# Lexi



## Evertking (Oct 10, 2017)

..


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## tirediron (Oct 10, 2017)

Very nice; good work on the lighting here!  A couple of minor niggles; I would crop a bit off the top, at least enough to get rid of the bottoms of the light brackets, and I would try and smooth out her shirt front a bit, definitely get rid of the 'point' from the waist band of her trousers.


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## Evertking (Oct 10, 2017)

How would you fix the shirt?


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## tirediron (Oct 10, 2017)

ideally it's something you want to catch in advance, but I would probably tackle it with a combination of the Clone Stamp tool, the Healing Brush, and multiple copy & paste layers.


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## rosh4u (Oct 10, 2017)

I agree that the lighting has been done well which makes the image look good.  And the shirt thing should be eliminated by editing tools to make it look good.


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## Peeb (Oct 10, 2017)

There were also some yellow artifacts on the shirt near her hand that I tinkered with (ineptly, but still...)

Very strong image.  Nice!


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## Evertking (Oct 11, 2017)




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## DanOstergren (Oct 11, 2017)

That point coming out of her stomach is definitely a detail to watch out for before you take the photo. Another detail that catches my attention in a bad way is her fingers on the light pole. I personally feel that it would look better if she perhaps posed her hand on the side of the pole so it was visible to the camera, rather than behind it causing us to only see parts of her fingers. 

 You have color and lighting down really well it seems, now it's time to start focusing more on the fine details. Train yourself to pick apart a scene as you're viewing it in front of you as well as through the viewfinder, and once again when viewing the image on the back of the camera after you take it. Eventually that attention to detail will become like second nature and a natural part of the picture taking process.


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## Destin (Oct 11, 2017)

DanOstergren said:


> That point coming out of her stomach is definitely a detail to watch out for before you take the photo. Another detail that catches my attention in a bad way is her fingers on the light pole. I personally feel that it would look better if she perhaps posed her hand on the side of the pole so it was visible to the camera, rather than behind it causing us to only see parts of her fingers.
> 
> You have color and lighting down really well it seems, now it's time to start focusing more on the fine details. Train yourself to pick apart a scene as you're viewing it in front of you as well as through the viewfinder, and once again when viewing the image on the back of the camera after you take it. Eventually that attention to detail will become like second nature and a natural part of the picture taking process.



Agreed with all points. I’ll add that this is the hardest aspect of making good portraits.


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## Evertking (Oct 11, 2017)

Peeb said:


> There were also some yellow artifacts on the shirt near her hand that I tinkered with (ineptly, but still...)
> 
> Very strong image.  Nice!View attachment 148012


I bet I spent at least a few hours on the shirt last night and then finally got to the point I was going to smash my computer so i just gave up  had gone to bed.
  Good job..  how?


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## Peeb (Oct 11, 2017)

Evertking said:


> Peeb said:
> 
> 
> > There were also some yellow artifacts on the shirt near her hand that I tinkered with (ineptly, but still...)
> ...


Used a clone stamp, sampled a portion of the shirt that was 'flat',  spotted in the area that was sticking out, then went to healing tool, smoothed over the area to make it look a little more natural.


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## smoke665 (Oct 11, 2017)

I like both  images. In addition to the other comments, I might try to even out the color on the face in the first. Have you used the presets I sent you yet?


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## Evertking (Oct 11, 2017)

Peeb said:


> Evertking said:
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> > Peeb said:
> ...


Ok, I will try again.. mine never looked that good. :/


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## Evertking (Oct 11, 2017)




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## Derrel (Oct 11, 2017)

Whaddaya' doin? Saving up the best images for last?


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## Evertking (Oct 11, 2017)

Derrel said:


> Whaddaya' doin? Saving up the best images for last?


Yeah, I wish 
The last image I posted is my favorite of the bunch and maybe someone with more experience can tell me why this image looks different, the colors.. something. Is it exposure, WB or lighting? Cause if I could have, they would have all been like that but I'm so green I don't know what I did. Lol


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## Evertking (Oct 12, 2017)




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## DanOstergren (Oct 14, 2017)

Evertking said:


>


Bring a broom to your photo shoots and groom your set. All of that debris below the bottom step is doing nothing to help this photo.


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## Evertking (Oct 15, 2017)

DanOstergren said:


> Evertking said:
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> >
> ...


Thank you, I will do that.


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## smoke665 (Oct 15, 2017)

@Evertking great pose on this last one! You've got a good eye for composition. Couple of comments, I think you might suffer from the same thing that plagued me early on "the red plague". Red is a color that is so easy to over saturate. It requires a combination of exposure and post to get it right. I took the liberty of adjusting this last photo, by dropping the saturation overall and selectively on the red top. It also appears to be a little lacking in contrast, so bumped it to a medium contrast, then selectively adjusted. When I had it on screen and enlarged it seems that you might have missed focus slightly on the face. I always seek to get pin point sharp on the eyes, and adjust my DOF for the rest. I sharpened the eyes as much as I could, softened the skin, and used a 50% gray layer to burn and dodge the highlights and shadow.


