portrait session with couple - DPChallenge Forums

Canon EF 100mm f/2.8 USM Macro

04/19/2004 01:06:07 PM · #1

Looking for comments as well as looking for any help on skintones or color issues. It seems that I don't keep consistent skintones throughout a whole shoot. I'm thinking that has to be from editing because in this shoot I used ISO 100, manual and the 70-200 f/2.8 L IS and 17-40 f/4 L lenses and 550EX pointed up into ProMax LumiQuest 80/20 PocketBounce dialed down to around 2/3's power. Not much variation in equipment or practice but quite a wide deviation in skin tones. Did not use reflector as I didn't have an assistant.

Thanks for the comments and any workflow help you can give.

Kev

tfaust

Canon EOS 80D

04/19/2004 01:13:59 PM · #2

Kevin,

I can't provide a whole lot of help on the technical side of these photos, or even workflow. I just wanted to say that the work you've been doing with the model and portraits is an inspiration to me. I have truly enjoyed all of your forum posts with the latest pictures... someday soon I hope to chat with you about some of the things you've learned as I venture into this type of photography myself, if you are willing and have the time.

I congratulate your success and progress. Keep it up and please keep showing us your work.

Tina

dwoolridge

04/19/2004 01:21:20 PM · #3

1. She's nicely posed and natural, but he's thinking way too hard about something. :-)

2. Playful, but his stance makes it look like he's wearing really baggy pants.

3. Much more natural. This look in (1) would be great.

4. I like the dof here and the smile. Too bad he didn't shave off what little hair he has. ;-)

5. Fantastique!

6. Sultry.

7. That dress and that pose just don't seem to fit together, especially on that long, weedy looking grass.

8. A strange smile, but I like it. Dress a little blown out? I guess you could push that in PS to nice effect.

Workflow:
Regardless of how much control you have over your mechanical light, you already know the ambient light of the sun can change drastically. A hint of shadow or cloud can make a big difference (and I assume you meter the same way always). If it's a WB issue, I'd really recommend always taking a color card shot whenever the light changes; if that's too much, at least take a color card shot when you change locations (I guess it's 4 in this case).

Take this advice with an asteroid-size grain of salt.

Neil

Fujifilm X-T30

Nikon AF-S NIKKOR 24-70mm f/2.8G ED

04/19/2004 01:24:17 PM · #4

I used Scott Kelby's method of color correcting images using Levels and I got great results with 71018.jpg. Technique simply uses eyedropper in levels to select black, highlights, and midtone levels. (My reference is PSe and his book covering that.)

Flash

Nikon D700

Nikon AF-S Nikkor 17-35mm f/2.8D IF-ED

04/19/2004 01:28:55 PM · #5

My thoughts.......but they are YOUR clients.

The top B&W is 1st rate and a solid addition to any album. The 6th, has her looking like a temptress, and I'm not sure if that is a good "wedding" pic. The 7th, would be better if the neck wrinkle was absent or cloned out, but I'm still not sure of the pose for this type of event.

There are a couple of fairly renowned wedding fotogs, doing work like your 1st B&W. The Mrs. gives these kinds of photos high marks and keeps pointing them out to me as a means of "encouraging" a direction in my photography. For those seeking Wedding Portrait work, I believe that this contemporay use of sepia and B&W is favored by many brides. Seeing as the Bride's father usually has part of the "payment" plan, tailoring shots for the Bride and Father makes sense to me.

Again, they are your clients. If they were my clients, I'd shoot them any way they wanted.......

You definately have an eye........keep it up.

(sp) edit

Message edited by author 2004-04-19 13:33:07.

magnetic9999

Canon EOS-20D

Sigma 24-70mm f/2.8 EX Aspherical DF for Canon

04/19/2004 01:29:55 PM · #6

Kevin,

I have to say that you have come a really long ways since your early work. Your stuff has become much more polished and professional looking over the past few months. Kudos!

Shot-to-shot color consistency can be difficult. Best bet is to shoot RAW so you can post-shot adjust and re-use previous settings on shots that had a similar cast.

Hope that helps.

Pedro

Nikon D200

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

04/19/2004 01:31:16 PM · #7

i assume this is a real couple not models? these two seem far less comfortable in front of the camera than many of your others...this is my weakness for sure: posing. I have no idea how to make people stand or tilt or twist or shimmy.

that said, i know what i like, and I look at these and think "those people look like they're posing". I've seen much cheesier, but I've seen much more comfortable too.

Technically, I like them quite well, but i agree the color is a little off in the last three - WB still set to sunny maybe?

always like your stuff Kev.

Pedro

rmahan

Nikon D3

Nikon AF Zoom-Nikkor 18-35mm f/3.5-4.5 ED-IF

04/19/2004 01:32:50 PM · #8

Is this more what you're looking for?

Particularly the last three seem to have been affected by reflections from the abundance of the green grass. I just tried to remove the color cast. If this is closer to what you want, I'll post the steps (I used PS7 in this case.)

Message edited by author 2004-04-19 13:39:29.

dwoolridge

04/19/2004 01:39:15 PM · #9

Just to follow up, I found a rather corny tutoral for Russell Brown's image processor (which is cool enough in itself). However, the important part is that it demonstrates some Photoshop CS file browser stuff along with using a color card to get initial raw settings and applying those to a bunch of other raw files.

//www.russellbrown.com/body.html

Neil

Fujifilm X-T30

Nikon AF-S NIKKOR 24-70mm f/2.8G ED

04/19/2004 02:28:56 PM · #10

I was going to email this, since it would be eventually removed from my workshop messing up this thread, but your email is not on the site, so here's the levels adjusted version:

No other color adjustments.

