FIrst ever "model" shoot

[JaimeGibb]

No, Im not in RAW. To be honest, I have heard a lot about it, but dont know how to do it. Enlighten me?! Hehe.

Maybe its because I have a MAC, but your version actually looks too bright to me.

Her skin is very red due too over-tanning, and her hair is dyed bleach blonde...I don't know if that has anything to do with the awkward coloring?

Luckily she's not a client, just a girl willing to be my guinea pig

 

[elsaspet]

No, Im not in RAW. To be honest, I have heard a lot about it, but dont know how to do it. Enlighten me?! Hehe.

Maybe its because I have a MAC, but your version actually looks too bright to me.

Her skin is very red due too over-tanning, and her hair is dyed bleach blonde...I don't know if that has anything to do with the awkward coloring?

Luckily she's not a client, just a girl willing to be my guinea pig

Hi Jamie.
Raw is really cool. You can super easily fix white balance, and you can bring photos up or down up to 4 stops.
It's a lifesaver. Believe me. When you do this for a living, you can't mess up even a little bit.

It's not the MAC that makes things too bright. I suspect it's an uncalibrated monitor. I calibrate my monitor weekly because I e-mail photos to my lab in New York, and they can't be off at all. What I see on my monitor, is how things will actually print. You can get an inexpensive calibration system at your local computer store. Some are as cheap as 29 bucks. When working with real clients, which I assume you are gearing up for, this is a must have. Having an uncalibrated monitor that is set too light, might explain why you didn't notice the two stops down on the photo.

I have the new Adobe Lightroom, and so I'm lucky that I can change Jpegs up to 2 stops (Raw to 5 stops), and set white balance on photos, which couldn't be done a few years ago.

The white balance I showed you was the correct one, using her shirt. I deal with overly tan brides all the time, and once lit, the tan fades away, as it should have in your photo. What you see happen, in my corrected version, is once the lighting comes up, the pigment comes up.

I started out once upon a time too, and you have to treat those guinea pigs just like they are real live clients. Those are your portfolio builders, and will be what every future prospective client looks at.

I'm not familiar with your name, so perhaps you are not familar with what I do around here. I'm here to help and motivate. Not to bring down. Please never take anything I say as negative because it is surely not meant that way. Anything I say always comes from a true hope that you succeed, and what nuggets I give you, are always from the long road I have traveled to find success.

And I wish you that success as well.
Happy Shooting.

 

[Lyncca]

It's not the MAC that makes things too bright. I suspect it's an uncalibrated monitor. I calibrate my monitor weekly because I e-mail photos to my lab in New York, and they can't be off at all. What I see on my monitor, is how things will actually print. You can get an inexpensive calibration system at your local computer store. Some are as cheap as 29 bucks. When working with real clients, which I assume you are gearing up for, this is a must have. Having an uncalibrated monitor that is set too light, might explain why you didn't notice the two stops down on the photo.

It really looks too bright to me too. Now I KNOW this work monitor isn't calibrated correctly, but if anything it is way too dark... How do you know that it is 2 stops under by the software? (Not questioning if you are right or not, I just want to know how to do it too!)

The white balance I showed you was the correct one, using her shirt.

How did you check the white balance on a portion of the picture through lightroom? Again, I'm trying to learn all this stuff too Thanks for your help. Your pictures rule!

 

[elsaspet]

It really looks too bright to me too. Now I KNOW this work monitor isn't calibrated correctly, but if anything it is way too dark... How do you know that it is 2 stops under by the software? (Not questioning if you are right or not, I just want to know how to do it too!)



How did you check the white balance on a portion of the picture through lightroom? Again, I'm trying to learn all this stuff too Thanks for your help. Your pictures rule!

Hi Lyncca,

I don't know if you have Lightroom, but basically, you bring a photo in, and then you use a dropper to select the white balance using a true white in the photo.

Then they have little sliders to help you get the right exposure using histograms. If you don't have it right, it practically screams at you.

Lightroom is an easy cheesy way of doing things. I had the super expensive Capture One Pro forever, but lightroom blows the doors off it.

Proper calibration is soooooooo important, and something that many photographers ignore. You are selling visual images. So your images have to be as perfect as possible. You can't mess up here, or you will end up eating a crapload of photos from the lab.

Short of bringing you to my studio, I can't show you what I'm seeing. But I assure you that it's dead on accurate.

 

[JaimeGibb]

Elaspet, don't worry, I definitly know you are not trying to bring me down!!! I have seen some nasty posts on here, and thats definitly not you I have been here for a while, posting mainly kid shots, but not often. I mostly browse. But its a daily check website, along with my email

I appreicate all the advice SOOOO much. You are right, I want to do this "professionally" so anything to help me get better is what I am looking to do!!!

Can you tell me what shooting in raw means, and how to do it??

 

[elsaspet]

Elaspet, don't worry, I definitly know you are not trying to bring me down!!! I have seen some nasty posts on here, and thats definitly not you I have been here for a while, posting mainly kid shots, but not often. I mostly browse. But its a daily check website, along with my email

I appreicate all the advice SOOOO much. You are right, I want to do this "professionally" so anything to help me get better is what I am looking to do!!!

Can you tell me what shooting in raw means, and how to do it??

I started with the 20D. It is a super nice camera. Go to your menu. Then go to "Quality". Select the one that says "RAW" It's going to eat about 3 times as much card space, but do it. It will honestly save your life someday.

With RAW, you are going to need some special software. Canon has one that you can download, or you can use any version of Photoshop (not elements) or Lightroom or Capture One. There are also free RAW processers on the internet.

Basically, what shooting RAW does, it makes YOU the lab. So you can change pretty much everything in a photo. Once you master that, you can go far far beyond that.

 

[elsaspet]

Also, keep in mind, if your monitor is too bright, every photo you show a client online is going to be way too dark.
I can't stress how important monitor calibration is.

 

[JaimeGibb]

Oh wow. I am back at home now, on our, still Mac, desktop as opposed to my laptop which I always use, and my picture is DEFINITELY yellow and your picture looks not nearly as bright!!! Crazy what the difference is. I have a lot of work to do Thanks so much for your input, you have helped a LOT!