A shoot with a ghetto rig

[Shutteraddict]

Awhile back a young girl I know asked me and a buddy to take some shots for her to use as profile pics to

promote herself to liquor reps and such. I had shot girlfriends for fun many times in the past with ghetto rigs like a

hot light and homemade reflector. My buddy was on the same page with his equipment, so we spent an hour and

put up a SUPER ghetto rig lol. We attatched a hotlight to a tripod stand, and put a cheap white umbrella in front of

it (you dont wanna know how we attatched it lol) Then we hung up my buddies smaller hot light from

the ceiling above her. Another girlfriend used the homemade reflector as best she could to reduce any shadows

that were left. We hung a white blanket behind her, and she was on top of another white blanket. In post

processing, I decided to go B&W with the RAW file since she was wearing black against a white background. I

isoloated the white background and blew it out to remove all the slight fold shadows in the blankets. I softened her

face a little and then resharpened her eyes, eyebrows, hairline, lips, and earrings. I also sharpened her shoes a

bit. All that was done on top of the standard raw processing. Anyways, she was very happy and recently

contacted me to do some more, and has a friend that would like to shoot. When I get around to them, I would like

to step my game up a bit from my recreational attitude that I have had in the past when it comes to shooting

ladies. What could I have done better considering the equipment I have to work with, post processing, or anything

else that may come to your mind? I have since obtained an accessory flash and pretty nice tripod.




Canon Rebel T2I
EFS 18-55
f/5.6
1/50sec
focal length 27mm
ISO 1600 (I know its high, but that was the only setting leaving me confident with handheld)
No flash

[graciousness]

Did you do some cropping or something around her leg area? There's something really weird going on there - the edge of her leg is really jagged. First thing I saw.

For me, I think the focus is soft. I would have like to see more sharpness around her face, or more sharpness overall. This maybe personal preference, however, but I do think it's just too soft overall.

The conversion, I feel, is ok.

There's a shadw on her arm from the sleeve - I don't think it's doing the image any favours and would be better removed (if you can).

I don't like how the chair is cropped; the image feels incomplete the way it is framed. I would have stepped back to take this shot to get more of her and chair in, or shoot quite close.

I think that's all I can remember.......just as a note, it's better if you actually embed the picture in the post rather than attach. As is, I can't refer back to the photo whilst I type as you can't view attachments whilst replying.

Cheers! I do hope this helps a little. I feel like I haven't offered much advice.

Grace

[Shutteraddict]

Originally Posted by graciousness

Did you do some cropping or something around her leg area? There's something really weird going on there - the edge of her leg is really jagged. First thing I saw.

For me, I think the focus is soft. I would have like to see more sharpness around her face, or more sharpness overall. This maybe personal preference, however, but I do think it's just too soft overall.

The conversion, I feel, is ok.

There's a shadw on her arm from the sleeve - I don't think it's doing the image any favours and would be better removed (if you can).

I don't like how the chair is cropped; the image feels incomplete the way it is framed. I would have stepped back to take this shot to get more of her and chair in, or shoot quite close.

I think that's all I can remember.......just as a note, it's better if you actually embed the picture in the post rather than attach. As is, I can't refer back to the photo whilst I type as you can't view attachments whilst replying.

Cheers! I do hope this helps a little. I feel like I haven't offered much advice.

Grace

Thanks! Yeah, I noticed how terribly bad the line was on her leg after I uploaded the shot and saw it on such a large scale. I can try sharpening it up and adding some more contrast as well. And yeah, I noticed since I started using this site a couple of months ago that my uploads did not embed like most other peoples. I gotta figure out how to do that

[NotDadsW41]

Where is her other leg???

[Shutteraddict]

Originally Posted by NotDadsW41

Where is her other leg???

Lol. Spread out to the right outta sight.

[JFSanders]

Be careful with the sharpening. It actually makes the edges less sharp in case you didn't know. It actually increases the contrast at the pixel level according to how many pixels you choose and the particular program you use to do it with. This may be what is causing your rough edge. Also do your sharpening last. After you size the image and any other edits. Sharpen a small image and then blow it up a little and the thing will be seriously soft.

[Shutteraddict]

Originally Posted by JFSanders

Be careful with the sharpening. It actually makes the edges less sharp in case you didn't know. It actually increases the contrast at the pixel level according to how many pixels you choose and the particular program you use to do it with. This may be what is causing your rough edge. Also do your sharpening last. After you size the image and any other edits. Sharpen a small image and then blow it up a little and the thing will be seriously soft.

I did not know that, thanks! I am taking a note down now to make sure I do a little more reading on sharpening in photoshop.

[JFSanders]

She is gorgeous and courageous too! I do some ghetto lighting when I get caught with my gear down. It does take more post processing to compensate but you can get good results with it. As long as you don't make the image larger than it can support at the pixel level.

[Peach]

Originally Posted by NotDadsW41

Where is her other leg???

This lol

I like the picture too, but I don't like the lack of the other leg. Even if it had been visible through the chair legs. To me, lacking it makes it look like she only has 1 leg.

Other than that, I really like the image

[BigFuzzy]

Dude.. almost skipped this because your mountain of text was hard to read! Put some spaces in there next time.. I simply skipped to the end and luckily found your question.

I'm with the others in that I don't like that I can't see the leg. And even if I could, not sure I love how the chair is clipped. I understand not wanting to center everything (boring!), but having awkward crops is also not awesome.

Jim makes good point on the (over?)sharpening. Also, the work done on the eyes, at least to me, seems obvious especially her left eye.

I also would have liked to see her hand. Even though it's not the edge of the frame that does it, it still feels chopped. Many times you hear "don't chop arms below the elbow" which I feel is often true.

It's not a bad effort, and it helps that I like looking at hot women, but there are also a few small things that could make this image pop. Just keep cutting things off and limbs in general in mind for the next one.