"Cold Look" - Behind the Scene

[arielc]

As originally posted earlier in the "Share Your Shots"/Portraits forum, I would like to share my "Behind the Scene" of the "Cold Look" shot.

Before we get into the technical details, I would like to discuss first about the circumstances.
I am a new photographer and doing so as a hobby only. Despite that, I have a relatively semi-pro gear (as will be mentioned later). Having said that, finding an opportunity or location for taking a great shot is not easy. Lucky for me, every april local car-dealers host an auto-show and using beautiful models to draw-attention to their cars. So, I decided to take my camera and head straight there. By doing so, I created the basic essential components for taking a great photograph: LOCATION, SUBJECT, THEME and LIGHTING and all for a "mere" price of a 10$ ticket.
One of the models I saw was sitting in a BMW on a rotating stage. There was something in her look that caught me. She had a cold face and a straight look, despite being surrounded by dozens of people photographing her. So, I waited for the right moment and took the shot. That's the result:



This shot was taken using my Canon EOS 7D and my Canon EF 24-105mm f/4L IS USM lens. I used an Old flash having to set it to "Manual" 1/16 as it was not supported by my camera's E-TTL II. The flash's head was pointed up to avoid emitting direct light. The camera's settings were: focal at 105mm, 1/200, f/4, "Flash" WB, ISO 400 and most importantly, this shot was taken in RAW rather than JPEG (my first time shooting in RAW).

After reviewing this shot back at home I wasn't satisfied with the results (as you can probably see for yourself above). So, it was time to turn to some post-production magic.
First, I had to crop the image so I could get the composition that I was aimed to in the auto-show (as mentioned earlier, It's not easy to compose the shot while you're surrounded by dozens of people and not to mention that the model was sitting on a revolving stage).

The next step was correcting the EXPOSURE, CONTRAST, LEVELS, WB, HIGHLIGHTS.

After that, I took the time to eliminate the person in the background.

Then, I SMOOTHED the skin and giving a little BLEACH effect.

And Voila...

[Dodge]

Looks great to me, a bit spooky too as she looks EXACTLY like an ex girlfriend of 30 years ago !

I really, REALLY, like the final image...........a lot.