*****FlickHDR Ortoners Dragan BW Sepia Effects***** / Discuss

filam61 says:

I’ve been wanting to learn portrait photography but have had the notion that I somehow needed lighting equipment in order to get started. Fortunately, I stumbled upon Dr. Banhup Teh’s photographs via an email which my uncle sent me. It was a power point presentation containing some of Dr. Teh’s portrait photography. I later learned that he had a Filipino mentor by the name of Manny Librodo. Their work has inspired me to try my hands on this style of portrait photography. Although both of these photographers obviously use lighting equipment on some of their portrait shots, for the most part, they utilize available natural lighting.

These are photographs of my eldest daughter and niece using a single window as our only lighting. It was an overcast day which helped soften the natural light which illuminated their faces. No flash was fired.

Post processing was done in Photoshop version 7. Here's my post processing recipe:
1. duplicate background
2. filter>other>high pass>radius = 4.0>layer setting = vivid
3. CTRL + E (to flatten image)
4. duplicate background again
5. filter>blur>gassian blur>radius = 30.0>layer setting = normal
6. add layer mask
7. choose "brush tool">mode = normal>opacity = 50%>flow = 70%
8. apply brush all over image
9. change opacity to 100% and brush away blur in the eyes and mouth only
10. create new adjustment layer "curves" to add contrast to your liking
11. Flatten image when you are satisfied with the outcome
*** I like to add vignettes every now and then to hide unwanted background clutter and/or just to give it that finish look. =)





Please feel free to post your own “natural light” portrait photographs in this thread (MEDIUM size only please). And if you're feeling generous, please share your work flow as well. Looking forward to seeing some of your masterpieces!
Posted at 10:26AM, 12 January 2009 PDT (permalink)