How am I doing?

[nairbynairb]

Back again…

 

Thoughts/suggestions?

[ebi]

appears unnaturally sharp and overly grainy.

[ebi]

also you need to move the key light to the right and lower the power or pull subject off the background b/c you are getting a hotspot a little off the subject onto the background that feels a little distracting. Your edge light catches your arm and just the edge of your eye, but not your face. Did you mean for that to happen?

Overall the light looks good though.

[ebi]

btw, i think you might like this: http://www.nelslens.com

[nairbynairb]

Here’s the original… SOOC

It was hard to position my reflector in a way that would give me a good edge light with the space I was working in (I live in a basement apartment with really low ceilings).
This was with 1 speedlight with a shoot-through umbrella and the reflector in the back.
The rest I did in photoshop

 

 

Edit* And yes, I did like that link! That’s the kind of photography I want to do…

[ebi]

That’s really good silo work. I see it now in the hair. So the bright spot is a halo created by your mask. tighten the mask and drop the blacks down and that will help.

That is pretty excellent work for one light. You’ll probably need a second light and/or bigger space to complete that edge light, if you want to. But play with it and see if you can figure it out.

[nesgran]

If you are struggling with ceiling height then sit down, you are only doing upper body anyway. You’d probably save yourself a bit of headache if you shot it against a background of a single colour rather than the broken up space. I’ll agree with ebi that the grain is a bit much and sharpness could need dialling down a little for viewing on screen

[nairbynairb]

How about this?

[cameraclicker]

I like it.  I think you are a bit bright.  Does it matter that the vertical lines in your background converge?

How about this:

http://www.flickr.com/photos/54048679@N07/9875470043/

Click the thumb to get to the larger image.  Let me know you have seen it so I can pull off Flickr.

Background was aligned and rotated.  Key was pulled down .9, fill was pulled down 1.95.  The effect is stronger in the thumbnail!

 

[nairbynairb]

I like it!

Yeah the background was just a random HDR to complete the effect of the portrait. I’ll work on the full version again soon!

(you can pull it down now :P)

[Worst Case Scenario]

I think your facial colour is a bit too warm for that background and it’s making it stand out. If that’s what you wanted, then fine but if you wanted it to look like one shot, it needs cooling and darkening a bit.

[ebi]

great! Now go shoot something/someone else…

[nairbynairb]

great! Now go shoot something/someone else…

 

Haha, that’s the plan, sir!

[nairbynairb]

Hey, so I decided to try shooting someone else and something different.

Let me know what you think of this one!

The idea was supposed to be like they were running away from a serial killer (Halloween themed?). There are definitely things I’d do differently if I re-shot this, but overall I’m happy with how it turned out.

 

[ebi]

better cropped tighter:

View post on imgur.com

It's cool that you want to do all this comping work, but I would suggest that you find a real location by scouting spots and setting up shots on location. You can essentially get away with most of the same lighting equipment you are using in studio, with maybe a few added extras. Most shoots that are similar to what you are doing are typically done on location or on elaborately built sets. It is also true that there is a lot of comping for this type of stuff, but the plates for those shots are usually done by the photographer as well.

You've got some contrast and focus issues going on in this image. And the light isn't quite right yet...

[Author]

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