Steph 2

Please comment & thanks for looking

Very intense eyes with a perfect reflection of the softbox ...great shoot

regards

Anil

I am waiting for my lighting kit for my strobe - I hope to start playing with lighting tools to create images as beautiful as this one!! I hope you will check my attempts out later after christams :) - take care - beautiful photo!!

I am coming back to bug you Ian much more after christmas - I am actually getting another strobe and two stands and umbrellas, so that will be a new venture for me - by the way, just looking at this photo a second time, the eyes are so darn perfectly sharp!! The lips and hair also are nice and crisp, yet the skin is soft and smooth - was there much processing done with her skin here?

The photo was taken at f8 with the focus on the eyes. The skin was a little shiny, not too much but a little. To compensate for this I used a medium sized brush and then sampled a mid tone from the skin, reduced the opacity of the brush to @5% and painted over the areas I felt I needed to address. This does smooth out the skin really well, it just needs a bit of practice to get it to look natural, but its worth the trial and error. Remember when doing this, subtlety is best. Hope this helps you.

Yes Ian - I think it will help alot once I get to practicing it - I have read some different sources regarding processing skin tones - your aaproach seems surprisingly simple - I will fiddle with it very soon!

Very nice photo, I love the light (shadows aren't too strong). Thanks for the pp tips. What focal length did you take this at?

A lovely portrait with very nice control of the light. Now for a tip that has nothing to do with but everything to do with portraiture... Go to the drug store, beauty supply house, whatever and get some oil absorbing tissues. They come in a little packet and your model can blot, not rub, her face to remove the oils that cause shine in images. They will remove the oil without removing the makeup. I always have some in the studio when shooting. Keep an eye out for the shine throughout your shoot and repeat if necessary. Cheers, Raymond