Madonna Glow

With this portrait I was trying to capture the pregnancy glow. I worked the lighting with that in mind. The eye area is a bit darker than I'd like, but I'm not sure I can lighten that area and keep the glow around the outer facial lines. I was careful to get catchlights. Are the eyes too dark on this? Does it work?

Amazing!

Rachel, I looked at the picture and immediately said to myself, "Pregnant"!

So when I read the text, I felt that you kept that glow. This is where retouching images mostly destroys that magic spark coming from subtle signals we enjoy.

Asher

I feel a little bit like Sally Fields, but does this mean you like it?

Waiting for confirmation before I get excited. If you have criticism, you know you can hit me with 'em both barrels, right?

Hi Rachel, I do like it overall. A couple of opinions... Overall it is too underexposed on the shadow side for my taste. Rather than traditional short lighting, this is even more dramatic so a bit more fill light, not much, would be good. Also some powder could knock down a bit of shine on the skin. You might want to consider some light from behind to add some seperation of the hair from the background...gives a little more pop and adds depth. Also you might want to try and get both eyes in focus...as it is, the further eye is in focus but the viewer often goes to the leading eye first. Great shot and thanks for sharing!

Have a studio shoot on Saturday and excited about that...

I confess, the drama is something I go for. This is toned down for me! However, I've wondered if my taste for the shadows is to idiosyncratic for broad appeal, so your input is very helpful.

I was tempted to try to process out the shine....jury still out on that one. And both eyes in focus...I'm too much a neophyte to know how to do that. I generally shoot on TV and the aperture is set by the Rebel. So, go to the lowest aperture number (meaning largest dof)? I've been sticking my toe into the Manual mode waters lately.



Let us know how the studio shoot goes!

I don't know what kind of light you were using but you can get some more fill light with simple white paper pointed to reflect light back. On shine, far better to just have the subject powder up a little...it makes a big diff and my experience (just mine mind you) is that women are not fond of shiney faces in photos...especially my wife.

I use a light meter and shoot manual. If you are going for a program mode tho, use aperture setting and control the depth of field instead of the shutter speed. That way you can close down the aperture and get more DOF. Hopefully you have enough light to keep the shutter up enough to handhold...can't tell about that. The alternative is to focus on the leading eye and not press the shutter until you get it. Select the focus point you want on your camera and it will find that. The only possible problem in the case is that auto focus works on the picking up contrast and with the leading eye and all around in shadow, that AF might have enough light to work. In that case, switch your lens to manual focus and focus the old fashioned way.

Keep building your skills - just don't forget your penchant for drama - I happen to agree with your taste in that regard.

I always find dramatic portraits more appealing. However, honing your skills will open creative windows...

Larger aperture number means larger DOF (up to about f13 - details can get soft above that on a cropped sensor camera).

Typically the learning curve goes P, Av, M.

I've been at Av for a looooong time now. I prefer Av. You should spend time there but still experiment with manual. You'll like Av much more at this point though - it takes much complication out of your shooting that you probably don't need right now.

I've been getting to know M myself lately. So, more power to you!

Ed touched on a good point. Please don't take my thoughts as anything more than that. Everyone has a style and keeping that is always important. No "rules" to any of this...just controlling the shot so you get what you want.

Never fear, I'm as stubborn as the day is long. However, Shane, I will seriously take your comments and see how they fit with my own leanings. Certainly, there can be too much "drama," and drama can be poorly done. I take your feedback to mean I've not quite nailed the drama yet.


Edward, I've been thinking about giving AV a try. I jumped to TV to learn lighting, but of course AV is a way to approach that as well.

Thank you all. I like this photo, but I can see it fails to reach perfection.

If you're not doing action photography, typically you'll be more concerned with controlling the DOF. This is most easily on Av.

Also, lenses are typically at their sharpest between f5.6 and f8 - another good reason to control f-stop/aperture.

I was out shooting with AV today. I'm anxious to jump to Manual but it is premature.