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Thread: A.r.m.

  1. #1
    Moderator Manfred M's Avatar
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    A.r.m.

    This young lady is usually highly resistant to having her picture taken (I thought to check to see if Hell had frozen over). She wanted a bit of an old-fashioned look to the image, so I came up with this.



    A.r.m.



    Taken with a Nikon D800 using a f/2 105mm Nikkor DC lens at f/5.6 focused on the nearest eye; ISO 100 @ 1/125th sec. White seamless background, medium softbox from the front (butterfly lighting). Hairlight using a 15° grid spot from camera left and a white reflector positioned from below, just outside of the frame at around 30° from the horizontal. Finished in Photoshop CS6 using Nix Silver Efex Pro 2.
    Last edited by Manfred M; 9th April 2013 at 04:36 AM.

  2. #2
    Mark von Kanel's Avatar
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    Re: A.r.m.

    Hi Manfred,

    Well youve achived a very Victorian look and i like that im not sure it works well with the zipped sweater though. She has beautiful eyes and you have captured them well with great catchlights.

    can you do anything with the shine on her nose and forehead? also theres a slightly light area to the left of her head, is this where youve cloned stray hairs out? if so it needs feathering a little to blend it in better.

    You can certainly tell this stunning young lady doesnt like her picture taken! the set of her lower jaw makes her look very stern but works well with the Victorian look
    Last edited by Mark von Kanel; 9th April 2013 at 10:18 AM. Reason: spelling garmma

  3. #3
    Moderator Manfred M's Avatar
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    Re: A.r.m.

    Thanks for the comments Mark - the reason for the picture is that my daughter needed an image for a school art project to work off of, but after she saw the shot, she is thinking about a re-shoot wearing a more traditional looking German Tracht outfit.

    I tried to get her to smile a tiny bit but was told she wanted the the stern look (the only portraits she has been willing to have taken to date are attached to her passport).

    I didn't see the lightness on the left side of the head at first and see it now and am wondering about it. Yes, I did clone some stray hairs out on the left side, but cloned from a darker area, using normal blending, so I am having some problems figuring out why it seems a tad lighter than the area I sampled from. The background is quite evenly lit in the original image. The shine on the nose and forehead I dodged in to try to achieve a bit more of a three dimensional look. I have a lot of detail visible there, so it is certainly not blown out. I also burned in both sides of the nose a bit to build up the contrast a bit.

  4. #4
    Brownbear's Avatar
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    Re: A.r.m.

    A lovely and extremely compelling photo

  5. #5
    Moderator Manfred M's Avatar
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    Re: A.r.m.

    Quote Originally Posted by Christina S View Post
    A lovely and extremely compelling photo
    Thanks Christina!

  6. #6
    Moderator Donald's Avatar
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    Re: A.r.m.

    Quote Originally Posted by Christina S View Post
    A lovely and extremely compelling photo
    That's a pretty good assessment, I think.

    A classic looking and very well made image.
    Last edited by Donald; 10th April 2013 at 07:23 AM.

  7. #7
    Moderator Manfred M's Avatar
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    Re: A.r.m.

    Thanks Donald - it's nice getting a complement from someone who does B&W so well. It is a form I haven't done serious work in for a very long time.

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    Re: A.r.m.

    Manfred, your picture has great presence. I sense that she is really sitting across from me.

    Karm

  9. #9
    Moderator Manfred M's Avatar
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    Re: A.r.m.

    Thanks Karm - part of what I was trying to do with this image is do an "inverse vignette"; i.e. rather than using a dark vignette to focus our eyes on the subject, I wanted to try a white one to see what would happen.

    This idea came to me based on a previous question I had posted here regarding some wildlife shots in a snow setting. The usual view is that white areas draw our eyes so we can become a bit confused and have trouble focusing on the subject. Someone (Remco) mentioned that in high key images, his eyes were drawn to the dark, rather than the light areas.

    I think he is right and there are reasons to ignore the photographic "rule" of using a dark vignette to draw in the viewer's eyes.

  10. #10
    rpcrowe's Avatar
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    Re: A.r.m.

    Even though this image is rightfully sans makeup for the period look, I would suggest that either some neutral/clear lip gloss might have been in order. Lacking that, asking her to moisten her lips with her tongue just prior to image aquisition might be of benefit...

    I don't know why, but every time I look at the portrait, my eyes are first drawn to the lips and then travel up to the eyes.

    Manfred, what do you think of this version? This seems to give the "oldie" look and seems to negate the zipper problem...

    A.r.m.

    I will be happy to remove it if you object to my processing your image.

  11. #11
    Moderator Manfred M's Avatar
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    Re: A.r.m.

    It works quite nicely Richard. I had a version where I cranked up the noise a bit, but she didn't like it. This started out as a more pure B&W image, but she liked the yellow tones better. The period mismatch doesn't seem to bother her at all.

    The girl refuses to wear any makeup and getting her to consider licking her lips or putting on some lip gloss is a non-starter at this point in her life. Heck; I couldn't even get her to consider a tiny bit of a smile. I actually did darken her lips in this image in post.

    She does want me to do two more versions; one with her wearing South-German / Austrian Tracht. That will look a lot better as a period piece with the white cotton with a frilly collar and her hair in a French braid and another with her wearing her broad-brimmed Aussie kangaroo leather hat. This is quite the change in attitude; generally resists having her picture taken. I just hope she hurries up though as I'm getting some pressure to get the lights and backdrop out of the living room....

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