The Night Before Christmas

smoke665 · Nov 21, 2019

Any better on the face??????????????????? Also brought up the shadows slightl

tirediron · Nov 21, 2019

smoke665 said:
Any better on the face??????????????????? Also brought up the shadows slightly.
View attachment 182693

Perfect on the face. Crop a bit of the RH edge away, as in the one above, and you've nailed it.

smoke665 · Nov 21, 2019

tirediron said:
Perfect on the face. Crop a bit of the RH edge away, as in the one above

Went back and sat in the dark for a bit studying the set. The curve and shadow of the chair, with all the lights off except the lamp is actually cast by the lamp. The addition of the key made it a tad more contrast/dark, but didn't change the shape of the shadow much. Still not sure about the overall brightness but I'm close enough that I have to move on with the processing. Here's another with a slight more crop, and dragging up the shadows and midtones.
View attachment 182694

zulu42 · Nov 21, 2019

Love it!

You put this grandpa to shame. You've inspired me to do some serious shooting of the grandkids.

stapo49 · Nov 21, 2019

I don't know much about the technicalities, soft boxes and reflectors etc, but the overall atmosphere and look you have created is beautiful.

CherylL · Nov 21, 2019

Bill, this set is wonderful! Looking at all of the versions I am leaning towards the original and slightly cropped. I prefer the darker shadows. Thanks for posting the lighting setup even though I got lost part way thru. Way over my skill set.

smoke665 · Nov 21, 2019

@CherylL Thank you!!!! The darker shadows look better on my monitor and if my labs profiles are correct will look better printed , but unfortunately web doesn't.

Derrel · Nov 21, 2019

Very good!

Photo Lady · Nov 22, 2019

This is a beautiful treasure photo

smoke665 · Nov 22, 2019

Thanks for all the comments, following @Derrel 's advise to wait a few days and go back, and @tirediron 's advice on lighting. Added a 4th light camera right high as a hair light, to get a little more separation on from the subject and chair. reflector front center on the floor angled up. After looking at the processing, overall I went with a color temperature of 7500 to give it a nice glow, followed everyone's crop advice and clipped it at the edge of the shadow, evened the exposure more across the frame to give more light in the shadows, settled on a nice "vintage profile", raised the black point to soften the image, added just a tad grain, and went with a white vignette to give the image a more Christmasy feel. Best thing is everything Synced across all the images, and I'm ready for the next set today. Thanks all!! One of the cuter ones with Mimi and her Mini Me.

no-image-available-grid.jpg by William Raber, on Flickr

Derrel · Nov 22, 2019

Outstanding.

tirediron · Nov 22, 2019

By George... I think he's done it!

smoke665 · Nov 22, 2019

I'm like a leaf in a hurricane when it comes to finalizing a direction in processing. I know all the ways I can go, just cant seem to pick one. That's why I'm grateful for those on TPF and their "unvarnished" opinions really helps me focus.

johngpt · Nov 26, 2019

Bill, this last one is outstanding. Nice even lighting on the faces without any hot spots. Nice visualization of all your scene elements. I even like the light vignette.

smoke665 · Nov 26, 2019

johngpt said:
Bill, this last one is outstanding. Nice even lighting on the faces without any hot spots. Nice visualization of all your scene elements. I even like the light vignette.

Thank you for the kind words. This was a little outside my comfort zone matching ambient, LED, and strobe, which caused a bit if stress, but once it was dialed in, it seemed to go well.