Studio portrait

[Vaporous]

Another portrait......playing with the lighting The dark eyes are from another photo shoot right before this one where there was dark make-up applied around the eyes for a mask.

 

[Puscas]

I see weird smudges all over the pic. It looks unintentionally. Did you do any heavy PS with this one? Something is not right.





pascal

 

[skieur]

Body parts such as face or arm cut in half by lighting do NOT a good portrait make.

skieur

 

[Vaporous]

I see weird smudges all over the pic. It looks unintentionally. Did you do any heavy PS with this one? Something is not right.





pascal

I'm not sure what that is but I did notice it. But I didn't do hardly any photoshop.

 

[THORHAMMER]

the cropping is not bothering me, its just not jumping out at me,
might be a little too dark, not sure, but it doesnt have that PUNCH you want..

Cant put my finger on it...

 

[AbelR74]

Interesting shot. A nice big white reflector to camera left might have taken away the nearly dark right side of the models face. Oh, and yes I do see some kind of smudges or pixelation in the image.

 

[Digital Matt]

There's nothing wrong with 1 light heavy shadow portraits. It's a stylized image and I think it works, just obviously not for everyone. My advice would be to clone out or burn the small highlight the eye on his dark side.

 

[NJMAN]

I like this shot. 2 things come to mind for me though. I agree about the catch light in the dark eye, either show more of the eye or clone out the light.

When Thorhammer said it doesnt have the punch you want, it might be that it needs a kicker light that defines the edge of his head on the dark side. You may also want to consider a side light on the dark side that shows just enough light on that side of the face, but also keeps most of the face dark (if that makes any sense ;-))

Having said that, I still think this style is quite good. :thumbup:

 

[Vaporous]

NJMAN Thanks for the lighting advice.....I've been doing alot of research on proper lighting to soften the skin a bit. I used a very large homeade soft box. I really need two of them.

Matt- Thank you, the heavy light on one side was intentional I went back and forth as to removing the highlight spot on the left eye as well. I should have went with my first instinct!

Still not sure what the pixelation look is ......on my work computer it looks normal but at home on my flat screen it does have weird "pixely" look for having very little PS. Hummm. I did post process in Nikons software, maybe I'll leave them and only do post process in my Corel PS next time.

 

[Digital Matt]

Melis, if you are looking to light your subject to soften skin, side lighting is not the best idea. When you light from the side, you increase contrast and texture. To soften skin with light alone, a large softbox, very close to the subject, and appropriate fill will work.

 

[Vaporous]

Melis, if you are looking to light your subject to soften skin, side lighting is not the best idea. When you light from the side, you increase contrast and texture. To soften skin with light alone, a large softbox, very close to the subject, and appropriate fill will work.

Ahhh ok........I'll have to move it closer next time and do some more experimenting. How large of a softbox? I'm using 14x22 inches roughly. Studio is definitely a challenge. Thanks for the advice.

 

[Digital Matt]

The size of the light source affects how soft the light is. The size of the light source (in relation to the subject) changes as you move it closer. A 8x12 foot softbox is huge, but so is a 2x3 foot softbox at 6 inches from the subject.

I use a 2x3 foot softbox. If I wanted the quality light I can get from that softbox while shooting a full length portrait, I'd need to get a much bigger softbox, or shoot differently, like by bouncing off of a large reflector or wall.

 

[wildmaven]

I don't think that's an eye highlight. It looks more like a hot pixel to me.