Thoughts on lighting and Watermark

[mikedugganphotography]

Just looking to get your opinions on the lighting and the watermark. Do you feel the light is to harsh? Is the watermark to much? I'm struggling with creating a watermark that looks good but is not over powering. Thanks for your thoughts.



EXIF:
Nikon D90
1/90at f6.7
ISO 200
Strobe: SB800 on camera

[SusanH1970]

The lighting is a little harsh - there are hot spots on her forehead, nose and chin. Did you diffuse and/or bounce the flash at all?

As for the watermark, I wouldn't have even noticed it if you hadn't mentioned it, and it would be incredibly easy for someone to crop or clone it out.

[mikedugganphotography]

Originally Posted by SusanH1970

The lighting is a little harsh - there are hot spots on her forehead, nose and chin. Did you diffuse and/or bounce the flash at all?

As for the watermark, I wouldn't have even noticed it if you hadn't mentioned it, and it would be incredibly easy for someone to crop or clone it out.

The flash was bounced. Any suggestions on a watermark? I'm not really looking for a watermark to stop people from cloning out of cropping but more for placing on portraits that are sold.

[SusanH1970]

If you're only going to be using that watermark on sold prints, then it's fine. I don't put my watermark on sold prints, only one ones I post on the internet or email to clients as "sneak peeks".

Have you tried using your flash off-camera?

[Benji]

People of color have skin that shines. About the only thing that can be done is applying lots of powder to knock it down a couple of notches but even then their skin will have some shine to it. The lighting in your image is very acceptable. The camera position was too low however.

Benji

[mikedugganphotography]

Benji,

Thanks for the input, much appreciated.

[Benji]

Originally Posted by mikedugganphotography

Benji,

Thanks for the input, much appreciated.

No problem. Some "whiteys" also have this shiney skin. I keep some Mary Kay facial powder on hand to knock it down but some girls simply have smooth skin that even powder won't kill!!!

Ben

[ttosifa]

I have looked at this picture several times, and something has bugged me each time I looked at it. I think I now know what it is, and may be related to the "harshness" of the lighting (although, as Benji points out, darker skin tends to be more specular). I think it's more about the color.

What I think might be the case is that you have some color contamination, possibly from nearby walls (were there nearby walls of the same color as the background?). Your flash might have lit those too, and dark skin - being highly specular - can easily pick up the color of the surrounding walls.

Anyhoo, what I did was open a photo filter layer, sample the color of the background (turn off preview when doing this), and then put a minus in front of the a and b channel numbers given in the Lab values. This gives the opposite color of the background. At even 25 percent density, the "harshness" seems to go away and leaves a picture that, to me, looks more natural and has better color contrast (color contamination will reduce color contrast, so this seems natural).

EDIT: I forgot to mention that this might or might not be the best way to color correct. There might be more contamination in the highlights or something which would suggest a different method. This was just a test for me to see whether it was the color that was bugging me.

[Benji]

The absolute best way to color correct is to shoot in Raw, set all the lights up exactly as you intend to shoot with, take a meter reading, set the correct camera settings then ask the subject to hold a grey card for you while you make a capture. After the session is over open the files in ACR, click on all the files that you shot with that grey card reading click on the white balance and click the eyedropper onto the grey area, then Synchronize. Absolutely perfect white balance every time (assuming you didn't use a gold reflector or some other reflector that introduces a color cast to a portion of the image. This will give you correct white balance regardless of the skin tone of the subject.

Benji

[ttosifa]

Originally Posted by Benji

The absolute best way to color correct is to shoot in Raw, set all the lights up exactly as you intend to shoot with, take a meter reading, set the correct camera settings then ask the subject to hold a grey card for you while you make a capture. After the session is over open the files in ACR, click on all the files that you shot with that grey card reading click on the white balance and click the eyedropper onto the grey area, then Synchronize. Absolutely perfect white balance every time (assuming you didn't use a gold reflector or some other reflector that introduces a color cast to a portion of the image. This will give you correct white balance regardless of the skin tone of the subject.

Benji

In this case -- if indeed light was bounced off of nearby walls of the same color as the background -- it would be like using a maroon reflector (instead of gold) that could affect different portions of the image differently. So the color cast might be uneven. RAW corrections and the photo filter method above would treat all areas of the image equally, which might not be appropriate.

There are methods for dealing with uneven color cast. Personally, I find them annoying and try to identify and fix possible sources of color contamination before shooting. I don't shoot RAW and don't use a grey card (I do use custom white balance though) since I have no reason to otherwise use them.