My son helping advertise . . .

Canon Fan · Oct 27, 2005

matthudd said:
how do you achieve such high key effect with no background, did you shoot on a white background. I would love ot know how to do that sorta thing.. I have Photoshop 7 + CS

Pretty simple actually . . .

I set him up on a white background, spot metered (well partial meter anyway, spot for Nikon) a shadow area and locked the exposure using AE lock, used +2/3 exposure comp on my flash and then fine tuned the results in PS. The key is to overexpose the background so it is true white. If you meter the background the entire frame will be dark.

Thanks again for the compliments everyone! I'll see if I have some time soon to write a "How-To" on this one.

Vmann · Nov 1, 2005

Im going to comment more on the ad then the photography. Although both photos are amazing.

The second one makes your photography stand out in the ad more by having your son be more prodominant and showing the detail and quality your photos can achieve. the first one shows your son but I think with the smaller image and the use of your negative space the ad could be lost in the pages of a newspaper or magazine that also uses some form of white for the background.

Also did you adjust one of the photos after you added the logo. The first has a lighter gray that I like while the second photos whites and grays seem to have a tint of Brown added.

Just a thought

michelejo · Nov 2, 2005

They're both terrific, but I especially love the second. He's so cute. I'm a sucker for baby pics, but really, they are great. (Not to gush or anything, LOL...)

matthudd · Nov 2, 2005

Canon Fan said:
Pretty simple actually . . .

I set him up on a white background, spot metered (well partial meter anyway, spot for Nikon) a shadow area and locked the exposure using AE lock, used +2/3 exposure comp on my flash and then fine tuned the results in PS. The key is to overexpose the background so it is true white. If you meter the background the entire frame will be dark.

Thanks again for the compliments everyone! I'll see if I have some time soon to write a "How-To" on this one.

Really helped me.. thank you very much, were just getting introduced to the studio on my ND Photography course. We will be doing portraiture for this project. We have just talked about High and low key lighting..

Cheers#!!

Canon Fan · Nov 2, 2005

Vmann said:
I like while the second photos whites and grays seem to have a tint of Brown added.

Yes that is because the second photo is DuoTone, not black and white. I see your point about the white space in the first somewhat, but then this was only a self imposed little excersise not an actuall ad. Thanks for the input on it from an "ad" point of view though. I'll keep this in mind when I do some real ad's in the near future.