I like the (apparent?) color of the backdrop because of the way it matches the color of the sweater. Which means the whole context, backdrop plus sweater, pulls my eye to the face (which is lovely!) Or it would if it weren't for the distraction of the wrinkles Larry pointed out. I have a white sheet I've used as a backdrop for "product" shots for eBay sales. I hate wrinkles. But I hate ironing even more.
The bright nail polish also distracts a bit from her face. With such a lovely well-lit subject, why let other elements draw attention away? Disclaimer: I don't know how to shoot studio portraits, but I have had several passport and driver's license photos taken of me over the years. stan On Aug 19, 2013, at 9:33 PM, Larry Colen wrote: > On Mon, Aug 19, 2013 at 08:59:34PM -0400, Bruce Walker wrote: >> A straight-forward "studio" portrait of my niece, Sophie. Shot on >> location in my sister's living room (she's a champ to put up with me >> rearranging the whole thing). >> >> http://flic.kr/p/fy42fh >> >> I was also testing my latest money-saving invention: $10 IKEA >> background support system. Ingredients: One Hugad black curtain rod, >> 210-385 cm; 2x Betydlig curtain rod brackets, top-slot filed out to >> fit 1/4" stud on top of light stand; use with two cheap 8' light >> stands. > > That sounds a lot like something I've done. > >> >> K20D, DA* 50-135/2.8 @ 90mm/f:5, 1/160th, ISO 100; >> Lr + Ps + Nik + Portraiture >> >> Paramount short lighting with reflector fill. AF540FGZ in Westcott >> Medium Apollo above-left, key; AF540FGZ in 30" umbrella softbox, >> boomed above behind-right, hair; 42" silver reflector, right. >> >> Comments welcome! > > The lighting is damn near perfect. > > There are a few things that I think you might have done differently, > advice that is worth approximately what it's costing you. > > 1) The dark green shirt is too close in color to the grey background. > I think that a red, or maroon sweater would have worked a lot better. > Alternatively, maybe some rim lighting would have set it off. > > 2) I find the creases on the backdrop distracting. The ideal situation > would involve a room two or three times the size of the one you had, > where you could move the backdrop far enough away that it would have > been either totally out of focus, unlit, or both. > Alternatively, if there is any way you could have used gobos to keep > most of the light off the backdrop and just hit it with a spot > behind Sophie, to add contrast, then you'd only need a small unwrinkled > area of background. That could have also set off the sweater. > > To prevent the distracting creases like those, I do one of two things. > I will either store a backdrop rolled up on a 10' section of ABS > so that it is smooth, and has no creases. Or I will store it wadded up > in a bin, so that it is covered by random wrinkles, with no distracting > patterns. > > Although, what I usually really do is just make sure that my lights > are much closer to my model than the background, and ideally not even > hitting the backgound, because if you can't see the backdrop, then you > can't see the creases. > >> >> -- >> -bmw >> >> -- >> PDML Pentax-Discuss Mail List >> [email protected] >> http://pdml.net/mailman/listinfo/pdml_pdml.net >> to UNSUBSCRIBE from the PDML, please visit the link directly above and >> follow the directions. > > -- > Larry Colen [email protected] http://red4est.com/lrc > > > -- > PDML Pentax-Discuss Mail List > [email protected] > http://pdml.net/mailman/listinfo/pdml_pdml.net > to UNSUBSCRIBE from the PDML, please visit the link directly above and follow > the directions. -- PDML Pentax-Discuss Mail List [email protected] http://pdml.net/mailman/listinfo/pdml_pdml.net to UNSUBSCRIBE from the PDML, please visit the link directly above and follow the directions.
