Portrait of dancer girl

I love this for its painterly quality... like an old master painting! Would you be so kind to share the process that went into shooting and post editing the image?  Thanks.

George

Great use of light and very good composition. Lovely skin tones. Well done to both of you. Regards.

George thank you for your comment!

In general the process is as following:

1. The lighting settings are pretty much the classic – softbox on the left side, reflector on the right side, spot light on the background. Dark gray background is used.
2. Post processing starts with increasing dynamic range – by opening the Raw image several times with different exposure levels, and using masks to correct the final image. It includes the eyes and hair lighting correction.
3. The regular stuff – Skeen cleansing, crop, alignments etc.
4. Adding old-style texture on the background, using mask.
5. Setting warm-yellow tones, increasing tonal contrast. I use Nik ColorEfex plug-in for that.
6. Decreasing image size, correcting sharpness – that’s all.

Fantastic portrait of a beautiful lady. Well done

Thanks for the explanation, Zachar. I've checked out your portfolio and I am a big fan of yours.  I would love to have the opportunity to pick your brain and learn from you. 

To me, this is what portraits should aspire to be- skillfully captured with properly placed lighting, direction of pose, and exposure. I would describe your style as "classic" in the very best sense of the word. It's rare to find a photographer these days who treats his subject with such care, dignity, and delicate hand. Well done, my friend!

I don't know much about portraiture, but this is amazing. Great pose and directed lighting.

This is a great portrait.  Thanks for sharing your techniques.

Splendid photo. Light and color are perfect. Looks like an old painting.

Beautiful image. As mentioned previously, this has an older painting look to it. The subtle light on the wood of the chair and the background really adds a rich look. The lighting on the model is wonderful. Best Regards ~ Gary

thanks for the explanation of the setup and processing.  Great shot!

Hello Zachar!!

I'd like to make you acquainted with a page I've created on Facebook for professional photographers to share their work and ideas, much like we do here on photo.net

As a matter of fact, this contact is because THIS image was chosen as "photo of the day" on the page today.

Please accept our humble thanks for letting us grace our page with your wonderful image, and please also accept our invitation to join us!

Here is the link to the page, just in case you're already involved in facebook. If not, perhaps now is a great time to do that!!

http://www.facebook.com/ProPhotoPage

Thanks for your time.. and thanks for such wonderful work!!

Jack Blake

Page Owner: The Professional Photographer's Page on Facebook and

Eye2Eye: Imagination to Imagery

excellent