Nov 10, 2007, 13:10
In a way, this was sparked off by earlier discussions about raw files in banded drake's hockey thread.
This is Alyssa(my friend's baby) taken at ASA 400 in natural light with my "always on" lens, the Tamron 90mm f2.8. As usual for (my!) portraits, I went wide open, knowing I could lose any edge fluffiness in my cropping....also as usual I just try to focus on the nearest eye then worry about composition afterwards: I can always simulate bokeh with the blur tool after all!
Here's where raw came in useful: the light was a bit contrasty and I knew that odd shadows would be lurking if I was not careful....therefore I overexposed slightly, knowing that digital sensors are better at retaining highlight detail than shadow details.
At the conversion stage I went for the lowest contrast so as to retain all the detail I could in the face. I opted for orange filtration in the mono, as this lightens skin. (By the way, for those not yet in the know about this, orange filtration is great for babies and ladies...really flatters and purifies the skin! If the subject is male, blue filtration does the opposite: brings out every blemish(er, sorry,...detail such as wrinkles and rugged beards, etc
Right, at this stage I now underexposed slightly: this keeps the whites from blowing out if I then go on to add a touch of diffusion to simulate,say, some specific soft-focus portait lens(like Pentax, for instance).
A touch of blur on some extraneous detail, a touch of dodge-highlight and burn-shadow to bring the subject out from the background tones: then the final thing to do as it goes to 8-bit greyscale, some diffusion to soften the skin and allow the eyes to do their thing: I'd also run the burn tool over the eyelashes to help the contrast here(actually, I also usually dodge the eyeballs to get rid of any shadowed greyness)
And there you have it. It may sound a little long-winded but I do like the control I have all the way through the process....AND...I don't possess any flash at all(truthfully, I've never worked out how to do any flash apart from second-curtain stuff in landscapes).
The client was pleased too...and she(the mum) has commissioned me to do these monthly over the next year.
Just thought I'd share a technique that I find useful!
This is Alyssa(my friend's baby) taken at ASA 400 in natural light with my "always on" lens, the Tamron 90mm f2.8. As usual for (my!) portraits, I went wide open, knowing I could lose any edge fluffiness in my cropping....also as usual I just try to focus on the nearest eye then worry about composition afterwards: I can always simulate bokeh with the blur tool after all!
Here's where raw came in useful: the light was a bit contrasty and I knew that odd shadows would be lurking if I was not careful....therefore I overexposed slightly, knowing that digital sensors are better at retaining highlight detail than shadow details.
At the conversion stage I went for the lowest contrast so as to retain all the detail I could in the face. I opted for orange filtration in the mono, as this lightens skin. (By the way, for those not yet in the know about this, orange filtration is great for babies and ladies...really flatters and purifies the skin! If the subject is male, blue filtration does the opposite: brings out every blemish(er, sorry,...detail such as wrinkles and rugged beards, etc
Right, at this stage I now underexposed slightly: this keeps the whites from blowing out if I then go on to add a touch of diffusion to simulate,say, some specific soft-focus portait lens(like Pentax, for instance).
A touch of blur on some extraneous detail, a touch of dodge-highlight and burn-shadow to bring the subject out from the background tones: then the final thing to do as it goes to 8-bit greyscale, some diffusion to soften the skin and allow the eyes to do their thing: I'd also run the burn tool over the eyelashes to help the contrast here(actually, I also usually dodge the eyeballs to get rid of any shadowed greyness)
And there you have it. It may sound a little long-winded but I do like the control I have all the way through the process....AND...I don't possess any flash at all(truthfully, I've never worked out how to do any flash apart from second-curtain stuff in landscapes).
The client was pleased too...and she(the mum) has commissioned me to do these monthly over the next year.
Just thought I'd share a technique that I find useful!
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My band TRASHVILLE, in which I'm lead guitarist: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Z6mU6qaNx08