Most daunting photoshoot ever....

Canon EF 85mm f/1.2L II USM

04/23/2010 10:13:53 PM · #1

Recently I visited my elderly parents out in BC and only learned upon arrival that they were expecting me to get a good portrait shot of the two of them together. Great...I have the 18-200 and the 10-20, the D90 and nothing else. Had I known what they wanted I could have at least packed my only prime lens, the 50mm 1.8.

So I did the best I could with the D90 and 18-200mm. But my parents do not have a loveseat and are not cuddlers, and if they look straight on at a camera they either freeze

(my mum taken the early evening before for focus etc but light was already going) or are caught at unflattering angles. So I had them seated at the round kitchen table, and did my best to capture them looking natural and enjoying each other's company.

taken at the start of the shoot

taken at the end of the shoot.

My setup was the camera on a tripod and a white foamcore board to bounce light up into their faces, and a standard lamp with a daylight bulb for indirect lighting. Yes I know the bg is blown out like nobody's business, but I had little say in the matter. It was either that or an ugly set of blinds.

Currently I am working on the pics trying to do only very minimal editing, mostly brightness/contrast and saturation.

Any suggestions as to what I can try in PS CS2 to make the shots look their best would be greatly appreciated! And sorry nope, cutting and pasting and moving parents closer together would not ring true.

Message edited by author 2010-04-23 22:30:33.

Cory

Canon EOS-1D Mark IV

04/23/2010 10:50:25 PM · #2

Select the background and find a similar shot of a landscape and place it in the photo, because of the strong back lighting, you'll need to almost blow out the new background too..

As for facial expressions? I do hear CS5 has some sort of mystical "fix it all" button somewhere.. Failing that being true, you could always use the liquify tool to re-adjust expressions a bit (be careful not to overdo this.)..

And a big tip for next time- film was better to overexpose (because it's a negative, black can be hit longer to produce more brightness on the print when in the darkroom), but digital is much better to underexpose, as once it's over-exposed, the data is gone, completely gone, but underexposed areas can produce amazing amounts of detail. Set your exposure compensation to ~-1.5 or -2 steps for this type of shooting in the future.

Cheers Snaffles!
-Cory

04/24/2010 12:08:09 AM · #3

Thanks for the tips Cory, greatly appreciated...and yes just got a ticking-off (in the nicest way possible, of course) from my C-T R for not having packed along all of my glass. I knew I would be shooting inside my brother's house, and lots of landscape-y shots, so I definitely made sure I had Siggy. And the 18-200 is my most versatile lens so I figured it would do for most everything else. Needless to say it wasn't til I got to BC that I was asked to shoot the portrait.

Had I but known, the 50mm 1.8 would have made the trip too...*sigh*...ironic that my least costly lens in terms of $$ would have done the best job :-/

In hindsight, the same kind, local photographer who shot Fuji/Nikon, and did let me have the use of a tripod, may well have loaned me a suitable lens. But seeing that we were complete strangers, I think that would have been pushing it.

Canon EF 28-135mm f/3.5-5.6 IS USM

04/24/2010 08:44:14 AM · #4

morning bump

Kelli

Canon EOS-D60

04/24/2010 09:21:44 AM · #5

If you want to upload them to your workshop folder & post a link I'll have a go at them. I can never really give suggestions without actually playing. LOL!

Nikon AF-S Nikkor 70-200mm f/2.8G ED VR II

04/24/2010 09:27:15 AM · #6

Originally posted by Kelli:

If you want to upload them to your workshop folder & post a link I'll have a go at them. I can never really give suggestions without actually playing. LOL!

Good idea Kelli, thanks! Will do.

MattO

Nikon D4

04/24/2010 09:31:01 AM · #7

I've been trying to find a nice way to ask this. But I have to wonder why you purposely shot with such strong backlighting. I think you are a much smarter photographer then to make such a basic mistake as this. that light would look awesome from the side or 3/4 with some really interesting shadows. Fixing that ahead of the shoot would have been much easier then trying to fix the shots now. :(

Having said that, have you tried the magic wand selector to see if it will grab all the background from them while leaving the hair alone?

