Studio Portrait C&C please

[Oz_Beachside]

Been working on my studio lighting for set portraits, and would like to offer one from today for critique.

I am not happy with my color management before and after CS2, and need some help with that, but for now, I would appreciate feedback on aspects outside of color.

thanks in advance.
Oz

[Nnnnsic]

I like the composition... not sure about the smile she's giivng.

Your colour seems... odd... very orange... as if she's been bronzed.

She looks very Ooompa-Loompa-ian right now, Bruce. Might want to mess with the colour for less of a singing-&-dancing-midget tone.

[marcotrov]

Love the rim lighting quality and the essential pose you have achieved here Oz. I tend to agree with Leigh re-the skin tone and the smile looking a little strained. I also think that the face itself, particularly the eyes and mouth, are a little too soft. It could be how it translates on my monitor too.
Would you explain the setup? Did you use a gold reflector?
cheers
marco

[Cre8tivepixels]

Hey Matey,

Great model/pose/lighting/outfit BUT i agree with Leigh, you need to make the tones (WB) a little cooler.......she looks like she has a kidney complaint

Great work otherwise.......

Dan

[Oz_Beachside]

I like the composition... not sure about the smile she's giivng.

Your colour seems... odd... very orange... as if she's been bronzed.

She looks very Ooompa-Loompa-ian right now, Bruce. Might want to mess with the colour for less of a singing-&-dancing-midget tone.

I cant for the life of me work out what is wrong with my photoshop. I view in windows viewer, its neutral WB, open in CS2, its then too warm, edit, and save, and then view and its too cold, somehting to do with profiles, but I'm in sRGB all the way through, but must be a missing link.

In addition, I was using an orange gel on the backlight, so that added to the orange. Skin tones were also due to color of spray tan. Once I work out my CS2 color management problem, then I can fixed it with confidence...

[Oz_Beachside]

Would you explain the setup? Did you use a gold reflector?
cheers
marco

Setup was one monoblock, mounted on collapsed backlight stand, directly behind seat, at seat height. WIth a backlight reflector, with clips holding onto orange gel. Think backlight was f16-22. Shot at f13.

Backdrop was a black cotton full length drop.

Camera Left, close to model, was a large softbox, set to f8-11. Camera right, was a white reflector perpendicular to camera, mounted vertically (no tilt).

D200 with 70-200 VR off, at 86mm.

WB was flash, -1. Thought about using the grey card, but was not sure with the colored gels, so went with flash -1. Still intend to adjust level in PP.

[Oz_Beachside]

Hey Matey,

Great model/pose/lighting/outfit BUT i agree with Leigh, you need to make the tones (WB) a little cooler.......she looks like she has a kidney complaint

Great work otherwise.......

Dan

Thanks for the feedback. I love your work!

What do you think about knees? I usually crop just above, but this one I cropped to the jacket wasit belt, what do you think?

[wendellt]

if tyhe orange gel is spilling

use a black scrim behind you to absorb the geled light
then fit the front strobe with a blue gel

see if that does anything

also dont use the auto white balance on the camera

try a manual white balance of 5000K then go down to 2700K dependign on results

regarding the pose its good but if you cant see the chair that crunch pose looks a bit odd

[PiroStitch]

it could be that photoshop isn't reading the WB correctly...maybe? like the lighting and composition, but agreed that she's wayy too orange

[Oz_Beachside]

thanks for the input Wayne and Wendell, I appreciate it.

Man, I must need to be hit with a bat to get WB right!

[PiroStitch]

bruce, i'd be happy to organise a time that's convenient for both of us to come around and check it out for you.

[Cre8tivepixels]

Knees work in this one, but boy are knees ugly in general.......lol.....i try to crop em out where ever possible......

[Hudo]

Hi,

From my experience with experimenting with various temperature lights to get the tanned look on a model and from watching an associate of mine who shoots for Ralph / Picture /People work I'd suggest the orange gel does it all the time.

Mark