High key portrait - a bit strange

Nordic

Hi!

I was playing around a lot with photoshop on this one.
Do you like it?

Regards,
Andreas

Mitchell

Andreas,
This is a beautiful, haunting portrait.

I like the way she dissolves into the high key lighting. Can you share how this was lit?

ShannonW

I like it as well very nice. Could you share what you did in PS.

LeDude

this one's a keepa! real nice, dare I say: scary sexy? something different and well executed

Owen

I like this one way more than any others I have seen of her. She looks way better without big black circles around her eyes. Very flattering picture.

mercphoto

Very cool effect. My one and only suggestion is to make both eyes equal. The left eye has more color than the right eye does, probably a side-effect of the Photoshopping you did.

Nordic

Hi my friends!

WOW, thank you so much for your feedback!
Its amazing how a picture that you find rather mediocre is so well received by many people, while your absolute favourites are just "nice" for them. This happens to me all the time.
I just posted this image because I had a not so good day, and just wanted to post SOMETHING.
Ahh, I feel a lot better now.

Mitchell wrote:

Andreas,
This is a beautiful, haunting portrait.

I like the way she dissolves into the high key lighting. Can you share how this was lit?

Thanks! The only light source was window light from the right. It was a very overcast day - softbox sky. The actual high key effect was added later in PS.

ShannonW wrote:

I like it as well very nice. Could you share what you did in PS.

Thank you!!
I developed the RAW file in ACR. Then I started to play around with it in PS. I smoothed out the skin a bit, and added the high key effect with a plugin called "LightMachine". (URL: http://www.thepluginsite.com/products/photowiz/lightmachine/index.htm ).
I think I even used on of the presets of this plugin.
Then I used USM (120,80,0) on the eyes and the lips in screen mode.
It took maybe 5 minutes.

LeDude wrote:

this one's a keepa! real nice, dare I say: scary sexy? something different and well executed

Thanks for your nice words!
I don't find it sexy. I think of it as if she is "going into the light" and in the last moment she looks back at you. Will she turn around? Or is she already too far away? Will you follow her? :grim

Owen wrote:

I like this one way more than any others I have seen of her. She looks way better without big black circles around her eyes. Very flattering picture.

Thank you very much, Owen!

mercphoto wrote:

Very cool effect. My one and only suggestion is to make both eyes equal. The left eye has more color than the right eye does, probably a side-effect of the Photoshopping you did.

Thanks! You are right about the eye, didn't notice it at all! Her right eye is a darker because of the lightning, but the USM made it a lot more noticeable. I will make another version.

Regards,
Andreas