Lil' Buddy, came through! (ok.... pt 2)

D'Buggs

Alas, his Mothers Day gift;


<img src="http://api.photoshop.com/home_93c183238c264b21aebf84403f631f01/adobe-px-thumbnails/0c54359141a14bdaa210a78bfa58a78f/fullsize.jpg&quot; width="402" height="600"/>




I wasn't sure that he'd go through with it.... Glad he did!


How does the skin tone look? Something happened in the conversion from RAW and I'm not certain that I have it completely corrected.

divamum

That is absolutely fanTASTic! Great job dealing with the problems you mentioned in your earlier thread - he looks very at ease, the expression is lovely, and the light and colour look great on my monitor. Bravo!

RBrogen

WONDERFUL!!!! What a great job both of you! I'm glad that you were able to get him to feel at ease enough to do it. This is a terrific present and I'm sure his mother will be SOOO HAPPY!!!!!

D'Buggs

Thanks, Guy's.

I was right in my earlier thread; he wanted out but we negotiated for 15 min of what I would call, :wowflurry:wow .... Not a lot of time for runnin' experimental equipment.

I got a couple on nice shots w/ him nosed into the key but I choose this one because of the lesser refraction in his eyeware (BIG PEEVE of mine). All the shots that I got where his glasses didn't break the face, all looked forced and/or contrived.

For this sitting, I fashioned up a reflector made from foam-core presentation boards (2), that were rested on a hight adjustable easle. This acted as a fill light and the other mono went up high and back, to light up his hair, AND was the source of light for my reflector. Key and reflector were set @ 45's, as was the kicker. Key and kicker were both placed camera left.


In short; The Dude gave me his best. And I hope I gave mine.

momwac

Outstanding. I'll bet his mom is going to be thrilled no end! Kudos to you, and to your subject.

imagesofhim

There is NO DOUBT you gave your best as well!!

bobcool

Agree, this is a really, really great! Skin tones look great, good choice of shirt color and collar, and great light wrapping around his face.

I just have one question - did you do any PP on his eyes? I like the irises, but the whites seem just a tiny bit overdone? I know that a non-photographer probably wouldn't even notice it, so it may not be a big deal.

D'Buggs

bobcool wrote:

I just have one question - did you do any PP on his eyes?

:cry Yes.

Buddy suffers from INCREDIBLE insomnia; his eyes are always bloodshot.... BAD. I selected the whites and pulled the red slider all the way left and then toyed with the master hues lighten slider (PSE 7).

Now this is the kicker... On this posting, I have lost a lot of bg colour/tone (should be a nice 'dreamy' burgandy)... the eyes DO stand out a little... This is what prompted me to ask about skin tone issues (ST was slightly corrected in PP and it bugged me that I screwed something up).

Yet my big files look good...........


When I was working the whites, I hummed and hawed on the final setting; one seemed too much and the other, not enough. I ended up taking the cautious choice - WTS, we have in our hands a framed/matted 11x14 that looks every bit as nice as the full-sized digi version on my screen... Why this one looks like it does baffles me. I host w/ PS.com and am wondering if that has anything to do with it (???).


BUT!!!! While we're on the subject of eyes; could ya point me to another treatment? My discription above is complete... Is there anything that I could add/change?

Oh, the iris's are just stiffly sharpened - I tend to take them to the point of cracking, then backing off a tad, using a mask/brush.

Pretty simple stuff... But there's always a different way to skin a cat.


FWIW - Thats the heaviest of treatments. Other than removing the odd missed whisker, it's pretty much it.

marikris

D'Buggs wrote:

BUT!!!! While we're on the subject of eyes; could ya point me to another treatment?

Sometimes, I use multiple brushed/masked copies set to Screen and adjust the opacity. I do the same for teeth whitening. Just have to make sure it's not overdone or it looks positively glowing.

