Waiting... (maternity)

JenR · Jul 24, 2007

Hi all,

I would love some feedback on this one, particularly on the exposure and conversion. Thanks!

Settings:
SS 1/160 sec
f/4.5
ISO 200
Natural light in the garage

Alpha · Jul 24, 2007

Why the extraction?

skieur · Jul 24, 2007

A reflector or even bounced flash off a wall, would have evened the lighting and brightened the shadow areas.

skieur

kundalini · Jul 24, 2007

You captured the moment beautifully with your model, but I have to agree with skieur on the lighting. It looks a little cut n' paste to me.

Hair Bear · Jul 27, 2007

JenR, I really like the shot but thats a poor cut out. The back ground doesn't match and you have left a black out line around the LH side of the image

Was the original background really bad?

JenR · Jul 30, 2007

We had a death in the family last week, so I didn't get back here as quickly as I would have liked.

We used black velvet for a background, but when I converted it BW (her choice), the shadowy side of her head got lost in the background. I tried to fix it by changing the background color. Can you recommend a better method, since mine is pretty lousy? This is what it looks like before I tried to get creative...

We will be trying again when we get together in about a month, so I will be sure to use a reflector to lighten up the shadows.

Thank you all for your time and comments!! I really appreciate it!

Alpha · Jul 30, 2007

It's too obvious that you did an extraction. And the shadowy part of her head doesn't have any detail anyway. I say stick with the black bg.

theusher · Jul 31, 2007

Personally I like the black, I think it adds drama.

Big Mike · Jul 31, 2007

I also like the black version better. Next time, get some light on her shadow side...or even have something behind her for rim light. That will give her separation from the background.

NJMAN · Jul 31, 2007

I like the black background too. Its a really nice maternity portrait.

JenR · Jul 31, 2007

Thanks for the time and comments-- I will use them to (hopefully) improve next time!

meotter · Aug 1, 2007

this is a question for the rest of the people here who are more expert than I about portraits, but do you feel that the watch arm and that whole side of the body are a bit overexposed? perhaps a flash box or a bounced flash that would even out the lighting on the subjects front would remove the hotspots on the model?

littlesandra · Aug 5, 2007

I agree on the black being the better of the two shots. I actually enjoy the lighting on it, unless you were going for a different mood with the shot.