High Key Series (maybe NSFW)

anonymouscuban

This is my third session with my studio lights. This time I decided to give High-Key a shot (pun intended). This is what I interpret High-Key to be after after reading countless stuff on the net about what High-Key is and what its not.

I set this up in my bedroom. I hung a white bed sheet on the wall as a backdrop. I then placed to 3x7' white tile boards on the floor. I had her pose about 4-5' away from the backdrop. I had my two AB400 with umbrellas (reflective) about 3' from her... one on camera right and the other camera left. I had the one on left set on a slightly lower power and slightly behind her. The one on the right was place slightly in front of her. The umbrella on camera right was pointed slightly more towards the backdrop to get help blast it. I then had my SB-600 speedlight setup as a background light. Hope that makes sense.

I would really love to hear what you guys think about these - good and bad.

#1


#2


#3


#4


#5


#6


OK... the ones above I did not touch the tonal curve or exposure.

This one below I played around a bit with in Photoshop to push the highlights a bit more but not so much to blow them out.

Sam

I like the beauty and soft feminine feel of the images.

I bet she is thrilled with them.

Sam

Gary752

I only have one favorite out of this bunch....ALL OF THEM!!!!!! The thing that makes me keep coming back to view these is your wife's eyes! They are very beautiful! Very nice job on this series! I can't wait to see what you come up with next.

GaryB

anonymouscuban

Thanks guys. Yeah, we're both very happy with this set.

ivar

Very nice set! I really like what you're doing. I've seen you improve greatly since you started posting here

The last one seems to have a bit of a weird blueish color-cast, on her hair mainly?

Hackbone

I think you did a wonderful job especially for working in a cramped space. I love your exposure and your processing of her skin. I tend to like the lower camera angle as opposed to the higher ones. Susprised that you did not get more spill on her from being so close to the bkg.

anonymouscuban

ivar wrote:

Very nice set! I really like what you're doing. I've seen you improve greatly since you started posting here

The last one seems to have a bit of a weird blueish color-cast, on her hair mainly?

Thanks Ivar. Yeah, I've really been focusing my photography on portraiture lately. I am finding it very enjoyable.

That last one, messed with the original and I do see the bluish tint to the hair. My monitors are a bit out of whack so sometimes I miss these things.

anonymouscuban

Hackbone wrote:

I think you did a wonderful job especially for working in a cramped space. I love your exposure and your processing of her skin. I tend to like the lower camera angle as opposed to the higher ones. Susprised that you did not get more spill on her from being so close to the bkg.

Thanks HB... it was pretty cramped indeed. What made it even more difficult is that I have standard ligth stands, no booms so I had to shoot around the stands and other stuff. I am pretty happy with the results. I think I just got lucky.

I have yet to try shooting through the umbrellas... that is my next experient. I am curious to see what different effect this has on the light.

Nikolai

I think you did pretty good considering the limited amount of light power.
Typical HK requires at least 3 full featured lights, 2 for the bg and 1 for the subjects (more on the front if you need to elaborate the details). Lack of the light power can be sometimes (as in your case) replaced by some carefull PS-ing, but only to a degree...

JayClark79

The pics are great, what are you using for a backdrop? (cloth, or something else)
Everytime i use my white cloth backdrop I can still see the fabric.

jerel

Great job. I love the way you processed her skin. If i my ask what program did you use?

anonymouscuban

Nikolai wrote:

I think you did pretty good considering the limited amount of light power.
Typical HK requires at least 3 full featured lights, 2 for the bg and 1 for the subjects (more on the front if you need to elaborate the details). Lack of the light power can be sometimes (as in your case) replaced by some carefull PS-ing, but only to a degree...

Thanks Nikolai. Yeah, I really had to play with the position of the lights and really blast the background to get it pure white so no texture or wrinkles showed through.

lilmomma

You have a beautiful wife, and great job on the pictures! My only minor nit is that there are some shadows that have a greenish blue cast to them. I wonder if you can process that out maybe? Otherwise these are awesome!

anonymouscuban

JayClark79 wrote:

The pics are great, what are you using for a backdrop? (cloth, or something else)
Everytime i use my white cloth backdrop I can still see the fabric.

I used cloth. Actually a white cotton bedsheet. At first it was showing through but then I moved her further away and bumped the flashpower that was blasting the background and that eliminated the issue altogether.

anonymouscuban

jerel wrote:

Great job. I love the way you processed her skin. If i my ask what program did you use?

I run them through Portraiture first. Then I used the healing brush in PS to get rid of a bruise she has on her leg.

anonymouscuban

lilmomma wrote:

You have a beautiful wife, and great job on the pictures! My only minor nit is that there are some shadows that have a greenish blue cast to them. I wonder if you can process that out maybe? Otherwise these are awesome!

Hmm... I wonder if that's from portraiture? I'm sure I can fix that in post.

goldilocksandmy3bears

so just a sheet, tile boards, lights set correct oh and a beautiful model gave you those awesome shots??? good work! Looks to me like you had a huge studio!