Matt

Hipychik

Sony Alpha a6000

Sony 16-50mm f/3.5-5.6 E-mount

04/24/2010 09:32:55 AM · #8

Susan, Kelli is great at changing the bg!! I'm amazed at some of the stuff she's done!!

Canon EF 28-135mm f/3.5-5.6 IS USM

04/24/2010 09:37:49 AM · #9

First of all...something to keep Kelli busy...;-)

//www.dpchallenge.com/portfolio_edit.php?IMAGE_ID=872620
//www.dpchallenge.com/portfolio_edit.php?IMAGE_ID=872623

Please keep in mind that these shots aren't the best ones of my folks but representative of what I got. Their house has a great view and does indeed look over the tops of the trees outside. Have fun playing around, can't wait to see what you can do! Then tell me how to do it too please!

Going back to reshoot isn't really an option as I live in Ontario and they are in BC.

Matt, I understand what you're saying, but due to the layout of my parents' house, and the fact that I wanted to capture them in as natural a fashion as possible, I settled for the lesser of two evils and went for a bg that I did know could end up glarey. Also the light out on the PNW is very deceiving, it changes almost constantly. It can go from flat and overcast to beautiful layers of mist and fog.

Didn't really want a shot of the kitchen or living room furniture behind them. Standing is painful now for Mum in particular, so I had them sitting. Again, I had no idea until I got out there that they expected this of me.

Message edited by author 2010-04-24 09:47:07.

Kelli

Canon EOS-D60

04/24/2010 10:32:49 AM · #10

OK, keep in mind this is a really quick job done on a small size. But playing around, the only thing you really can do is swap out the background.

Do you have any shots out the window to get a true sense of what the background actually was? If so use those. The easiest way would be to extract your parents from the blown out backgrounds and place them on a shot of the background you want to use and then blend.

Cory

Canon EOS-1D Mark IV

Canon EF 85mm f/1.2L II USM

04/24/2010 10:55:48 AM · #11

Originally posted by snaffles:

Did they refuse to lave the house?

ahmadbaara

Nikon D90

Nikon AF-S DX 18-105 f/3.5-5.6 ED VR

04/24/2010 03:18:30 PM · #12

one thing i usually do when my subject of the portrait isnt very photogenic or putting up an odd face posing for the picture, i keep the camera pointed at them, looking in the view finder and wait..... they would be expecting i take a snap right away but i make them wait and wait until finally they get impatient and notice what im doing, most of the time they come out with a genuine laugh or smile and i snap away

BrennanOB

Canon EOS-1D Mark II

Tamron SP AF 28-75mm f/2.8 XR Di for Canon

04/24/2010 06:39:14 PM · #13

I second what Ahmad said, wait them out. Especially with family, I like to keep the camera in front of my face wasting lots of ones and zeros, and engage them is conversation.

Ask them to tell you a joke they like to tell, an obscure bit of family history, anything to get them to talk to the person who is holding the camera and ignore the camera itself. If you bring the camera up and down, it tends to have a chilling effect, but if you keep it up and keep the conversation going, they can't hold the clenched " Oh my God, he;s going to take a picture soon" expression.

rocket

Canon EOS-5D Mark II

Canon EF 24-105mm f/4.0L IS

04/24/2010 06:56:31 PM · #14

Originally posted by Hipychik:

Susan, Kelli is great at changing the bg!! I'm amazed at some of the stuff she's done!!

Originally posted by Kelli:

OK, keep in mind this is a really quick job done on a small size. But playing around, the only thing you really can do is swap out the background. Do you have any shots out the window to get a true sense of what the background actually was? If so use those. The easiest way would be to extract your parents from the blown out backgrounds and place them on a shot of the background you want to use and then blend.

