I'm not going to respond directly to anything Smoke said above, since I'm assuming he's no longer reading this thread.
Rather than repeating myself again about what's been annoying me, I'm going to drop the subject for now. If it comes up again, I'm just going to try to restate and/or rephrase my question without getting mad.
One thing that would like to make clear is that I don't mind people giving me "extra" helpful information that I didn't ask about. I honestly appreciate that. Just please make sure that, wherever possible, it's
in addition to answering the question that I asked, and not
instead of it.
I've gotten many helpful comments and pieces of advice in this thread, and I thank you all for that. There are two specific things I'd still like to request feedback on:
1 - The edits I made to photo #1 earlier. Did I do enough? Too much? Too little? Which of the two edits is better?
2 - The colors in photo #2 (or #4, if you think that pose is better). In what direction, if at all, do the colors need to be corrected? I can change blue/orange balance, green/purple balance, and saturation. I will say that I've increased the saturation from the unedited image; knowing that, do you think I increased it too much? Do you think the colors need to be shifted away from orange, green, neither, or both?
A couple of other questions.
I raised the exposure in the Lr by just over 1/3 of a stop or .39.
In order to do this, do I just need more advanced software, or is this something that can only be done to .RAW files?
Reflectors
- Caution, a reflector is a sail. The bigger it is, the more wind it will catch, and the harder it will be to control it.
With stands, you will NEED sandbags, to hold down the legs of the stand. But if the wind is strong enough, even the sandbags won't work.
In certain situations, the best reflector stand is a person/friend holding the reflector.
- You will sooner or later end up with several reflectors and light modifiers; different sizes (big, medium and small) and different colors (gold, silver, white, blend), a light block (a black reflector to block the light), a diffuser (a translucent material to diffuse/soften the light).
- The size you use depends on the subject and image. Why use a BIG reflector for a head and shoulder portrait. But the BIG reflector is a larger source of light, so it can work well for H&S shots. If you are doing full length shots, you may indeed need a couple BIG reflectors. It all depends on the shoot, environment and lighting conditions.
And remember the bigger the reflector the more wind it will catch.
- As for "smaller reflector taking less time to adjust." IMHO, size does not matter, they will all take time to adjust. The better you get at reading the light, and understanding how to use the reflector in that situation, the faster it will go.
That's all very informative, and I appreciate that it's ultimately good to have multiple of everything. But what should I get more of
first?
Put it this way; assuming that I have between 3 and 4 reflectors, what's a good mix of small and large?
To clarify, what I actually have is a large disk that can be converted to gold, silver, white, black, or a diffuser. So I currently have access to all of those things, but only one at a time.