Lady in monochrome

[briansquibb]

Took this in the open air today on my class

5dII, iso 200, 1/5300, f5.6, 70-300L@300

[DeeGee]

Re: Lady in monochrome

A little bit of sun worshipping.

[laurie]

Re: Lady in monochrome

hi like the picture a lot but not the ear ring.

[mammarazzi]

Re: Lady in monochrome

I'm not sure if it is my monitor but the face looks slightly out of focus and the hairline and neck sharp! I love the pose and feel of this photo- if this was outdoors how did you get the background so dark?
Joanne

[briansquibb]

Re: Lady in monochrome

I'm not sure if it is my monitor but the face looks slightly out of focus and the hairline and neck sharp! I love the pose and feel of this photo- if this was outdoors how did you get the background so dark?
Joanne

She was in bright sunlight and I managed to get the dark background of woodland. By getting the light reading off her face then it darkened out the woods - this is rather like Colin C's barn owl shots.

I deliberately softened the picture to get that atmosphere - I use Nik Silver eFex Pro for my monochrome processing which makes it easier to do. It can also be done manually in PSE/PS - the softening is done though either a light Gausian blur or a slight opaque layer.

I often do the opposite effect to this and get the person with the light behind to whiten the background whilst having a perfectly metered face. In the one below I had the sun overhead shining onto the white wall behind so I used fill flash to lighten the shadows. The dark face guaranteed that the bright background would be overexposed, which is what I wanted. I added some grain to this - add grain to males and soften females is a general rule. Reducing red sensitivity brings back some detail to the skin, in this case his ears. This picture was taken in Rochester High Street (you can see that in the sunglasses)

5dII, iso 400, f5.6, 1/200, exp comp -1, 70-300@300