You weren't kidding Hipychik . For a quick edit these are great. Well done Kelli

Nikon AF Zoom-Nikkor 70-300mm f/4.0-5.6G

04/25/2010 11:09:51 AM · #15

Wow Kelli that's an amazing edit! I think I have landscape shots but most were taken from the deck so the veiw would be different. Still I'll wing that one by the parents and see. The tricky thing is, the PNW has very conoferous forests and lots of mist/fog so have to make sure a tree that wouldn't grow in that climate doesn't pop up. Thanks for the so-called quick edit, greatly appreciated!

Oh yes Cory...no, not that the parents refused to leave the house. In fact it was my idea to shoot them indoors and sitting down, more to get a better bg and in a place where they are both comfortable. And I had Mum pinch Dad's thigh to make him laugh :-)

PixelKing

Nikon D700

04/25/2010 11:32:20 AM · #16

Originally posted by BrennanOB:

I have to third (if thatâ��s possible LOL) what BrennanOB said, for me the "candid" portraitâ��s have always worked best for me. Case in point, the way your mother is NOT looking at the camera almost works better than your dad who is looking at it....

Having said that, the photos really arenâ��t that bad at all, change the background as everyone else is suggesting and mess with some editing of the SM but other than that, I think youâ��ll be good to go.

Canon EF 28-135mm f/3.5-5.6 IS USM

04/25/2010 12:08:54 PM · #17

Oh, I have many more photos to choose from, and am looking for the best one where they are both in 3/4 profile and laughing. Dad probably seems to be staring at the camera due to his being pretty much blind in his left eye now.

Thanks everyone for help and feedback, and Kelli I will probably ask for a few pointers on dropping in a bg...

Susan

Kelli

Canon EOS-D60

04/25/2010 12:45:08 PM · #18

Originally posted by snaffles:

No problem Susan, happy to help.

spiritualspatula

Panasonic LUMIX DMC-LX100

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

04/25/2010 01:46:28 PM · #19

Just keep in mind your issues are going to come from where your source is blown. You have portions of hair and face/head that are gone forever, which you'll have to reconstruct or have holes/divots in their heads.

04/25/2010 08:35:22 PM · #20

Originally posted by spiritualspatula:

Understood. Again, I did the best I could knowing that I might have some daunting PS issues to deal with.

PS Kelli...don't think I did do any shots out that window, just went out on the deck instead. However, if they don't mind some of the town visible from their house being moved around slightly, I may be able to pull it off!

Message edited by author 2010-04-25 20:36:49.

Panasonic LUMIX DMC-LX100

04/25/2010 10:11:42 PM · #21

Is there anyway to soften the magic lasso effect, so they look less like cardboard cutouts?

Message edited by author 2010-04-25 22:21:26.

spiritualspatula

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

04/26/2010 02:07:32 AM · #22

Originally posted by snaffles:

Ok, I chose a random PS'ed photo of my parents and dropped them in on a scene that looks fairly realistic. Feedback and comments are welcome, as is any Photoshop tinkering...as my PS skills aren't the best around!

Is there anyway to soften the magic lasso effect, so they look less like cardboard cutouts?

I'm assuming you just did your selection quickly and know that there are some chunks missing.
You can feather your selections. Just google that and you should find some decent explanation of what I'm talking about. I'll also often use the smudge tool lightly and do a fast back and forth squiggle across the point where the layers change, and then follow over that with a really light use of the blur tool on top. You don't want it to legitimately blur the edge but to make the transition a bit more natural.

ETA

Super quickie example. The real trick to making things look not pasted is trying to get a good background. We can intuitively see screwy light sources and it gives it away that the bg is fake more than anything else. So either searching for something on flickr and creative commons or finding a "stock" shot that you can use as your own background will go really far.

Message edited by author 2010-04-26 02:31:56.