Hopefully, today’s photo will help
restore part of my damaged reputation due to my last posting.
In today’s photo, there are two big
changes from last weeks post: (1)
I reoriented Nicole’s position so that I shot down the surf line thus picking
up the little color that was in the sky (note that most of the color is to Nicole's left yet I did not want to move more to her right because that would have made more of the beach area show with its many distracting elements); and, (2) Nicole’s pose had more
attitude and more connection with the camera. To me, the second change is the really big one because I do not think you can have a successful portrait of anyone without them engaging your camera. Compare the two photos. To me, last weeks was just a snapshot of what Nicole looks like; today's photo makes you think about who she is and what she is thinking when she stares down the camera.
I wanted to balance the flash with
the ambient light, so I increased the ISO to 800 and reduced the shutter speed
to 1/20 of a second. Because of
the slow shutter speed, I had to sit in the water and brace my camera on my
knees. I had Doug position
the flash above and to Nicole’s left.
In addition, we aimed the flash above Nicole’s head so that the light
would be very soft on Nicole and not be on the water.
This is more what I wanted but
still not up to Joe’s photo.
Enjoy.
Camera settings: Nikon D4, 24-70mm f/2.8, ISO 800, f/9.5 at 1/20th
of a seconds with an Elinchrom Quadra flash with a large octa softbox above and
to the left of camera.
Post Processing:
Lightroom 4—applied Portrait preset
during import, set white and black points and adjusted the luminance and
saturation of the colors in the sky.
Photoshop CS5—applied nik
Color Efex Pro glamour glow filter to Nicole and dodged and burned various
parts of the photo.
Yep, I remember holding the light for this one. We were losing light fast. The sun was setting over the island (to her left), so it robbed us of much of the color over the water we were looking for in this particular shot.
ReplyDeleteI think you got all you could out of this shot in camera. Her attitude really shows through in this one. You did a nice job on processing too.
Why did you use such a high ISO and low shutter speed and yet an aperture of f 9.5. Seems like you could have lowered the f stop and raised the shutter speed. Just wondering.
ReplyDeletePaul
I am a regular follower of your blog and enjoy your posting. I learn a lot from many of them. I think you understand flash extremely well-your flash photos do not have a bright subject against an under exposed background like mine do. Could you take the time and explain some of this?
ReplyDeletePeter
WOW! I agree with Peter. Tell us more about flash.
ReplyDeleteTellie
I agree with you. Comparing the two photos, it is her look that makes the second one. The lighting, other than the color in the sky, is about the same.
ReplyDeleteTed
In comparing this one to your last, I think you're right -- the pose is much more dynamic here. But technically I think the first one with some saturation adjustments and layer masks could probably have the same color impact as this one.
ReplyDelete