Susan Mamiya'd

[Rob MacKillop]

Just got a new batch of three films back from Joan. This time I used a light meter - incident method. A lot better results, exposure-wise, than my first attempts. This one has been darkened in Levels, and also some shine on her face has been reduced in Nik Viveza, but the colours are pretty much as it came out of the roll. Fuji Provia 400H film.

Susan Reading by RobMacKillop, on Flickr​

What d'ya think? I should say the sun was shining through the window for a moment. I'll try a B&W version when I get time. Any advice on skin toning gratefully received.

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Oh, and I gave it a square crop...

 

[Brian Moore]

Lovely rich tones in the greens, browns and reds, Rob. I think it deserves to stay in color.

 

[Pete Askew]

I too would leave it in colour. The skin tones look OK to me and reflect the warm light. And I like all the rich tones surrounding her and the strong areas of shadow. A bit more space to the left would have been nice but that depends on what was there. A book is always useful as it bounces some light back into the face and softens shadows under the nose and eyes etc although in this case the light was low and direct and so they would have been fairly minimal anyway I guess. When you take incident readings for shots like this, make sure you position the meter in front of the sitters face and direct the dome towards the camera - you are trying to replicate the light falling on the subject as the camera sees it. All-in-all a damn fine portrait. Does she like it?

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I forgot to add, when I get areas of skin with very strong highlights on I use clone darken at a low opacity (15%) to reduce them rather than try and alter the exposure.

 

[Rob MacKillop]

Thanks, lads. Yes, the colours are beautiful, very rich. Susan is away until late. I can assure you she will hate it, as she does all photos of her.

The space cut off on the left was where the sun hit the light-coloured wall, revealing the shadow of her head. It didn't look good, so I decided to chop it. Put I suppose I could have made it dark, but, as you can see, from behind her head that it is already becoming light, making the task a bit more difficult.

Pete, what do you mean by "clone darken"?

 

[Pete Askew]

Open the file in Elements and then make a duplicate layer. Use the clone stamp tool with the blending mode set to darken and opacity set at 15% to sample an area of skin that is similar to the area that is too light and clone that into the lighter area. Use several passes to get the tone you want. Don't worry if you go a bit too far as you can reduce the opacity of that whole layer to get the image looking right.

Photoshop Elements > Clone Stamp Tool > 2 - Advanced

Cloning Elements with the Clone Stamp Tool in Photoshop Elements 9 - For Dummies

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Not that I am suggesting that you need the Dummies version, it just seemed well written!

 

[Pete Askew]

Not that I am suggesting that you need the Dummies version, it just seemed well written!

Here's a very rough example reducing the highlight on her forehead and nose more and also the highlights in her hair (not that I am suggesting she has highlights but... you know what I mean! )

 

[Rob MacKillop]

I'll pretend that's my version ;-) Very nice, and thanks for the links. The Dummies series was wriiten for me.

 

[Stephen Baker]

Nice one Rob keep it in colour, a very natural looking portrait..love the rich tones

Stephen.