3 different people, 3 different looks.

saycheese76 · Feb 11, 2009

I've been lassoing my friends into sitting for me so I can practice different looks. I am lucky to have such good friends.Any advice is welcome. Thanks for looking!
Jason
#1 Window lit with nice chewy late afternoon sun. I inadvertently left the ex comp at -1 so I corrected in ACR, and I warmed the temp up a bit. Other than that, the only post work is a little crop, some mild sharpening, and I cloned a paint stain out of the shirt. This is a very good friend of mine and he has a very animated face. I'd bet he even smiles in his sleep. I like this shot because it is a brief moment of tranquility.

#2 This is another close friend. I have a snooted SB800 high and camera right. I cloned out a bit of clutter in the bottom right edge and a glare on his belt. Other than that, I think this was a "straight print" He is one of the friendliest people that I know, and I think it comes across in the shot. We were also both soused at the time. :lol:

#3 This is a co-worker that I am friends with. I used an SB800 bounced off the ceiling. The background is just normal textured drywall. I was going for a less dramatic look, focusing on Trying to get good exposure.

#4 Window lit at a diner. This one had some cropping, I cloned out some lights in the background, and used a high pass filter to give him a "weathered" look. It's probably a bit heavy-handed, but I went with it. This is another buddy of mine. He kind of looks a bit grumpy, but is one of the nicest guys I know.

saycheese76 · Feb 12, 2009

Shameless bump. Anyone? I'm trying to get some input so I know where I can work at improving.

kundalini · Feb 12, 2009

I count 4. :biggrin:

Nice portraits. Each has a different feel to it and are well done. I like your lighting.

saycheese76 · Feb 12, 2009

kundalini said:
I count 4.

Nice portraits. Each has a different feel to it and are well done. I like your lighting.

Oops, I added one.

Thanks. Just like a million other people, I started snooping around the Strobist site. I am trying to get a handle on the lighting skills. When I shot film, I used to do a lot of night photography, and the reasons I enjoyed that are the reasons I've gotten a kick out of playing around with lighting. Thanks again for looking!
Jason

LaFoto · Feb 12, 2009

The one portrait whose pp you call "a bit heavy-handed" is the one I like best of all four photos shown here, it really "speaks", and looks VERY professional to me, as if he were an actor and you had taken an official portrait of him (seems like a German actor whose name I forgot just now looks quite a bit like him).

The third is the most "normal". Nice, friendly, smiling face... could go as any "profile photo" he might want to have out (if he wants that).

I know way too little (read: next to nothing) about the strobist techniques of lighting to be able to really critique any of these, though. But I like how they are all different, and the facial expression of your first friend photographed does NOT indicate that he smiles and smiles for most of the time!

He looks VERY serious here.

saycheese76 · Feb 13, 2009

LaFoto said:
The one portrait whose pp you call "a bit heavy-handed" is the one I like best of all four photos shown here

Thanks! Someone on the forum recommended the high pass filter when I posted just this pic a while back, so it wasn't my idea. :lol:

LaFoto · Feb 13, 2009

Well, to be honest: I don't even know what "high pass filter" means. I am not sure my antediluvian version of PS HAS such a thing. So what actually does such filter DO?

saycheese76 · Feb 13, 2009

LaFoto said:
Well, to be honest: I don't even know what "high pass filter" means. I am not sure my antediluvian version of PS HAS such a thing. So what actually does such filter DO?

It looks like it kind of sharpens things up a bit. I'm just getting the hang of PS myself, so I can't give you a real answer. Sorry.:mrgreen: