Playing with Reflecters in Direct Sunlight

amberlynstudios

Just got some reflectors. Have a lot to learn! Here is a photo that I took on a bright day, but she was under a tree and there were some harsh shadows on her face. Using the reflector, I evened out the skin tones. CC welcomed.

amberlynstudios

I can honestly say that its not as clear here on the site as its on my computer...any reasons why???

Dooginfif20

its a nice photo, but looks very soft. probably because of the compression!

amberlynstudios

Yea...its more...detailed here on my end...but here it looks somewhat flat and lacking of the sharpness....looks like its all blurred!

amberlynstudios

Here is another image.

amberlynstudios

OMG lol It looks SO green on here...am I doing something wrong???!!! The photos are fine but when I upload them something is off....

ian408

One of the 'problems' is that you're attaching the image. As you're aware, attached images are quite small and lack the detail of originals.

Take a look through the "help" link in my signature for hints on posting images. But using an image hosting service, like SmugMug, would help mitigate this problem.

BTW, the reflectors seem to be doing their job well

Quincy T

Yeah, I agree with Ian. The pictures themselves are showing up strange, and I don't think they're the best poses on earth, but it looks like you're utilizing the reflector well, which is what this post is about...so good job!

divamum

What Ian said

Reflectoed light looks great, and there's a natural fun feeling and energy to the shots

Watch out for chopped off limbs and fingers - in the first one, we've lost her digits.... In the second one it's not really an issue, as the dress kind of flows out of the frame implying her legs.

Hard to tell because of the low-rez, but it also looks like you've done a fair bit of skin smoothing, particularly on the first one; my usual feeling is if I can tell you've done it, it's probably too much

Bryce Wilson

Amberlyn:

I too struggled for the longest time with getting my images uploaded and having them look the same as they do prior to uploading. It was most frustrating. Having a smugmug account has eliminated that problem. Even a free Flickr account is better than direct upload, but not as good a Smugmug.

I think your use of reflectors was spot on for what you were trying to accomplish, but I do think you overdid the skin in post.

zoomer

To resize for the web and still have them look sharp.
Resize to 2000 then go to Filters> sharpen (click on sharpen once)
Go back and resize to 900, then view it at actual pixels. Magically sharpens the resized image perfect everytime.

FlyNavy

Bryce Wilson wrote: »

Amberlyn:

I too struggled for the longest time with getting my images uploaded and having them look the same as they do prior to uploading. It was most frustrating. Having a smugmug account has eliminated that problem. Even a free Flickr account is better than direct upload, but not as good a Smugmug.

I think your use of reflectors was spot on for what you were trying to accomplish, but I do think you overdid the skin in post.

I agree with Bryce. I looked at your website and am impressed with your photos.

amberlynstudios

Thanks everyone. I am def going to sign up for a flickr account, and rethink my editing strategies when it comes to the skin smoothing. She has A LOT of acne, so I did a lot of stuff to take it away...lol prob too much. More posts coming soon! Its nice to find a site that people actually respond too and get real cc without feeling dumb...lol Please like me on FB!

anonymouscuban

Amber... you have a website. Are these photos uploaded to your site? If so, you can simply hotlink to the hosted image on your site. No need for a Flickr or any other site to host your photos. You can even hotlink to them on Facebook if you have them uploaded there.

Hotlinking is much better than attachments.

amberlynstudios

I do have a FB...I tried to hotlink them once and it didnt work. I should try again. Thanks!

anonymouscuban

amberlynstudios wrote: »

I do have a FB...I tried to hotlink them once and it didnt work. I should try again. Thanks!

Sure. Try this... while on FB, click on the image so it gets displayed in the image window. Then right-click on the image itself and select "copy image URL" or "copy image location", it depends on the browser you're using. If neither get option is available, select "Properties". The URL to the image should be displayed in the properties windows. Copy it. Then, in your post here, paste that URL into the little dialogue box that you get when you click the "insert image" icon on the tool bar. It's the little yellow square with what looks like a mountain and sun pictured on it.