Peter,
Thank you for your critique and comments, of which I agree completely with. The pose annoys me because I can see the back of the shoulder. I however feel that the eyes tend to direct the eyes more to the face, so, it's not too bad. It's not perfect, for sure.
I made a version (initially) where I had smoothed the skin over a lot more, but, the lack of texture made it fall flat in monotone, where it worked in colour. Go figure.
The skin texture works here.
Quote:
Originally Posted by Poita
Nice work. I like that you didn't over-light the top of the iris area, adds some mystery.
Incredibly sharp shot! I never quite dare go that sharp unless the models are teens with their ridiculously flawless skin, but it really works here for the eyes. I think at f7.1 it would have been too sharp.
The lighting and camera work is fantastic.
With the posing I probably would have tried to get the model to drop/roll her left shoulder down and back a little to make it look less square and wide, (get a more feminine curve to the shoulder area) and to minimise the neck creases as much as possible.
I think the grid will be a great addition to control the backgrounds. Look forward to seeing more shots.
Any chance of a look at the colour shot?
I miss doing studio work so live vicariously through others these days |
Lewis,
Apart from a few well done images, most of the images that come out of that plugin/software end up with halos around contrasting lines (think of the Opera House against a blue sky -- much like bad HDR, there are very obvious halos and are very, very annoying -- once seen, cannot be unseen).
I tried the plugin for Photoshop last year, but after seeing the halos (in the best of the built-in presets), prefered to push my knowledge of Digital Photo Professional and Photoshop to come up with my own recipe. I can't speak for other people, but, for me, there is a far greater sense of accomplishment getting my own "look" in Photoshop, than just pushing sliders around in a plug-in, or worse, using the default presets. It's the techie in me that wants to know how things are done. As mentioned before in the copyright thread, I consider myself an artist and really like to do things for myself. The other thing is that if I do it my own way, then, I don't run the risk of having my image look like everyone elses. It doesn't bother me that it takes orders of magnitude longer, it's just who I am -- I enjoy the journey! And, another thing is that I've been using Photoshop for almost 16 years now, and am very comfortable with it. But, I never fail to learn something new each time I embark on a project whether astrophotographic or terrestrial. Things like 3% change in opacity can make all the difference in subduing highlights competing with midtones. Little things like that.
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Originally Posted by LewisM
Nik Silver Efex Pro 2 would be fun to play with on this shot
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Thanks, gents!
H