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Professional and Advanced Portraiture
Sheer Indulgence...
Sep 12, 2018 14:40:07   #
BB4A
 
... for me, that is. I occasionally like to indulge in €œ”Portraits that shouldn’t work”. My current favorites are those taken in poor natural light, with the model behind thick, old (and sometimes, a bit moth-eaten!) sheers, screens, and other similar materials.

I hesitate to call this professional and/or advanced portraiture, but I find this effect, effective...


(Download)

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Sep 13, 2018 13:09:28   #
Photog8 Loc: Morriston, FL
 
Experimenting makes our hobby exciting.

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Sep 19, 2018 12:47:31   #
E.L.. Shapiro Loc: Ottawa, Ontario Canada
 
Experimentation with various materials to shoot through or improvise a optical diffusion material can be fun and exciting and yield some unique results. Good job!

It seems, in you image, that you may have introduced some sharpening in editing. If that is the cases, perhas try a version of the image without sharpening. The sharp line on the side of the subject's face, probably bough on my the sharpening, kinda negates the softness of the image. The sharpening also accentuated the weave or knit in the fabric with is somewhat distracting.

Placing various translucent and semi-transparent material directly on the lens- like a filter is worth experimentation. Fabrics such a white, black or colored tulle (netting) in different thread counts can work.

The motion picture "Fiddler on the Roof" was shot throug a layer of woman's hosiery- panyhose- to give the image a soft/ warm look that could not be obtained with traditional warming and diffusion filters.

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Sep 19, 2018 13:06:12   #
E.L.. Shapiro Loc: Ottawa, Ontario Canada
 
My edit of your shot. You captured a lovely expression and mood.



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Sep 22, 2018 10:44:38   #
DickC Loc: NE Washington state
 
E.L.. Shapiro wrote:
My edit of your shot. You captured a lovely expression and mood.


I must admit I like your version better, those holes are disturbing to me!

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Jan 6, 2019 17:41:04   #
loren sanders Loc: Wisconsin
 
BB4A wrote:
... for me, that is. I occasionally like to indulge in €œ”Portraits that shouldn’t work”. My current favorites are those taken in poor natural light, with the model behind thick, old (and sometimes, a bit moth-eaten!) sheers, screens, and other similar materials.

I hesitate to call this professional and/or advanced portraiture, but I find this effect, effective...


Excellent work. Were it not for the holes in the screen, folks would think it was printed on fabric or canvas.

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Jan 6, 2019 17:53:52   #
CaptainC Loc: Colorado, south of Denver
 
I think this was a cool experiment. I do agree with E.L's removal of the holes as they added nothing and were distracting. Maybe a LOT of holes would have been artistic!

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Jan 8, 2019 11:19:45   #
jaysnave Loc: Central Ohio
 
I like this image and it definitely did work for me. I like it better with the holes removed. Too much contrast in color and sharpness and grabbed my attention right away. Also, Ed's softening enhances the image although for my taste it would be somewhere in-between the original image and Ed's edit. Great idea!

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Jan 8, 2019 13:28:21   #
BB4A
 
E.L.. Shapiro wrote:
My edit of your shot. You captured a lovely expression and mood.


Thanks, a beautiful reinterpretation of the original.

I checked and I didn’t add any sharpening of the image in post-processing; what we are seeing in the original are construction errors, dust, and holes in the sheer fabric.

For my next attempt I will lower the natural light hitting the model (shutting the old barn door will do the job!), and then shoot wide open at f/1.2, with a softened manual focus just past the screen and just before the models eyes. I might also “adjust nature” and rip a few additional holes in that sheer, to add to what the moths have started, and make it a little more obvious that I haven’t employed any additional post-processing effects.

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Jan 8, 2019 13:29:48   #
E.L.. Shapiro Loc: Ottawa, Ontario Canada
 
jaysnave wrote:
I like this image and it definitely did work for me. I like it better with the holes removed. Too much contrast in color and sharpness and grabbed my attention right away. Also, Ed's softening enhances the image although for my taste it would be somewhere in-between the original image and Ed's edit. Great idea!


Just a note about my "quick and dirty" edits. Oftentimes I am not at my office/studio- I do quite a bit of work away from my city. I check in here from time to time on my smartphone or tablet. This edit was made on a smartphone app- "Snapseed" it has a limited softening tool. I an not a big fan of post-processing softentg in that it may tend to "smear" the shadows into the highlights resulting in a muddy effect. I am a big fan of in-camer soft focus with special lenses or certain filters, where the highlights flare into the shadows or cause a secondary soft image ot glow over the sharp one. The effect is produced here is just a kind mock-up of what I would like to see in a final print- just to give the OP an idea of what I am talking about.

Soft focus is always debatable- some like it, some hate it- I agree- usually somewhere in-between works best. Also- what looks OK on my small screen on the phone or tablet, does no do well on a larger monitor (UGH!)!

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Jan 8, 2019 13:38:21   #
BB4A
 
loren sanders wrote:
Excellent work. Were it not for the holes in the screen, folks would think it was printed on fabric or canvas.


Thanks! Yes, the holes are an interesting item, along with the other imperfections in the sheer. As others have noted, these imperfections can be distracting to some.

I used them (best seen in the download) in harmony with the models pose to ask a question... is this a screen printed sheer, or not?

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Jan 8, 2019 13:42:11   #
BB4A
 
CaptainC wrote:
I think this was a cool experiment. I do agree with E.L's removal of the holes as they added nothing and were distracting. Maybe a LOT of holes would have been artistic!


👍

I think I have to try that outlook, “If a little is good, more must be better.” 😉

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Jan 8, 2019 13:48:28   #
BB4A
 
jaysnave wrote:
I like this image and it definitely did work for me. I like it better with the holes removed. Too much contrast in color and sharpness and grabbed my attention right away. Also, Ed's softening enhances the image although for my taste it would be somewhere in-between the original image and Ed's edit. Great idea!


And that’s the wonderful element to portrait photography; each picture exists somewhere on that long sliding scale; from disturbingly realistic to confusingly abstract.

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