Today’s post is a portrait of Ashley. Her instructions to me were simple: “make me look good.” Not a hard task considering what I had to work with!
I wanted the viewer’s focus to go immediately to her face and expression. As a result, I wanted very shallow depth-of-field so I selected 3.3 as my f-stop. I can usually get most of the face in focus with this f-stop at 70mm yet convert the background into a nice soft blur.
I elevated my Elinchrom light so that most of the light actually went above her head—I used only a small portion of the light to illuminate her face.
What should I have done to make this an even better portrait of Ashley? First, I would have made sure that her necklace was hanging properly. Next, I would have had her look a little more at the camera (somewhere between where she is looking and straight at the lens). I think that this eye position would have increased the relationship between Ashley and the viewer. Finally, I would have added a hair light to add greater separation between her and the background.
Enjoy.
Camera settings: Nikon D3x, Nikon 28-70mm f/2.8 at shot at 70mm ISO 200, f/3.3 and 1/125th of a second.
Post Processing:
Lightroom—Set black and white points, added clarity and mid-tone contrast.
Photoshop—Removed stray hairs, used nik Color Efex Pro Glamour Glow filter at 35% opacity.
Beautiful portrait. You seem to have captured some of her personality in this one. I do wish her eyes were looking right at me.
ReplyDeleteDebbie
Very provocative. The pose and expression work great together. Good portrait.
ReplyDeleteThe Professor
The biggest thing I see as an issue is her eyes actually looking outside the photo. The necklace doesn't bother me. Maybe the armpit being visible, where its cropped on the right side of the photo, takes a little away from it too. I'm not sure any of those things would have really mattered if the eyes had made a connection with the photographer.
ReplyDelete