This is my entry for the daily #monomad challenge hosted and curated by
.
Hello everyone here in Black and White community. How are you all doing? I hope you guys are all doing great. Today I am going to post another black and white portraiture.
This was the studio lighting setup that I used during this photoshoot session. Two strip soft box was placed on both left side and right side as the picture above. The grid really helped me to direct the light only to the area that I need.
The grid also helped me to prevent some light leaks because of the strobe lighting position.
Head Shoot.
EXIF : ISO - 125 | f8 | 1/100 | 110mm | 0 Step Exposure Bias
This is Hugo. He was introduced to me by his manager for a portrait session for his portfolios. This was our first studio photoshoot session together. He was very tall, If I am not mistaken he is around 195 cm tall, around 6 feet 4 inches.
Closeup half body Shoot.
EXIF : ISO - 125 | f8 | 1/100 | 60mm | 0 Step Exposure Bias
Half body Shoot.
EXIF : ISO - 125 | f8 | 1/100 | 35mm | 0 Step Exposure Bias
He was actually a very playful person. He smiles a lot and likes to make jokes. I did took some times to be able to give him some guidance to make this look above. A serious face. Some of it may look emotionless. I was trying to capture all the details and contour on his face while he was in the emotionless expression.
Half body Shoot.
EXIF : ISO - 125 | f8 | 1/100 | 50mm | 0 Step Exposure Bias
I like his fine jawline. This pose was done by him self without my instruction. He really had the posing ability on his body and this expression is great. You can see the contour on his cheek. This type of shadow contour is one of my favorite.
Half body Shoot.
EXIF : ISO - 125 | f8 | 1/100 | 50mm | 0 Step Exposure Bias
The photo was processed with the frequency separation technique and mixed with the dodge and burn technique. I am still experimenting on how well both of this technique combined. As for the time being. I am still learning on how to control the frequency separation brush technique. If I did to much brushing it will effect the original contour of the photo especially on the face. This will lead to "plastic surgery" look when both of the original photo and edited photo is put side by side.
Half body Shoot.
EXIF : ISO - 125 | f8 | 1/100 | 50mm | 0 Step Exposure Bias
Trying to keep the original lighting effect on the face is really important too. If I made to much adjustment on the shadow or highlight (during the dodge and burn technique) it will lead into a very drastic changes on the original face contour of profile.
So currently I am learning how to adapt this technique into my current editing process workflow. I want to keep all the details as much as possible including the shadow and highlight details.
The frequency separation was suppose to be used to smooth out the skin tone. But I tried it to smooth out the shadow and highlight and I did not expect the result will be good. But the challenge was to control all the brush during the process.
I will advice you to get a "stylus pen" for editing. From my experience, using a mouse to do the retouching more than 5 years really did effect my hand. To much clicking is not good for the hand health.
Full body Shoot.
EXIF : ISO - 125 | f8 | 1/100 | 32mm | 0 Step Exposure Bias
One of the best features when using the "stylus pen" is the pressure brush function. This really helped me so much during editing. When you are going to do the dodge and burn process and you had to keep changing the "Opacity" and the "Flow" of the brush, by using a mouse it will take too much step plus you had to click on the mouse every time you doing a brush stroke in photoshop.
But by using the "stylus pen" you can set the "Opacity" and "Flow" at 50% both, after that do not forget to activate the pressure function and now you can start to do a brush stroke in photoshop , the "Opacity" and "Flow" effect will be determined by the pressure from your hand and of course from the 50% setting earlier.
Full body Shoot.
EXIF : ISO - 125 | f8 | 1/100 | 32mm | 0 Step Exposure Bias
This "stylus pen" really reduced a great amount of fatigue from your hand compared to when you are using a mouse. This pen is a great investment in my opinion. It will speed up your workflow and at the same time it will reduce the amount of clicking done from using a mouse. You can avoid the Repetitive Strain Injuries of the Wrist and Hand which is also known as RSI. It is better to prevent/avoid than cure.
Full body Shoot.
EXIF : ISO - 125 | f8 | 1/100 | 32mm | 0 Step Exposure Bias
And that is all from me today. Thank you for visiting and I hope to get some positive feed back from this post. Until we meet again in the next post.
Stay safe and have a great day everyone.
| Photographer |  |
| Camera | Canon 70D | 18mm - 200mm f3.5 - f5.6 |
| Editing Software | Adobe Photoshop CC |