desktop and the color looked fine. Seeing it on better equipment the skin tone looks wrong. Here is a version less tightly cropped and de saturated. Also a second from the same visit. As to ¨natural light¨ I am a hobbyist and use no lighting equipment apart from a window that lets in daylight. At the least though I have learned to almost never use the on camera flash.

 

[FITBMX]

They are both really great looks shots!

 

[Chrispyphotos]

How do you know what her natural tone is? Have you met her? Are you speaking in general, or this person in particular?
Just curious why you would assume all skin tones are the same with only variations in lightness-darkness.

You can tell when there are just too many oranges or reds in the shadows of skin when someone skin tone is off. Lighting hitting certain parts of the skin will not desaturate it THAT much and make all of those different tones on the skin, especially a soft light which seems to be what kind of light is hitting her.

Thank you for all those suggestions. Very helpful. I processed the image on a small laptop being away from my desktop and the color looked fine. Seeing it on better equipment the skin tone looks wrong. Here is a version less tightly cropped and de saturated. Also a second from the same visit. As to ¨natural light¨ I am a hobbyist and use no lighting equipment apart from a window that lets in daylight. At the least though I have learned to almost never use the on camera flash.

Much better! nice!

 

[Watchful]

How do you know what her natural tone is? Have you met her? Are you speaking in general, or this person in particular?
Just curious why you would assume all skin tones are the same with only variations in lightness-darkness.

You can tell when there are just too many oranges or reds in the shadows of skin when someone skin tone is off. Lighting hitting certain parts of the skin will not desaturate it THAT much and make all of those different tones on the skin, especially a soft light which seems to be what kind of light is hitting her.

Thank you for all those suggestions. Very helpful. I processed the image on a small laptop being away from my desktop and the color looked fine. Seeing it on better equipment the skin tone looks wrong. Here is a version less tightly cropped and de saturated. Also a second from the same visit. As to ¨natural light¨ I am a hobbyist and use no lighting equipment apart from a window that lets in daylight. At the least though I have learned to almost never use the on camera flash.

Much better! nice!

I have spent time in the sun and had my skin tone turn to a redder tone in one day before. I also knew a lineman that had very red skin tone and was not an native American. I don't think you can draw a line and say all skin tones are on this side, and anything on that side is incorrect, that's all I was getting at.

 

[Didereaux]

Only one strong suggestion. Whatever it takes move the model as far away from your background as possible. In this instance that wall texture simply overpowers the subject....well okay detracts a lot then!

 

[Donde]

Actually I have moved her away from the wall for that reason and can´t get her much further from it. I've shot at f 3.5 and will try opening wider.