Some of you may get a laugh from this, after all my critiques of late. This is an opportunistic shot of my daughter, Rebecca. Unusually, she was ready for an evening out, very early. It so happened it was the day I took delivery of my first ever beauty dish. In fact I got two, 44cm and 70cm. My new ELB HS lighting won't be here until tomorrow, so it was shot on one of my 33 years old Elinchrom 66 heads, which are rather limited units, with minimum power being just 3 stops down from full power, so about 74 joules I think. I used the 44cm beauty dish about 3 or perhaps 4 feet away from her face. f10 is not ideal, wanted to open up, to reduce dof and to shorten my shutter speed, 0.4 seconds is a bit long hand-held even with 4 steps of IS. The 100 watts modeling light is also a bit too bright, as per her eyes not being dilated enough. The new light will allow these matters to be addressed by about 3 stops or so.
I have done some editing but not much and as it is a test shot only I have not cleaned up all the stray hairs. My reason for posting it is to seek advice about how people would process editing such a shot. Specifically, what editing workflow, processes and in what order, would you experts suggest, for a portait, for a head shot and for a beauty shot. My skills are in lighting far more than editing. Oh and how best to darken the ear, which is way too bright? Much to learn so little time.
Thanks guys.
I have played with the image a bit since loading the first version, above.
I have also taken delivery of my more 34 years newer and rather more flexible Elinchrom ELB 400 HS, so hopefully, soon I'll be shooting more and better shots. I'll get back when I have something better to show you. In the meantime, all CC welcome and most importantly suggestions as to workflow and any links to expert training films on the subject of retouching such image. Much to learn and so little time.
I have done some very simple d&b. And some other minor stuff. Getting better?
Hey Ian!
This is the first time I've seen you post something here and it''s good to see you finally posting rather than critiquing ;). That isn't to say I want you to stop CC'ing though!
Beautiful portrait of your daughter, genuine smile, and love how her eye colour is complimented by the background.
The light is a bit harsh for me, which has seemed to wash out her skin texture for the most part. I am no artificial light expert so I can't offer a detailed solution other than to low the power of the light used.
What focal length did you use? It looks like you shot wide open because of the DOF, but it also looks like you may have added artificial blur in post around the edges of her hair and ear? It looks cloudy or dreamy around those spots.
There are many sources to go to for retouching workflow and processes, but PHLEARN and Dani Diamond are my go to.
Thanks for all you contribute to the community Ian, just trying to return the favour :)
Mike
Mike thank you. I have a FS portfolio and occasionally posted samples from it, to illustrate some point or other I was trying to make in a critique. But all my prior postings are landscapes and documentary images, so not very challenging in the sense of retouching work and not everyone sees them, or likes them of course.
Thank you for your appreciation of my daughter's pic. She has unusually pale and unusually fine skin, which is so very unlike her dad's, and she likes very pale makeup. So, despite having a high resolution camera and lighting her with what you describe as harsh light there is little texture to see. I have darkend her skin quite a bit, so you can imagine what she really looked like. I think this was shot at 110mm. It was shot at f10. The blurred background was enhansed with iris blur, which was quite, but not entirely, successful. I'll maybe manage a better result next time but also I now have a much more adjustable flash head, so will be able to shoot at about 3 stops lower power and so closer to the light and still at wider apertures.
I have checked out PHLEARN and will look into Dani Diamond, too for education. Thanks for the suggestion, and the support/critique.
You may be alarmed to learn I will continue my CCs but hey, what the heck, noone is obliged to read my reviews are they?
Thanks again.
Haha nope, nobody is obliged, but I consider it a privilege!
I shoot most of my beauty work with a 44cm Beauty dish with either the accompanying sock or the sock and an additional diffuser sheet. I use the Lumopro 180 as the light source and rarely use full power. I tend to shoot at f/8, ISO 100, SS 160-250. As such I selectively increase the exposure in camera raw first, add contrast and about 5 of clarity, then bring into photoshop (i work in photoshop vs. lightroom...I grew up with photoshop). In photoshop, I clean blemishes, clean up brows and lipstick (if necessary) then do a frequency separation (I have an action which includes a D&B layer, a color layer and an eye enhancement layer). Depending on the image, I will either dodge/burn on a blank 50% gray layer or work with the blur or patch tool on the low freq layer. Next I do any eye work, then duplicate the high layer and mask for selective sharpening. Thats the last step before I stamp the layer then do any global work. This is the standard workflow, when the model has no glaring issues.