studio headshot

[ztriola]

it doesnt look that blue on my computer but once it was on flickr it turned like that. i dont know. there was an umbrella to the his right and a reflector to his left. i used a lightsphere behind his head so it would spread the light enough for a rimlight and br light.

comments?

 

[Jeffro]

Blue shirt blue background TOO much blue!

 

[rufus5150]

Agree with the blue/blue assessment. A hairlight would have helped immensely as well. The kicker's really hot on his ear but none on his shoulders which doesn't help the background separation at all.

 

[Derrel]

The lightsphere behind his head has made his ear too hot,and the rimlighting on his ear looks bad. His hair badly needs light to illuminate it and differentiate it. Just eyeballing the shot, it looks like you could use the Highlight/Shadow tool to pull the hair (shadow) values up a bit.

My suggestion is that the lightsphere immediately behind the head is too close, and blacking out one side of it would have helped; when you pop a light onto a background to create a graduated fill effect in-camera, it's less necessary to have a separation light on the subject's ears and neck.

 

[Big Mike]

I agree, the biggest issue is the lack of a hair light (or at least some definition in his hair).
And yes, the back light isn't working all that well.

As for the blue, I think it's good that you keyed the shirt and the background together. This usually lets the clothing blend with the background, allowing the eye to easily focus on the subject's face, where is should be. In this case, the backdrop is a little bright though. I think it would be better if the BG wasn't so bright (and sparkly) and if the subject was a little brighter. (he looks to be underexposed).

it doesnt look that blue on my computer but once it was on flickr it turned like that. i dont know.

Were you working/viewing in a color space other than sRGB? If so, that might be your problem.

 

[ztriola]

thank you all for your help. i agree, the hairlight would have really given this some punch. as for the blue, i was kind of going for that all blending blue look. i also think you are right about the br being too bright..

 

[rufus5150]

In light of mike's comments I reviewed and agree that there's an advantage to matching colors... I think the real root of the problem isn't the colors but the fact that the background is sorta speckle-ish and the shirt has the stripe pattern. Solid blue might have sufficed better in at least the shirt.

 

[ztriola]

yes, i was aware of that too but i wasnt sure if it would be a problem. do you think that this would be a good sample to show possible future clients?