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## Gary A. (Oct 15, 2017)

These are all nice to my eyes.  A lot of nits, but overall very nice.  Attention to detail separates the men from the boys.


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## Evertking (Oct 15, 2017)

When the sun is setting and I have a dark background I sometimes have to move them around to find a light colored spot for the subjects head. So, here is my question. In times like this can I take a speedlight with the small foot stand it comes with or another light stand and place behind them, to back light them. That would work wouldn't it? I don't have another modifier at this time so it would have to be just a speedlight. The speedlight would have to be in slave and work in HSS. I have never tried that. I know they have HSS but does it work in optical slave mode like that?


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## smoke665 (Oct 15, 2017)

Yes, depending on the area you are trying to light. You can also use one to light the back of your subject which separate them from the background


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## Evertking (Oct 15, 2017)

Ok.. I have a godox strobe and trigger and I know it will fire it(the speedlight) in slave mode but it has always be within sync speed. I have never tried it outside when I use HSS.  But you say it will? That's good. I will try tomorrow.


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## smoke665 (Oct 15, 2017)

Evertking said:


> within sync speed. I have never tried it outside when I use HSS



Sorry I missed HSS part, I'm not sure of that. If it's dark enough to need flash you should be able to keep shutter in synch speed anyhow.


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## Evertking (Oct 15, 2017)

smoke665 said:


> @Evertking great pose on this last one! You've got a good eye for composition. Couple of comments, I think you might suffer from the same thing that plagued me early on "the red plague". Red is a color that is so easy to over saturate. It requires a combination of exposure and post to get it right. I took the liberty of adjusting this last photo, by dropping the saturation overall and selectively on the red top. It also appears to be a little lacking in contrast, so bumped it to a medium contrast, then selectively adjusted. When I had it on screen and enlarged it seems that you might have missed focus slightly on the face. I always seek to get pin point sharp on the eyes, and adjust my DOF for the rest. I sharpened the eyes as much as I could, softened the skin, and used a 50% gray layer to burn and dodge the highlights and shadow.
> View attachment 148241


Also, I have not attempted the 50% grey layer to D&B I learned a way off of YouTube that uses 2 curve layers, one blown out and the other way underexposed and the a brush to highlight and the other for Shadows. I hope that makes sense. But the video also goes on to say "many will not agree with this method" so.. I just want to learn everything the right way while I'm learning.
I appreciate your help very much.




Here, in case I didn't make the technique clear. Dodge and burn seems like something that I need to learn the right way.



smoke665 said:


> Evertking said:
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> 
> > within sync speed. I have never tried it outside when I use HSS
> ...


Yeah, I got to thinking about that.. I'm sorry if I confused you.


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## smoke665 (Oct 15, 2017)

Evertking said:


> Dodge and burn seems like something that I need to learn the right way.



Easy. In PS go to Layers>New>mode soft light>check fill with 50% gray. Now go to tools burn or dodge, drop the brush hardness down to 25-30, and opacity down to about 15%. Then make sure the gray layer is active and dodge or burn away

I've used other methods but I find this the most flexible


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## DGMPhotography (Oct 18, 2017)

Invest in a steamer, or make sure the model puts her clothes in the dryer, or irons it first.


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## DanOstergren (Oct 19, 2017)

Evertking said:


> smoke665 said:
> 
> 
> > @Evertking great pose on this last one! You've got a good eye for composition. Couple of comments, I think you might suffer from the same thing that plagued me early on "the red plague". Red is a color that is so easy to over saturate. It requires a combination of exposure and post to get it right. I took the liberty of adjusting this last photo, by dropping the saturation overall and selectively on the red top. It also appears to be a little lacking in contrast, so bumped it to a medium contrast, then selectively adjusted. When I had it on screen and enlarged it seems that you might have missed focus slightly on the face. I always seek to get pin point sharp on the eyes, and adjust my DOF for the rest. I sharpened the eyes as much as I could, softened the skin, and used a 50% gray layer to burn and dodge the highlights and shadow.
> ...


I started using a similar method recently, and I think the results are better than the 50% gray layer method. In my experience the 50% gray layer method has a tendency to desaturate areas that you dodge and saturate areas that you burn. 

Also, using the curves adjustment layer with a mask method is still considered dodging and burning, even if you're not using the actual dodge and burn tools. The application and desired end result of either method are still the same, I just think the curves method works better.


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