C&C Please

[JAC526]

Hello everyone,

Recently I purchased one of the 5 in 1 reflectors. I decided to press gang my wife into service last night so I could try to figure out what I am doing.

I tried to focus on getting nice even warm tones across the face without crazy shadows.

Let me know what you think:



untitled-7467 by JChick526, on Flickr


untitled-7466 by JChick526, on Flickr

Btw she was holding the reflector for both of these so that kind of limited my ability to pose her.

thanks again for looking,

Joe

 

[JaronRH]

The exposure looks pretty good but the her face kindof has a gray look to it compared to the background. Maybe the gold-color reflector would have worked better?? (warm up her face a bit) Anyway, the arm in the background of the first looks awkward/distracting to me and her expression in both are a little... odd?! Then again, since she was holding the reflector I guess that can be expected!

 

[JAC526]

I wasn't as concerned with her expression as I just wanted to start to learn how to use the reflector.

She is very pale. I don't know if that makes it hard to impart a warm feeling to her face.

I think I have another shot where I did use the gold side.

 

[JaronRH]

She is very pale. I don't know if that makes it hard to impart a warm feeling to her face.

Ahhh, yeah, that would make it very hard! My wife is fair skinned as well so I can understand the challenge!

 

[JAC526]

Thanks for your input.

 

[JaronRH]

I'm not going to win any awwards for the posing in this shot but it does show that it's at least possible to warm up a fair-skinned person! I've found that using the sun as a rimlight really helps give the picture a warmer look.

In this case though, I used a fill-flash instead of a reflector (D700 with SB-700 and Sigma 85mm 1.4 lens. f2.2 @ 1/400s and ISO 400).

 

[JAC526]

It looks good. I think I should of backlit her and filled her face in. The shot probably would of been better.

I think I suck at figuring out white balance as well. I've been using AWB and it just plain sucks. I am going to buy on of those white balance targets and set custom white balance in the future b/c it is driving me nuts.

 

[JAC526]

OK so I got home from work and decided to do a re-edit of the first shot and post another for c&c b/c why not...

I messed with the white balance and I think this renders her skin so much nicer.


untitled-7467 by JChick526, on Flickr

And here is another b/c I like the way it turned out.


untitled-7469 by JChick526, on Flickr

Please tell me what is wrong with them. Beat me up. I don't mind.

Thanks again,

Joe

 

[JaronRH]

I agree - the skin tones look much nicer now!

 

[ronlane]

I like the brighter version of #1 and it to me makes her skin look better. (I struggle with WB too.)

To me personally I think that last one is the best pose of all, but looks underexposed to me. Brighten it up and all is good.

 

[JAC526]

I agree - the skin tones look much nicer now!

Thanks man. I guess I just needed to look at them more than once. Hahaha. Probably shouldn't of been drinking beer while doing the edit.

Amazing what sobriety can do.

 

[JAC526]

I like the brighter version of #1 and it to me makes her skin look better. (I struggle with WB too.)

To me personally I think that last one is the best pose of all, but looks underexposed to me. Brighten it up and all is good.

You are right sir. I brightened it up and here is the result:


untitled-7469 by JChick526, on Flickr

 

[ronlane]

That's my favorite, great job. She should be really happy with that one.

 

[JAC526]

That's my favorite, great job. She should be really happy with that one.

Thanks man...She is my wife so happiness is mercurial.