I may not have understood the area of concern - I assumed it was the possibility of blown highlights on the neck. The lighting on top of the head doesn't appear to be overexposed - any darkening there might not look right due to the sun angle.

Here are a couple of images that I think show the golden color along the leading edge of the wing and the transition from head to "collar" to back. Lighting was very flat that afternoon.

But I think what you have is a fine picture - how often with BIF do we ever have a chance to get great lighting with the bird at just the right angle?

I'll try to delete the pictures if you don't want me adding them here or don't think they are helpful.

I'd like to suggest an alternate explanation -

While there is some sun on the top of the head with the face more in shadow, I'm thinking the light "cowl" area behind the head is not nearly-blown highlights. I think this is a golden eagle and that is the gold area that gives the bird its name. No need to do anything to your image.

I found some pictures of one I was fortunate to find a couple of years ago. Too late to do a bit of editing, but I'll try to post a couple of pictures tomorrow.

At any rate - a nice capture of one of our less common raptors.

So who is the intended audience for the picture? You know ... the group that is supposed to be so shocked?

Seen it before, will see it again, impact = 0, shock value = 0. Hate to say anything negative, but this reminds me of a teenager that keeps using the "f word" for shock value. Really rather tiresome.

And really hate to do this .... but just in case, part of the agreement to use this site is to be 18 or older.

Reminds me of how much I hate to see the passing of the "greatest generation".

A lot of impact in looking down the casket and honor guard, following the leading lines through the framing of the doorway, and out to the grave markers - and a large depth of field to do it.

But there's another accomplishment here too. Since no one else has asked - I guess I will. The ceremony appears to be indoors. There's a large depth of field. And exposure and white balance of the indoor and outdoor portions of the picture mesh. No easy thing to do.

So I've been trying to figure out how you did it. Subtle HDR (not your thing as far as I've seen) or blending exposure bracketing might work. But I suspect the small aperture reduced the effect of the ambient light and a large gelled softbox provided the illumination for the indoor portion and gave the right white balance?

Sorry to be a nuisance over this sort of thing, but there is real artistry in the lighting.

Really like #3.

Suspect you have a very happy model.

Just love the shadows on #3. With just one light, did you orient the softbox to be parallel to the line of her nose .... and is that how you avoided shadows from the hat brim? Or maybe a reflector?

Thanks!

Why not brighten up the eye reflections? This is definitely an attention getter!

Thanks Bobby for taking the time to look at the images and offer suggestions.

I need to rethink things - it's obvious to me that the really good (and also the improving) shooters have put in the work and paid their dues. With limited endurance I just can't put in the time/ distance to improve very fast. 1 1/2 or 2 hours goes pretty fast. I'll have to come up with a way to work smarter since harder isn't an option.

Thanks for the comment pete-m. This was basically street photography where I was trying for particular lighting conditions rather than the most striking photos. On the second individual, I actually got a photo with decent short lighting and nice eye reflections. But when I got home and looked at it, it was too blurry to save. Major disappointment!

Still ... these were some interesting people.

I'm still working on natural lighting photos for my project. I know a number of other people have run out of victims to experiment on or don't want to do more self portraits.

So I decided to go to a downtown tourist area/ visitor center and see if I could get pics of people with lighting that approximated portrait lighting. I don't know if this might give someone else some ideas .... but I learned a lot by watching the lighting where people were standing and trying to get photos as they turned to give better lighting on the face. Learned enough that I think I'll do it again.

Constructive comments appreciated and maybe someone will have suggestions on what I might do differently next time. Not having a way to get some fill light is a problem I probably can't solve.

First photo was outdoors and is my favorite. Not sure what kind of day she was having but seemed to have some attitude. Gentleman in last one was most cooperative ... but then too it's a display mannequin.

very harsh shadows


why wouldn't she turn a little more to her right


no eye highlihgts


not much light variation with profile


blank stare was unnerving .. and didn't look up

For a different style .... this is a desat color layer over a BW layer ... with a couple of reduced opacity texture layers.

