What do you do when...

[darkman]

she has skin this beautiful? I put a spot grid straight on. These are straight images. The only PS was a BW conversion.

Mike

[darkman]

[with diffused light and color to show off her red hair. Hopefully I chose good ones to show off! I tend to NEVER choose the ones the customer will...

Thanks for looking,

Mike

[Peter_AUS]

Does the young lady wear contacts, I think so, looking at the B/W ones they glare too much outside the cornea distracting a little from the catch light in Iris area. They stand out in the photo to me too much.

Nice shots, I especially like the last one (trio shot) has personality in it more. Not sure the bright red lipstick works for me, especially with someone with Auburn Hair (Not RED, Not RED). I have/had the same colouring as her, but it has darkened over the years as it does. Also the hands on hips looks a little awkward, but again the last one is a fun pic isn't it.

[darkman]

Peter

Can you explain your comments more? I don't understand what you're refering to with the too much glare outside the conrea?

I'm also not sure what you mean about her arms either? I think they're quite sassy and that the young lady did a very good job.

My biggest dissapointment was she showed up with a wrinkled shirt! But like the lipstick, I don't really have control of this...

I had hair like this when I was young, but it turned brown by the time I was done with grade school. By the time I got out of HS, gray hairs were showing up!

Anyone else? Suggestions? Comments? Tips?

Mike

[Sebastian]

Mike,

PLEASE post a lighting diagram for these, but in particular the ones with the mottled blue backdrop. The one light setups are simple enough to not bother with, but the other ones I could really use a visual guide for.

These are great, too bad about the wrinkled shirt.

[dsl712]

All very nice. I like the color ones better than the B&W. For B&W, I think the lighting is a bit too flat. With the greater range of tones in B&W, you may want to up the ratio a bit.

Dennis

[darkman]

Hi Sebastion,

Thanks for the comments. Here is a diagram of the setup. I used an octabox as the main. It's about 3-4 ft from her. The nice thing about the octabox is it wraps around pretty good so I can get a way without a fill light. I set the hair light about 1 1/2 to 2 stops below the main for her light hair. I have lights on the right side of the photo angling from below to across the muslin. I can't remember for sure, but I think these were about a stop below the main. Both with blue gels. This creates that glow on the muslin. She's standing about 7ft from the backdrop.

Hi Dennis,

Thanks for the comments too. I hear what your saying about the BW ones (excpet possibly the first one). I set up a butterfly lighting with a spot grid on the main at about a 5-1 ratio. The lower light just to keep some detail under the chin and nose. I did this "glamour" setup just to show off her skin, it was almost unreal. You can't get away with this on most people. Then I liked them in BW. Here's one in color. The light may be a little high creating to much shadow under the nose (can be "fixed"). But check out her skin, it's like porcelain. I didn't do anything to this image but resize and sharpen.

Thanks,

Mike