Thanks for your elaborate response.
I checked my LR settings, sharpness of the graduated filter which I used
was set (far too high) from an earlier picture.
It might work out better on the original raw, but when there is not enough
light, that will probably always leave some traces.
The bereaved family (is that proper English?) will like the picture anyway.
Best, Frank.
2012/5/22 Moose <olymoose@xxxxxxxxx>
> On 5/21/2012 6:45 AM, Frank Wijsmuller wrote:
> > I like it too,
>
> Thanks!
>
> > but noticed there was not much light hitting the front of
> > the face. That probably made his silhouet slightly unnatural to me.
> > So I lifted the tip of his nose and chin somewhat, improving the picture
> I
> > think. See for yourself:
> >
> >
> https://plus.google.com/photos/103726771172069534440/albums/5744980147792054481?authkey=CNr_hsK_ttXFTg
> > Lightroom did something more with the color temperature I think, I left
> it that way. It looked more natural to me, but
> > slightly overdone. However I wasn't there.
>
> Thanks for looking and taking the time to illustrate what you prefer.
> You've achieved very natural lighting on the front
> of Eric's face. On the other hand, as I suppose you've noticed, at the
> price of a lot of visible artifacts.
>
> You may imagine that, working with the original size, I could avoid that
> problem. That's not entirely true. This is a
> very high dynamic range subject, shot at ISO 800 on an APS size sensor,
> then cropped considerably. Yes, ISO 400 and
> longer focal length would have been better, but I did seize the moment and
> catch the expression, momentarily relatively
> unimpeded by the people between us, so that's what I had to work with. :-)
>
> I managed to nail the exposure on the second try, but there are still
> consequences. Even at -1 2/3 EV, the highlights
> are blown in the JPEG. They were recoverable without color trouble in the
> Raw file because I had what Canon calls
> "Highlight Tone Priority" on. This gives a softer shoulder to hold
> highlights, but at the price of more noise at the
> bottom. So the shadows are more like 3200 level noise.
>
> Soooo ... My choice of how much to raise those areas was a mix of artistic
> intent and technical practicality. It you
> look here, and move your cursor between the second and third boxes below,
> you'll see that I did raise that area
> somewhat. <
> http://www.moosemystic.net/Gallery/MPhotos/BayArea/Miscellaneous/_MG_6650cr.htm
> >
>
> It's hard to see in these examples, but I also raised it a little after
> the B&W conversion, which seemed to make that
> part relatively darker.
>
> As to being there, that's a mixed bag. I think worrying too much about
> some sort of fidelity to the subject and light
> can make for a poorer image. OTH, I tend to fall into that same trap
> sometimes. Here, I am torn between the drama of the
> 'spotlight' and more conventional, even lighting.
>
> Since other aspects are far from 'perfect', deep eye socket shadow, almost
> invisible eye itself, bulge of the eyeball
> under the lid, emphasized by shadow, odd light under chin, etc., I decided
> to lean in favor of only moderately
> ameliorating the consequences of the unusual lighting on nose and chin.
>
> Still, I also like what you've done with the light. If I decide to give
> something similar a try, I'll go back and apply
> greater noise reduction in those areas before all the other processing. I
> think that will work better than trying to
> smoosh* out the artifacts later.
>
> Portraitish Moose
>
> --
> What if the Hokey Pokey *IS* what it's all about?
> --
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>
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