Thank you for letting us work on this photo. I had a lot of fun trying a different look. My wife hates the pictures I do like this :shock: so I suspect others do too.

But it's fun to let a little of my CG background come out.

I really like the more abstract look of the BW. But since they both make a strong impression, have you considered trying a desaturation (not a selective coloring)? Might bring out a combined effect. Just a thought.

edit - for anyone else that may not know - my daughter told me before we started that her makeup had SPF in it. Might want to research it to see how it can affect reflected light.

I'm a firm believer in how much the right makeup can help after I took this picture of a wedding couple last summer. It was about 1:00, mid-90's, clear ... they were facing into the sun. Big difference - her makeup did a good job with preventing all the shine and general red tint that the groom shows.

Maybe someone who knows more about makeup can give more info.

I believe the photographer went ahead and took pictures with a ring light. Not criticism on my part as I'm sure she knows what sells in this area.

Thank you for taking the time to give helpful and specific suggestions.

With limited resources I'll have to make some decisions on how to upgrade my lighting. But maybe the best thing I can do right now is tether the camera so I get better real time feedback on how things are going. The camera display is just not adequate for learning.

I'm sure that it takes a lot of experience to know the best lighting for different face shapes. Is there a good book or tutorial that can help?

This was just a spur of the moment practice session when my daughter, SIL, and stepson stopped by the other night. She was happy to help and very patient. Bribed my SIL and stepson by doing it over at the local club house where they could use the pool table.

My daughter is a make-up person and with some advance notice could have taken care of the shine with the right make up.

For a rounder, fuller face, I found it was difficult to keep the laugh lines from being too dark and also eliminate the light area just to the right of her mouth. Any constructive suggestions welcome. Lighting available was a speedlight and reflector. I tried a variety of head rotations and tilts.

This might be a good candidate for a background replacement. If you don't have Topaz Remask, it has a 30 day free trial.

Turn up exposure and reduce shadows in RAW, remove subject from background, turn exposure and shadows back down to reasonable values, and add in a similar but lighter background. Blend the edge of the subject into the new background ... it will probably need it.

Worth a try if you really want to use the picture.

edit - if you want to post a higher res version I'll give it a try. think you can preserve much of the hair detail along the top of the head ... but won't spend a lot of time on a jpg. Would still give you an idea of what could be done.

We all want to take pictures that look good, but what about looking good while taking pictures?

A couple of years ago I was getting up from some contorted position from taking pics of birds on the water. It occurred to me that the situation would make an amusing photo op for someone else. So since then I've been photographing photographers when I get the opportunity. With a few exceptions, they are using the best light direction so it's usually a challenge.

This last summer I was at the tourist area in downtown Salt Lake. There is a nesting box peregrine falcons use almost every year. So I was down there for peregrines-in-flight pics. I glanced over and saw a tourist taking pictures ... his white hat was practically glowing in the 1:00 PM sun. It was so unique I wanted get a photo of it. I used my settings for birds ... and with RAW was barely able to pull back the highlights.

He was there with a friend and they were really having fun taking pics together. And I thought they had some style. I think the tandem shooting deserves extra style points.

In my own case, I suppose that someone wearing an Aust. Outback hat that's showing some wear and a Cleveland Browns jersey probably needs some serious fashion advice.

And the last pic is really cheesy. But sometimes low tech solutions will work. Maybe it will be useful for someone else in a bind. My Impact reflector stand came and I wanted to catch some Morning Glory blooms on a windy day. The weight bags hadn't come yet. So faced with a necessity ... I came up with this ultra low tech solution.

This is my Manfrotto speedlight stand, but the leg of the Impact stand is an even better fit ... the six pack is a very tight fit.

This is not an endorsement of any product ....

1:00 PM sun


Tandem shooting ... from the shadows you can see where the sun was


sometimes a weight is just a weight ...