Nicolaas de Bruin Lighting

[kittybuddha]

Anyone have a clue how Nicolass de Bruin - http://www.ndbmphoto.com - lights

his close-up beauty shots? I'm speaking specifically about the two beauty

shots of the women with fur hoods. I love the sparkling, shimmering quality of

his photos.

[emre]

I'm not sure I see sparkle and shimmer, but I do see a smooth tonality in all his pictures that comes from shooting MF. Do not forget to pay attention to the lighting and make-up.

[eugene_scherba]

The idea that smooth tonality comes from shooting MF is a myth. Smooth tonality comes

from using soft boxes!

[emre]

I am not referring to that. Look at the incredible amount of color detail. You do not get that from a 6MP Bayer-arrayed DSLR.

[eugene_scherba]

6MP Bayer has 1024 columns of *perfect* color detail in vertical

orientation, but let's say the lens is not very sharp, so we call it

800. Vertical pictures on his site are 406-412 pixels wide, so the

lowly

6MP Bayer is more than enough. His horizontal pictures are somewhat

less impressive than vertical

ones, but maybe I haven't found good samples. I'm not saying he shot

these pictures with a 10D, I'm just saying

that 10D is perfectly enough for previews of this quality on a

website.<br /><br />

 

All said is fine, but -- guess what -- Photoshop's default is 2x2 px

color smoothing algorithm for JPEGs -- meaning you have 2x less

color resolution in *any* JPEG on the web unless you explicitly

specify 1x1 px sampling in ImageMagick.<br /><br />

 

 

If you don't believe me, try using Lanczos downsampling via

ImageMagick on your

pictures instead of Photoshop's default Bicubic. Choose 1x1 sampling

for JPEGs. Also, abstain from

*any* sharpening except for a weak 0.3px unsharp mask when resized.

To me this was like opening my eyes...<br /><br />

 

Of course, make up retouching, and having models under 30 plays a

not-so-small role as well.

But *the* major role is just taking time to correctly set up a large

softbox.

[eugene_scherba]

<p>Since Emre never believes me until I prove things to him :), here is an example:</p>

 

<center>

<img src="http://eugenescherba.com/medium/46cc95f92aaf1" />

</center>

<br />

 

<p>This is

an example of good color resolution. The image is a 1017-pixel wide crop from an

8-megapixel Canon 20D RAW file (scroll down to see the entire

image), processed with <a href="http://www.iridientdigital.com/products/

rawdeveloper.html">RAW Developer</a> with Richardson-Lucy deconvolution (30

iterations with 0.5 px kernel). The width was reduced to 400 px using Lanczos

downsampling with

ImageMagick, and a JPEG was created with 92% quality and 1x1 subsampling option.

Unsharp

mask was applied with 0.4 px radius, 0.4 px sigma, and "+1" amount in ImageMagick.

Notice the fine detail in the red-dyed fur coat.</p>

 

 

<center>

<img src="http://eugenescherba.com/medium/46cc96748f83f" />

</center>

<br />

<p>This is an example of <i>poor</i> color resolution. Processing

exactly the same as above <i>except</i> 2x2 subsampling was selected for JPEG

output.

Note that the detail in fur is lost due to JPEG chroma subsampling.</p>

 

<center>

<img src="http://eugenescherba.com/medium/46cc97296fba6" />

</center>

<br />

<p>

This is the entire image.

</p>

[kittybuddha]

Thanks, everyone. However, my question was about lighting.

 

"A great photograph is 90% lighting."

 

- Richard Avedon

[eugene_scherba]

The pictures you're talking about are mostly backlit by the sky,

with a touch of softened fill flash. This can be done with pretty

much any

flash with a softening modifier, however the flash should not "sit"

on top of the camera, but should

be handled by your assistant. Make sure you're able to adjust flash

exposure compensation. How you get the prodigious lens

flare ("sparkle and shimmer") that's another question; I suppose the

best way is just to use lenses that exhibit flare

and wish yourself luck.

[l_cropper]

eugene - yes please, this was about lighting, not post production work, although we got your point loud and clear, i think its meant for another post ;-))))

[nicolaas_de_bruin2]

I am glad there is an interest in my lighting..... honestly the magic start before and after lighting. It is makeup and post production

(retouching).

Light needs to be right, but I don't spend hours lighting models..there is no time to do this. I use pretty simple lighting that makes the

model looks great (we decide which light modifier we use once the model is on set......or during meetings with clients/mags we decide

on which model would look best with the light the client prefers).

 

Hope this all makes sense.....by the way we use 35mm and medium format digital camera's.....and after retouching it is very hard to see

the difference between the 2...there is a difference, but it is only for the trained eye to discover.