Jason - 3/4ths sitting

[cliffmccartney]

Jason is an actor / stunt man in the Knoxville, Tennessee area. He sat for some head shots for his portfolio last night in my class at the University of Tennessee. He didn't really want them edited much, so I gave him back ones that are only minimally processed. I took the opportunity, though, to play around a bit in Photoshop, and came up with this one.

C&C welcome and most appreciated.



Thanks for viewing!

Cliff

[Manfred M]

Cliff - while I like the shot itself, I find the background rather distracting; it's just too busy for my taste. I guess I have simple tastes and prefer white, black and all the various shades of gray in between those two extremes. I've seen some slightly mottled backgrounds work on occasion as well.

[bnnrcn]

I like the shot ,I agree with Manfred about distracting BG.

[cliffmccartney]

I see what you mean. I'll opt for a different background next time. Thanks!

[Shadowman]

It's a nice shot, definitely attention getting.

[cliffmccartney]

Here's a version with the background cloned out. Pretty quick and dirty. I'll go back and do a better job later.

[Manfred M]

I think this rework is an improvement on the original. The subject is not competing for attention with the background.

I assume that the studio you are shooting in have different rolls of seamless you can roll down and shoot against? If they do, try the different neutrals to see what you think. I personally don't like shooting against the black for both aesthetic and practical reasons; I tend to prefer white and gray (just my taste) and find that black backgrounds tend to require too much cleanup in post (white specs and wrinkles).

[cliffmccartney]

Manfred - this was a remote setup in a classroom, so that was the only background we had. I generally prefer to shoot on a gray background because you can make it black or white (or keep it gray) by varying the strength of the background lights. Last night I didn't have a choice.

Thanks!

[Manfred M]

this was a remote setup in a classroom, so that was the only background we had.

Thats a bit of a pain. The studio lighting course I took a few years back at the local community college had two large studios to work in with enough gear for 15 pairs of students, including rolls of wall-mounted seamless. That made for quick work to change out rolls and we had lots of time to try different lighting approaches and backgrounds.

[saea501]

The way his right eye is shadowed makes his eyes appear to be not only different sizes but at slightly different angles.

Please understand, this is just my opinion and I understand how subjective portraiture is, but the lighting and processing gives him a little bit of a horror movie quality. The character in the movie that smiles sweetly at you as he dips your heart out with a wooden spoon.

[IzzieK]

The way his right eye is shadowed makes his eyes appear to be not only different sizes but at slightly different angles.

Please understand, this is just my opinion and I understand how subjective portraiture is, but the lighting and processing gives him a little bit of a horror movie quality. The character in the movie that smiles sweetly at you as he dips your heart out with a wooden spoon.

I like the way you described this eerie process of murder, Bob...very dramatic...now let me get that out of my system before I have a nightmare...

Cliff you did very well with the change of background...