Lighting Crit Help Follow Up Again

C

cargo

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Gary
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Honest it's the last time I will post on this, as I am sure I have bored the hell out of you peeps with these ramblings.

Following on from the last thread and tips I got.
I did buy a cheapo light stand for my small softbox and tried the 3 light thing again.

The result is below. I am not sure I placed the softbox correctly but doing it this way revealed all my pores and wrinkles much better.
Any comments/crit/help are welcomed.

Gaz

me_3_lights_tp.jpg


ps: Yes the glasses are goosed :-(
 
Hey now... now THAT's a great selfie! Nice one, batman!
 
Looks good to me, although I am a little concerned you look like you're about to strip off or something..... :D
 
sunnyside_up said:
Hey now... now THAT's a great selfie! Nice one, batman!
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:) Many thanks Robin !
CraigDHD said:
Looking really good now Gaz. The works definitely paid off really good balance of the lights and I'm quite partial to dark and moody. Works great for me.
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Cheers Craig. Thanks for the tips and feedback.
Morbid said:
That looks spot on to me, great shot.
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Thanks Ian.
UaeExile said:
Looks good to me, although I am a little concerned you look like you're about to strip off or something..... :D
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Cheers Ian. Shhhhhhhush I won't tell anyone about your guilty little thoughts :p
 
That's great. I like it a lot and it's testament to the usefulness of asking for specific advice.
Great shot.
 
Phil V said:
That's great. I like it a lot and it's testament to the usefulness of asking for specific advice.
Great shot.
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Thanks Phil. Most appreciate the help and that you came back and followed my attempts at this.
Marcus Geezer said:
Lighting looks cool, you even cooler! Me, I would have pushed the blacks a bit darker to give it a more gritty look, but otherwise a big thumbs up from me!
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Hi Marcus. Great that you think the lighting works well. Pretty sure i'm not cool though :-( Mind you i'll take any compliment coming my way ;-)

Gaz
 
@cargo

Lighting: I can't fault it. I've tried. I failed.

I have a slight issue with the processing though. The background is not black, and I can see dark splotches that look like you're darkened parts of it. Was it intended to be black? Your screen calibrated? If it was meant to be black, use PS's dropper tool to actually measure the RGB values. I read them as RGB15, 15, 15.. so it's quite a way off black. If you wanted that raised curve toe style of weak blacks.. then fine, but make sure your black background is consistently black BEFORE you process it in such a way, as anything that wasn't fully black will be greatly exaggerated if you raise the black levels.

I can't show you what I mean, as obviously you aren't seeing it... so I've pushed the gamma point a little to lighten it so you can see it.


View attachment 35238

It's actually noticeable on the version you posted on my screen here.
 
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Pookeyhead said:
@cargo

Lighting: I can't fault it. I've tried. I failed.

I have a slight issue with the processing though. The background is not black, and I can see dark splotches that look like you're darkened parts of it. Was it intended to be black? Your screen calibrated? If it was meant to be black, use PS's dropper tool to actually measure the RGB values. I read them as RGB15, 15, 15.. so it's quite a way off black. If you wanted that raised curve toe style of weak blacks.. then fine, but make sure your black background is consistently black BEFORE you process it in such a way, as anything that wasn't fully black will be greatly exaggerated if you raise the black levels.

I can't show you what I mean, as obviously you aren't seeing it... so I've pushed the gamma point a little to lighten it so you can see it.


View attachment 35238

It's actually noticeable on the version you posted on my screen here.
Click to expand...


Hi David. No not calibrated. No I have not darkened the background with curves but I do know what I did. When taking the photo I tried to keep the light of the background as much as possible it was taken against a grey background. Looking at these marks I think there was a touch of stray light/flare coming down above my head as the samll softbox was very close having said that I can't see the flare in the original raw file now ! Anyhow and in crude way I have brushed over the area with what I assumed was a sampled colour from the surrounding area. As you say I can not see it on my screen. I just took a look at my file and lightened it and yes I can see it now. Thanks for letting me know. I often extend the canvas this way too if I am not in the correct postion in the frame so I will try and be more careful in the future.

Incedently I just sent a few files off to print and included this one to see what it looked like printed do you think it will show ?

Gaz
 
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cargo said:
Hi David. No not calibrated. No I have not darkened the background with curves but I do know what I did. When taking the photo I tried to keep the light of the background as much as possible it was taken against a grey background. Looking at these marks I think there was a touch of stray light/flare coming down above my head as the samll softbox was very close having said that I can't see the flare in the original raw file now ! Anyhow and in crude way I have brushed over the area with what I assumed was a sampled colour from the surrounding area. As you say I can not see it on my screen. I just took a look at my file and lightened it and yes I can see it now. Thanks for letting me know. I often extend the canvas this way too if I am not in the correct postion in the frame so I will try and be more careful in the future.

Incedently I just sent a few files off to print and included this one to see what it looked like printed do you think it will show ?

Gaz
Click to expand...


It may well show yes, it depends on the print profile the printer uses. If it comes back dark enough you may get away with it. If it's on lustre paper it may be harder to see any way. The file I posted was lightened to exaggerate it for you though. You'll have to wait ans see I'm afraid. The only way to predict would be to soft proof in the printer profile used.
 
Have you got photoshop? Use the burn tool on the background using shadows, keep the value down to about 10%.
 
Pookeyhead said:
It may well show yes, it depends on the print profile the printer uses. If it comes back dark enough you may get away with it. If it's on lustre paper it may be harder to see any way. The file I posted was lightened to exaggerate it for you though. You'll have to wait ans see I'm afraid. The only way to predict would be to soft proof in the printer profile used.
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Morning Dave. Thanks for coming back to this. Yes it's on lustre. I use Dscl and in the past the darks are generally even darker on the prints than on my screen so I 'm hoping it will not show. Then again now I am looking for it I will most likey see it. Will let you know.

Gaz

Byker28i said:
Have you got photoshop? Use the burn tool on the background using shadows, keep the value down to about 10%.
Click to expand...
Yes I use ps. Thanks for the tip.

Gaz
 
Byker28i said:
Have you got photoshop? Use the burn tool on the background using shadows, keep the value down to about 10%.
Click to expand...


Don't forget to actually CHECK the RGB values. Black should be RGB 0,0,0. If you want to raise the black levels to get that washed out look... make sure it's all 0,0,0 FIRST.... then do your processing.
 
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Pookeyhead said:
Don't forget to actually CHECK the RGB values. Black should be RGB 0,0,0. If you want to raise the black levels to get that washed out look... make sure it's all 0,0,0 FIRST.... then do your processing.
Click to expand...

Yup I'll do that. For a quick and dirty method or sanity check I'll throw on an exposure level to brighten it up and check if it's consistent, but the rgb value from dropper is the only sure way.
 
Thanks guys. I will remember that for future ref.
As it turns out the print as come back looking great well, apart from the subject matter :) You cant detect any difference in the background darkness at all.

Gaz
 
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