BTW, I have chronic insomnia, too, which is why I'm still up so late lol. I can totally relate with the bloodshot eyes :cry

D'Buggs

marikris wrote:

BTW, I have chronic insomnia, too, which is why I'm still up so late lol. I can totally relate with the bloodshot eyes :cry

If ya noticed, I put up this thread at 3AM (Pacific). I evolve 'round naps.

bobcool

I think your treatment is great if he had bloodshot eyes to start with. I think the thing I noticed was that all parts of the whites of the eyes were the same brightness. Perhaps if you create a dupe layer and then burn around the edges/corners of the eyes, and then adjust opacity to preference you might get a little more realistic look

Since the light is coming from camera above & left there should be some light falloff, especially in his left eye. BUT, with that said, as long as it looks good on your monitor and on the print, who cares? Maybe try the technique next time, but this time I'm positive you'll get many thank-you's for this great effort...

D'Buggs

bobcool wrote:

I think your treatment is great if he had bloodshot eyes to start with. I think the thing I noticed was that all parts of the whites of the eyes were the same brightness. Perhaps if you create a dupe layer and then burn around the edges/corners of the eyes, and then adjust opacity to preference you might get a little more realistic look

Both eyes were adjusted in unison. What was done on one side was mirrored in the other. If both recieved the same treatment equally, they *should* be as balanced and toned as they were to begin with. No (?).

Since the light is coming from camera above & left there should be some light falloff, especially in his left eye.

Here's the lighting set up :

- Key light was popping @ 5.6, camera left, 45dg angle of subject
- Fill light was a reflector that was set in the exact position but at camera right, popping around f4...4.5 (something like that, made some adjustments during shoot).
- Both light sources were situated at head height and within an arms reach of the chair.


Now here is where I think a bit of an illusion sets in....

- The kicker is the only light that's high (~45dg to the BACK of model, on camera left [same side as main]), shooting down @ about 50/55dg's at the subject. (about 8' from model and at ceiling height). All this light had on for a mod, was a 1/4" honeycomb grid.

A shadow cast is there in his upper eyes, but with the way it was set up, its miniscule because of the "flight path" of the kicker (just trying to 'skim' his head and bounce off of the reflector (fill light).


This set-up was likely highly unorthidox, but hey,,, I'm N E W And I was just trying to get the near impossible, accomplished.

That hair light was hot but I was metering for the bounce it gave off my fill as I was wanting fairly even light on his frontal - I can see how the spill on his temple makes the set-up *look* different/un-natural now.

Would that explain what your seeing???

Also; he's wearing glasses that self darken (don't recal what they're called) and they're a *little* dark for some reason. Looks like they're just starting to 'turn', perhaps adding to the illusion of shadow???

BUT, with that said, as long as it looks good on your monitor and on the print, who cares? Maybe try the technique next time, but this time I'm positive you'll get many thank-you's for this great effort...

I care!

If somethings out, I wanna know why. And I want to get to the root of it - I've resized the pic to 900 pixies (sorry Admin, for breaking the 600 rule), maybe we can get a better look.

D'Buggs

ARRRGH.

My host is being stubborn (again). For some reason its not wanting to upload....


EDIT: Now its there. sharpness looks whacky though.... Just resized the same jpg - no other changes.

My bg is starting to come to life but it's still off.


This looks bad. I'll make a fresh copy.


EDIT deux: copy is up but not sure if it's much better.... What's that all about? Oh well, you can at least see tonals in the eyes now.

D'Buggs

bobcool;

I've been playing around with your treatment and I gotta admit; I like the look that I got!


Did it a bit different though - I ended up with a subtle 5% opacity burn on ALL of the whites. I felt it yeilded pleasing, natural looking, results.

You, Sir, have a good eye and I have learned that to resolve one issue (bloodshot in my case), you'll likely create another that needs addressing. I *think* I got the balance of tone that was in the original take (which I should have been refrencing with from the begining).

Thanks for hitting me with a stick.