Hi - Just wanted to introduce myself. I've been a photographer for a fair few years now but only just seen the light and joined Fstoppers..!
I'm a British expat living and working in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia. I shoot commercially and love taking pictures of people. Looking forward to being inspired by this group. Here's some of my work.
It's wonderful to see someone doing work with such personality instead of cookie cutter bokehism....
If I can make one technical suggestion, you might want to back off on exposures and then push a little in post to get the dramatic highlights you like - and use well. The reason is that conventional camera sensors de-saturate and lose colour as they approach highlighting. So a more cautious exposure with a boost in post will produce a richer look to the highlights, like colour negative film.
I appreciate the feedback David and totally take onboard your comment on the exposure. It's something I know I fall foul of when shooting, then often have fix in post. Thanks.
Well, if you know about highlight desaturation, you're ahead of most people. I agree with your choice to make highlights an important part of the image - they give a drama and liveliness nothing else does. If you can stand the pain, shooting with either colour negative film or a Sigma Foveon camera does let you treat them more aggressively.