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drawing like backgrounds?


Honestly with this picture I believe less is more because the background is so loud and short of cloning all the distractions out it wont look that good as a photography point of view (ignoring the composition with distracting objects in the background) I would keep it simple and classic Black and white however is a lot of work involved.
j crop.png

So here is the colour to see it pre conversion it is vibrance boost saturation boost eyes more detail skin softening tonal range adjusting exposure adjustments brightness contrast adjustments etc.

colour.png
 
veeeeerrrrrryy nice Hoogle, you just made my head spin.... I mean this in a good way and are some what jealous
I speny ages mucking around and the previous is the best I had!now I'll have to have another go!!!!!
 
the way I see it once you get an understanding how to achieve the effects you like then you will take that into consideration when taking the photos. For example if I now I am shooting black and white I will tend to normally over expose my shot by 1 - 2 stops so you get more of a contrast etc.

It is something as a photographer and a photoshopper you will find you soon learn how to take your picture to meet your digital darkroom needs. But it is not something you can learn over night.

I know shots like this is a candid un planned shot and cant be helped with background interferance but when you decide to put some effort into composition you soon be flying with some really nice portraits I am sure of it.
 
I had a seperate exposure and curves adjustment layer that only effected the eyes and partly the mouth as well.
 
THANK YOU Hoogle I'm trying to work all this out as I go... I have a rough understanding in to all this but only rough... All I can do is listen look and and learn and your advice is awesome thx again :thumbsup:
 
Thanks for getting into it Hoog. I knew you would know how to handle that photo. I'd have been chasing my tail trying this that and the other thing. Of course, that's also how to learn often enough!

I hope you have fun doing this in future cwpa and take Hoogle's advice to heart, improving the shots makes the "darkroom" an easier place to work :mrgreen:
 
Well always happy to jump in and help on portraits as I said to you I managed to delete both my back up partions beyond recovery and lost all my own images to edit and not taken any since.
 
Portraits are something I'm really interested in getting into so any advice I will take on board and learn from... Sure have taken the advice to heart, depth of feild was something I'd discovered and was hell bent on for a bit so I'll change it up I'm saving for studio lighting at the moment and there's another thing I'll need help with too.

I googled composition to try get a better understanding a little helpful I should already of known but we only just touched on this subject and never really did any photo shoots in my class only a couple most was photoshop and it was fairly basic stuff the eyes I had done before tho I was souly focused on the darn background :frown: this forum is great keep up the good work!
 
mmm studio lighting you really dont need unless you have a lot of room and money if you just want some well lit photos my numeber 1 buy is a 5 in 1 reflector you can get these of ebay for $10 or pay $200 for a branded well made 1 either way with the power of post production you dont need the high quality 1s as you can change the warmth of the reflector at any time in ACR.

However if you shoot in the sun a lot the diffuser comes in handy to make a nice soft light by holding it between the sun and the subject like a natural softbox.

Daylight is the best shooting light for beauty as long as you diffuse it it ie overcast days the clouds make 1 giant over head soft box if it is sunny and hard light put your subject in the shade and use a reflector to bounce the light back into your model from underneath eliminating bags in eyes or butterfly shadows under the nose this will also soften the skin.

If you want to buy some lighting then I would suggest a speedlight get the best you can afford they can be $50- 600 but extremely portable run of batteries you can have a wireless remote to them or a cable from your hot shoe. This can add a dramatic effect to your images when using it correctly or you can buy a light modifier for it a softbox theoretically giving you portable studio lighting.

You can pick up a soft box for it for around $30 of ebay again infact I just purchased a cheap 1 to take outdoors and it is brilliant. if you dont want to learn about soft box set ups etc you can buy a photography brolley i prefer the translucent white 1s yet again you can pick them up from ebay for $5 all you do is mount it to your flash and shoot your flash through it for a nice diffused light.

Or you can turn it around so the flash is facing away from your subject but will hit the brolley to give a subtle reflecter lighting effect.

Home studio = $400 + for a very basic setup and limited to being in 1 place.

Speedlight and portable setup $150 for a starter kit that is very light portable and can be used anywhere.

Of course a lot of photographers will be alarmed that I am suggesting ebays chinese imports but honestly I have tried a few things similar product to my designer gear and for fun shots outdoors or anywhere the budget stuff is just fine especially for the amateurs.
 
Hoogle I don't know what to say mate.... your a LEGEND!! My teacher told me to shop off ebay aswell lol he said basically the same as you have said about the cheaper version I got my shutter release off there flash, lens hood and are looking at a lens on there at the moment...

The advice on the lighting great thanks I know over cast days are great and shooting in the shade but as far as reflectors only seen these once and used them once... I thought of getting them but was planning on shooting things from inside, Thus said and what you have told me I can do this through a window or get one of these speed lights it sounds good I'll go for it and see what becomes of it.


I cannot thank you enough Hoogle thanks.
 
my flash seems to look very simalar to these speed lights its an Bower auto focus sfd 355 can turn it 180 and point flash up and to 90 deg..

is this it?? if so I'm going to have to play with it and work out how to use it properly I know its better than the normal flash on the camera but as for best way to use it no idea!
:eek:
 
reflectors can reflect window light and be used as a fill light what is cool though if you are shooting window light then put your speedlight outside your window and shoot it is for a more dramatic image or if the lighting is not quite bright enough hang a white bedsheet in front of your window and shoot a sppedlight from outside into the room using the sheet as a diffuser that way even when it is dark you can still get nice looking natural light.

Be careful of your lenses it is better to save up for 1 good lense than buy several cheap lens if you are into portraits you may want to go expensive and get something like a 24 -75mm focal length or a good 55- 200mm and use the telephoto end of it ie 200 mm focal length to get the depth of field and blurred background.

But if you have the monety then maybe splash out for a 50 mm portrait lens with a low aperature something around 1.8 - 2.4 these lenses will have sharp focus for your subject but very blurred backgrounds.
 
those are flash diffusers they are ok but dont diffuse the light as much as a larger 1
The larger the light source (soft box) the softer the light. Of course there is a rule to this that the further away your soft box or any light source the harder the light becomes I have taken shots with an inch gap between my model and the soft box.

I would highly reccomend you signing up at Kelby training.com you pay a subscription but it has amazing photography tutorials and photoshop. I would at least invest in 1 good dvd lighting tuition dvd. Joe Mcknally of Kelby training only uses speed lights and I have seen him do a night time shot using 12 different speedlights in 1 of them.

but there is a guy called Zach Arias (not sure on spelling) he does a 2 disc tutorial dvd called 1 light photography perfect for starting out.

Jeremy Cowart is one of my favourite photographers and he uses natural light mostly or sometimes includes a portable strobe with a soft box all hooked up on a monopod for easy use and portability.
 
I'll look at the site you have suggested.

I have hung the white sheet in front of window before but only used it for sillohettes I'll upload some of my work to my profile make an album if I can figure it out... have a look let me know what you think I'm sure they could be better but thats why I'm on here I want to learn!!!
 
I have a 55 200 lens that came with my camera and this is what I normally use to blur backgrounds...


I was just wondering how these other guys are getting there effects obviously dont blur but...
 
You need to shoot at higher aperature which means switching to manual mode or aperature priority manual mode is TV i believe on Canon I am a Nikon user so not 100% sure.

the higher the aperature the lower depth of field Higher aperature = lower number so 1.4 is probably about the highest aperature you can get but these lenses are $thousands all though recently there are more budget 1s available Nikon do 1 for $200 and that is a 1.8.

where as if you aare shooting f22 etc they dont let in as much light so the images are darker but more in focus through out the frame.
 
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