Portrait Tests - DPChallenge Forums

03/25/2004 10:32:49 AM · #1

Well, now that I have my portrait lens, a backdrop and stand - I'm practicing some portraits. I only have 2 pictures that I thought were good enough to post... Portrait Test

Details: I had all the lights on in the room and I have a halogen work light that has 2 heads, each 500w. Both heads I pointed up as much as possible and used a white foam board to reflect the light back down.

This still wasn't enough light though.

I do have 2 umbrellas on the way, silver on the inside, black on the outside. I am going to get another work light and use the umbrellas to reflect the light. I think it was crabapple that posted his set up that I will be doing.

Any thoughts on the shots and/or working out lighting?

K-Rob

Canon EOS-20D

Tokina AF 12-24mm f/4.0 AT-X Pro DX

03/25/2004 10:50:31 AM · #2

I think they look great. I specially like the backdrop. I'm noticing that it looks a little too yellow overall. The white fur doesn't look white, it has a yellow cast to it. Also, port2 appears to be overexposed on the bridge of the dog's nose. But then again...what do I know. I've never attempted such portraits. Overall, I think they're great.

daisy77

Nikon D70

03/25/2004 10:50:48 AM · #3

not sure how to "do" the lighting as i am not a pro at all but to my eye, the whites are a bit yellow in both these shots. the quality of lighting of the first is a bit dark, better in the second. i am sure there is a way to brighten the yellow hue with the right combo of lights and reflections. nice work and handsome dogs, you got there. good luck.

Konador

Canon EOS-500D Rebel T1i

Canon EF-S 18-55mm f/3.5-5.6 IS

03/25/2004 10:54:05 AM · #4

To stop the whites looking yellow, just adjust the white balance by using a while sheet of paper and the 300D's manual WB mode.

superdave_909

Canon EOS-60D

Canon EF-S 15-85mm f/3.5-5.6 IS USM

03/25/2004 11:03:35 AM · #5

Originally posted by Konador:

To stop the whites looking yellow, just adjust the white balance by using a while sheet of paper and the 300D's manual WB mode.

What WB setting should you use when taking the shot?

Pedro

Nikon D200

Nikon AF Zoom-Nikkor 70-200mm f/2.8 VR DG IF-ED

03/25/2004 11:05:15 AM · #6

Originally posted by tfaust:

Any thoughts on the shots and/or working out lighting?

Those worklights are really yellow - set your white balance to Tungsten when they are your primary source (or shoot in RAW format and adjust to taste later). The fix now is to shift your color balance (less yellow more blue).

P

willem

Sony Alpha a6700

Sony E 18-135mm f/3.5-5.6 OSS

03/25/2004 11:07:06 AM · #7

To get the correct color you need to have something in the picture of which you know and can measure the right color. Black, real 18% grey (greycard), or white (eyes) are very suitable for this.

If you hover your cursor over the white area in photoshop, then the info display will tell you the spread of Red, Green and Blue. RGB values need to show equal values for white (real bright white is 255,255,255, black is 0,0,0)

I commented for example on 4th place of the portrait challenge that there was a yellow cast on it. I checked it in photoshop and confirmed it by checking the white of the eyes. Then I increased the blue by 30% until the RGB values were roughly equal and got a much more natural looking picture.

You can do the same here on the white fur.

It makes sense to take a test picture with a white paper or a greycard included, use that as reference for your corrections, and then apply the same corrections to your real pictures.

To get a good starting point in the first place, use a greycard (or the white back of it), to perform a manual whitebalance.

Konador

Canon EOS-500D Rebel T1i

Canon EF-S 18-55mm f/3.5-5.6 IS

03/25/2004 11:09:37 AM · #8

Originally posted by superdave_909:

Originally posted by Konador:
To stop the whites looking yellow, just adjust the white balance by using a while sheet of paper and the 300D's manual WB mode.

What WB setting should you use when taking the shot?

I always use manual. I take a full-frame shot of some white paper in the lighting setup i'm using, then go into the menu on the camera and set that shot to the whitebalance. That way it takes into account the studio lights (yellow) and the ambiant light (blue) and get it spot on :)

superdave_909

Canon EOS-60D

Canon EF-S 15-85mm f/3.5-5.6 IS USM

03/25/2004 11:21:52 AM · #9

I just tried that under some flourescent(don't mind my spelling) light and it worked beautifully! I should have tried playing with this much sooner.
Thanks!

03/25/2004 11:34:56 AM · #10

There is a yellowish cast because of those lights, and setting a custom wb always works well for me, but this time I wanted to try it using the tungsten setting.

I didn't do any post processing except a very minor adjust levels and sharpen, then resize. I didn't play with the colors at all.

Canon EF 70-200mm f/2.8L IS USM

03/25/2004 12:00:51 PM · #11

Originally posted by K-Rob:

Overall, I think they're great.

Thanks Rob! :-) There is a bit of overexposure on CJ's (port2) nose... These were the 1st of many test shots. Fortunately Storm is a really patient model (port1). :-)

Message edited by author 2004-03-25 12:01:58.

KevinRiggs

Canon EOS-1Ds

03/25/2004 12:50:16 PM · #12

Tina,

Good shots. That little 50 is sharp isn't it. Hope you enjoy it and I'm envying you getting that backdrop. Where did you find it? I've found some local places but they want $500+ for a 12'x20' hand or computer painted and I just don't have that for backdrops right now.
One thing that is slightly noticible in the 2nd is that the front of the nose is slightly OOF right after it comes out of an overexposed area (which I believe K-Rob referred to earlier). That f/1.8 is awesome for DOF (love what you did with it here) and if you just got a step back I think you'd have gotten everything in focus. Good job and keep on posting.

Kevin