Flickr ... let's you see the original sort of anyway.
Yes, but it doesn't help me find out where your softening comes from, which is one of the main problems with this picture.
Yeh have Lightroom cc. Pay yearly via Amazon, know how to use Lightroom alto a decent level but very little experience with ps. Your tooth shot looks impressive, esp that close up. Did you do that in ps ?
Yes. PS includes Adobe Camera Raw (ACR), originally just a raw converter but now virtually identical to LR. I don't use LR; ACR is what I use for the overall look of the photo and then - if necessary - the full PS for selective and/or pixel level work. The teeth aren't quite at the pixel level but I went down to about a 3px size brush in places.
I prob need to learn more about ps to be honest.
I think that's probably true. Many people say that LR does 95-99% of their editing; shots like this one are in the 1-5% that LR can't handle.
PS is huge but mainly graphics rather than photo editor - the PDF manual (see below) has almost 1000 pages and only about 90 of them are about photo editing. Even the 10% or so about photos is big, though. However, it's easy to learn in bite-sizes bits as you need them.
There are several sources of teaching: the Adobe website has this
https://helpx.adobe.com/photoshop/tutorials.html (and a corresponding page for LR if you haven't already found it) but the videos are often quite general. There are plenty of other sites too.
I like this one
http://www.ronbigelow.com/articles/articles.htm , partly because for many of the articles Ron gives transcripts so you can read as well as watch.
In PS (and LR) you reach, via the
Help menu,
Photoshop (Lightroom) Online Help ... That takes you to more or less the same lessons as the link above but it also has (near top left) a link to the full PDF user manual. I download that as each version is updated.
My way of learning new techniques is to use the videos to get a broad idea, then search the PDF for more detail. If that isn't enough I try Ron Bigelow.
I do understand the importance of post processing is equally a skill as taking the shot, ( prob gonna get shot for saying that, lol)
Not by me.
In my situation, you'll you have gone just off camera flash? Or off camera flash as well as reflector?
A disclaimer: I'm not well up in portraiture. My knowledge of lighting is mainly at a smaller size with things I don't have to talk to about their pose.
I don't know what I'd have used in your situation, but I'd start from the simplest possible arrangement. I think it was David Bailey who said some thing like "there's only one f****** sun". That's am extreme position but the less sources you have the easier they are to balance.
As you've learned here, shadows are a giveaway. So first look at the shadows from ambient light and see where they need brightening. Then place your next source to illuminate them, but keep a close eye on where this sources throws its shadows.
I suspect, but don't know, that I'd probably have used
either the reflector - but higher and further back - or off-camera flash. I'd only use both if I wasn't happy with just one.
Looking at other comments from others as well as yourself, thinking back I think I may have used the wrong option, I chose silver, given the strong light( off and on) I prob should have used white to lessen the strength and even things a little more.
Perhaps; or from further back.
Plus the appreciated comments on raising it altogether to give a higher key light.
what surprised me is that I used the reflector (too low) as we know and it cast a shadow as you kindly pointed out, but used the flash as a fill, why did I still struggle with the shadow? I was about 10 ft away, using ettl. Head aimed direct but with diffuser on.
Every light casts a shadow. The reflector cast the upward shadows we've discussed. The flash, coming straight on, would cast its shadows away from the camera but on the faces etc it would brighten the shadow areas but also the bright areas, so while it might reduce overall contrast it wouldn't eliminate other shadows.
A diffuser softens shadows but doesn't eliminate them.
I don't know the algorithms ETTL uses (they may differ from maker to maker) but I never use anything but full manual to control flash in mixed lighting.
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Gerry
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First camera 1953, first Pentax 1985, first DSLR 2006
[email protected]