Message edited by author 2004-04-19 14:29:43.

04/19/2004 02:46:11 PM · #11

Originally posted by Pedro:

i assume this is a real couple not models? these two seem far less comfortable in front of the camera than many of your others

Actually they are a couple but the young lady has modeled for me before.

I think the determining factor is that they had just been to their senior prom the night before and, like many of us previously, may have been up late into the evening celebrating the transition from high school. They were troopers and I hope to shoot with the two of them again as the summer is really just getting started down here.

Thanks, Pedro.

04/19/2004 02:46:51 PM · #12

Originally posted by rmahan:

Is this more what you're looking for?

Particularly the last three seem to have been affected by reflections from the abundance of the green grass. I just tried to remove the color cast. If this is closer to what you want, I'll post the steps (I used PS7 in this case.)

Bob,

That's definitely closer to what I was looking for. I'd appreciate seeing your workflow on this.

Kev

Nikon AF-S NIKKOR 24-70mm f/2.8G ED

04/19/2004 02:47:37 PM · #13

Originally posted by nshapiro:

I was going to email this, since it would be eventually removed from my workshop messing up this thread, but your email is not on the site, so here's the levels adjusted version:

No other color adjustments.

Neal,
This is brighter which is one of the things I was going for but I think I'd drop the saturation on yellow just a little from this. What do you think?

Kev

Neil

Fujifilm X-T30

04/19/2004 03:05:22 PM · #14

Originally posted by KevinRiggs:

Originally posted by nshapiro:
I was going to email this, since it would be eventually removed from my workshop messing up this thread, but your email is not on the site, so here's the levels adjusted version:

No other color adjustments.

Neal,
This is brighter which is one of the things I was going for but I think I'd drop the saturation on yellow just a little from this. What do you think?

Kev

Actually, I don't personally think it looks oversaturated (on my monitor), and to me the tones are very pleasing (not claiming accuracy, since I wasn't there.) The only thing I thought might still be wrong is a slightly purple tone to her dress (was it pure white?). Note that I didn't change saturation at all. Just did the levels adjustment using the three eyedropper method.

Note: With this method, you have to find something neutral/gray in the photo to get the most "accurate" color. Without a defined source of neutral, then you have to look around the image for the most neutral target, and that shifts the overall colors. When I don't have a neutral source I am sure about, I have to wing it like this one, where you sample grayish areas and settle for the one that produces the best overall subjective effect.

Message edited by author 2004-04-19 15:11:59.

dwoolridge

04/19/2004 03:12:38 PM · #15

The problem with doing a N-point eyedrop is in your whites. You could look all day at a bunch of different images, none of which is the same "white" and still think they're all the same white. That's why you take a color card and shoot it before you start; it contains the white that won't fool your eye.

With enough futzing, you could get all the images you posted more or less the same, but if you want to improve your workflow, bring a color card to your shoots. Really.

rmahan

Nikon D3

Nikon AF Zoom-Nikkor 18-35mm f/3.5-4.5 ED-IF

04/19/2004 03:56:22 PM · #16

Kevin - I learned most of this from Epson and it seems to work nicely.

1. Open image.
2. Select the Color Sampler Tool.
3. In the Layers palette, click the two-tone circle at the bottom and select Threshold. This will result in a B&W image and open a levels-like slider.
4. Slide that slider to the left until there is no black and then slide it back until there is a small area of black somewhere.
5. Shift and click the black area. That will set a color sample point and will open the "Info" palette.
6. Now slide the slider to the right until there is no white and then slide it back until there is a small area of white somewhere.
7. Shift and click the white area. That sets a second color sample point.
8. Click cancel on the palette with the slider and your picture will look as it did when you opened it but now you'll have two sample points on the picture.
9. Open Levels (you could use Cntl-L (or Command-L on a Mac).
10. Ignore every number you see except what is in the Info palette. On the left point (point #1), pick the LOWEST number of the R,G, or B items listed. When I did it, I had R=30, G=32, B=27 so 27 is the lowest number. Select the Red channel in the levels box. Move the left-most slider to the right until the number in the info box (by the R:) changes to 27. Then select the Green channel and move the same left-most slider until that number in the info palette hits 27. Now, all three should be the same. In my case I had R: 30/27, G: 32/27, B: 27/27.
11. Repeat these same actions watching point number 2 in the info palette but this time select the HIGHEST number of the three. I had R: 254/254, G: 252/252, and B: 253/253. Pretty close but we need all three to hit 254. This time, use the right-most slider to change the numbers.
12. Finally, back in the levels box and with the RGB channel selected, select the center eyedropper. Using this we want to select a "neutral" area. You can click around within the box and the color cast will change. I found a spot on her right shoulder which provided good color. Try clicking on the dress and you'll see some pretty wild colors. Then click the grass and you'll see an entirely different set of wild colors. Now go for the neck or shoulder and you'll get much closer to what you want.
13. Click "OK" on the levels box.
14. Now, if it's not still selected, select the color sampler tool and click on the "clear" button at the top of the screen to clear the two color sample points we set earlier.
15. Flatten the image and you're done.

Hope this helps. Feel free to ask questions if you can't follow my description. I used PS7 but I know this works with CS, too.

Message edited by author 2004-04-19 15:59:30.

KarenB

Canon EOS-70D

Canon EF-S 18-135mm f/3.5-5.6 IS STM

04/19/2004 04:46:28 PM · #17

Kevin, I really like all of them. .. esp. the second one. terrific!