Portrait of my Son, New SoftBox

vipgraphx · Nov 9, 2014

Here it is in BW. I used silver effex to do my conversion. Not sure if this works or I should of went a little more dramatic on the highlights and shadows.

softbox test bw by VIPGraphX, on Flickr

Braineack · Nov 9, 2014

Looks good bw but needs more contrast on the conversion

vipgraphx · Nov 9, 2014

Yeah that's what I thought as well.

Derrel · Nov 9, 2014

One interesting thing is that the hair light's positioning is causing small specular highlights on his ear, his shoulder, his thumbnails, and a little bit on the top of his hair. This illustrates a lighting behavior many people are not aware of: as a hair or rim-light is moved closer and closer to the camera lens axis, the light becomes "hotter and hotter". If for example, the hair-light or rim light is off to the side, like say at the 9 o'clock position, it's subtle; but, as the light goes "around and behind" the subject and gets to the 11 to 2 o'clock position, the light becomes VERY "hot"--even if it's a relatively weak light!

I'm not saying that is bad or anything; it is in fact, pretty popular these days, to have hot highlights on the side or even both sides of a face--it's become a sort of style of the 2010's decade. But it's just something to be aware of, that if the hair or rim-light is off to "the side", it's soft, but as it is moved more "straight on" and close to the axis the lens sees the subject at, the "hotter" the light becomes. Which means only a very tiny amount of light is needed if the hair/rim-light is positioned in the 11 to 2 o'clock range of angles.