colour me red

[marty]

colour me red



From a portfolio session

[Analog6]

I would have liked a little more light onher face, perhaps a reflector could have been utilised?

Colour is another good theme for our monthly gallery, too, thanks for stimulating the old Brain, Marty.

[admin]

I like the simple pose and the way the model's hair and the edge of the body are rim lit.
I personally try to avoid the use of flash as you have done, there is an artistic choice to be made as the dynamic range exceeds the capabiliy of the digital capture. In terms of a straight exposure the primary choices are to let the highlights burn out a bit at the top end and still retain a bit of detail in the back ground - as you have done, or as Odille suggested, bounce a little of the available light back. (we carry a single bed white sheet rolled onto a piece of pine wood with eyelet screws inserted in each end, and black too, for subtractive lighting)
The other option is to do a  little post production work, lightening the shadow areas a bit.
I hope you do not mind (and please say so if you do), but to demonstrate the benefits of a bit of brightening of your image, (in this case in photoshop) I have done a couple of quick edits.
In the first version, I used an adjustment layer to increase the "exposure" then etched through the background to bring back detail. Then I used a shallow 's' curve in a curves layer to increase contrast.
In the second, I created a copy in black and white, then blended then two, etched back the hair, dodged some hair highlights and added more contrast again.
There is no correct way, but I think a little brightening and extra contrast helps what is a good image.

[bpsphoto]

That second treatment of Mark's is really interesting. I like the sorta handpainted b&w look it achieves.

If you have room, try pulling the model away from the background, so the brightest thing you can see is her eyes or her hair, it focuses the attention better and makes for a more dramatic shot. Overall, though, I like this quite a bit.