Available light portrait (snap)

[ziggy53]

I haven't gotten this gentleman's name yet, but this was at an open-house event at a site called "Vishnu Springs", hosted by Western Illinois University.

http://photos.smugmug.com/photos/707254862_W5ENJ-O-1.jpg

The lighting was all ambient, with strong back-lighting, a building that provided reflected sunlight for the key light, and a lady with a white sweatshirt providing fill.

[Qarik]

I bet that guy has a lot of stories..nice capture ziggy:thumb

[ziggy53]

I bet that guy has a lot of stories..nice capture ziggy:thumb

Thanks, I thought the same thing about his face. I had to be a bit sneaky to get the shot without drawing attention.

[Nikolai]

Ziggy,
great usage of the "natural reflectors":-) :thumb
I'd say the image is a bit overexposed and is missing a black point.
A little levels/curves magic should make it better..:-)

[jeffreaux2]

Ziggy,
great usage of the "natural reflectors":-) :thumb
I'd say the image is a bit overexposed and is missing a black point.
A little levels/curves magic should make it better..:-)


My thoughts exactly!!!:D

[ziggy53]

Ziggy,
great usage of the "natural reflectors":-) :thumb
I'd say the image is a bit overexposed and is missing a black point.
A little levels/curves magic should make it better..:-)

My thoughts exactly!!!:D

Well golly, Nik and Jeff, since you both had the same exact thoughts, thanks to you both. :thumb I did check the face histogram and it's within range, but I'll defer to your judgement.

Is this an improvement?

http://photos.smugmug.com/photos/709643576_D8nBy-L.jpg

[jeffreaux2]

Much....MUCH.....improved. :thumb


By my eye it could take even more black, but will probably print perfectly.


FWIW....there isnt much there that SHOULD be black.......but definitely the pupils....or perhaps the darkest of the shadow area under his collar. I like the reflected light. It seems to have exrended your dynamic range here.

[Nikolai]

Like Jeff, I would drag the black point further up, but that's me...:dunno

[ziggy53]

I just noticed something, if I work an image in 16 bit mode (PS4), convert to 8 bit and save as JPG, the black point changes. If I open the resulting JPG, change the black point and save the JPG, the black point stays as I set it.

Anyway, I went back to an early PSD file, reset the black point (Alt-key and Levels), corrected for some flesh tone issues and shadow-highlight differences, saved as new PSD, converted to 8 bit, saved that, reopened, reset the black point and saved again, in both full resolution and reduced resolution. Here is the resulting reduced image size:

http://photos.smugmug.com/photos/710294077_q8tBx-O.jpg

[Nikolai]

I just noticed something, if I work an image in 16 bit mode (PS4), convert to 8 bit and save as JPG, the black point changes. If I open the resulting JPG, change the black point and save the JPG, the black point stays as I set it.

Anyway, I went back to an early PSD file, reset the black point (Alt-key and Levels), corrected for some flesh tone issues and shadow-highlight differences, saved as new PSD, converted to 8 bit, saved that, reopened, reset the black point and saved again, in both full resolution and reduced resolution. Here is the resulting reduced image size:



:thumb :clap

[kdog]

:thumb :clap

I agree. It's perfect now. I hadn't noticed the black-point shifting when converting between 16 bit and 8 bit depths before, but I'm definitely going to watch out for it now :huh

Cheers,
-joel

[ziggy53]

I agree. It's perfect now. I hadn't noticed the black-point shifting when converting between 16 bit and 8 bit depths before, but I'm definitely going to watch out for it now :huh

Cheers,
-joel

Thanks Joel. I had not noticed this behavior in PS CS2. Maybe a setting somewhere. I also noticed that the sample tool was back to 1 x 1, and I'm pretty sure I had set it to 4 x 4.

Weird is my life.