The moment that I saw this young lady, I remembered her from the Texas Renaissance Festival. I tried to get an acceptable photograph of her, but came-up with nothing that I really liked.
Here, she was standing in the shadows with bright sun hitting the background. I had a choice: do I set my camera and flash to equalize the lighting in the two areas; or, do I set my camera and flash to make a proper exposure on her face and let the background effectively blow-out. I looked at the background and decided that there was nothing that I really wanted to feature so I decided to let the background blow out. I then selected f/4.8 for my aperture in order to achieve a nice blurred background.
Enjoy.
Camera settings: Nikon D3, Nikon 28-70mm f/2.8 at 60mm, shot at ISO 200, f/4.8 and 1/60th of a second with flash set at rear sync.
Flash: Nikon SB-800 mounted on monopod with softbox attached, triggered by AlienBee CyberSync radio triggers, in manual mode at 1/4th power positioned so that she is looking straight at it.
Post Processing:
Lightroom—Set white and black points, added mid-tone contrast and added vibrance.
Photoshop—cloned-out small, distracting elements and minor blemishes and hair, used nik Color Efex Pro tonal contrast filter to add shadow, mid-tone and highlight contrast to her clothing and hair.
As I look at this photo, all that I can think of is: what is she look at? That of course makes me image a lot of different things. Her expression is great.
ReplyDeleteDebbie
Most interesting post. Seems to violate some of the established rules. I like that.
ReplyDeleteTed