Comments on: On Location: Anatomy of a Shoot (with Video)

By: Kristi

Kristi — Sun, 13 Sep 2009 00:06:58 +0000

This is such an incredible source! I only wish the video would play for me.

By: vedtam

vedtam — Sun, 03 May 2009 09:14:34 +0000

Hi,
This was a really great article…Thanks for sharing. But the video is not working any more.

By: Gabe

Gabe — Thu, 15 Jan 2009 06:20:58 +0000

Awesome tutorials! This is by far the best free lighting tutorial site on the web.

By: Ruffles

Ruffles — Thu, 25 Sep 2008 03:23:08 +0000

Thanks for the great tutorial. Can you tell me artist and title for the song in the video?

By: Leo.Amaral

Leo.Amaral — Thu, 04 Sep 2008 12:10:25 +0000

I’m from Brazil. Your lessons are very useful for me. Thank you. The videos about model’s direction (?) are amazing.

By: electronick

electronick — Mon, 01 Sep 2008 07:22:50 +0000

Don, I’m happy to see this video come back on your website! I’m always so in love with the music with really match with the picture you take.

It make me dream!

By: wizwow

wizwow — Sat, 30 Aug 2008 00:41:18 +0000

ncwalker:
Well, she has great skin to begin with (as well as that ‘beautiful’ thing going full on.. LOL). Very good makeup artist on this shoot as well. That, combined with careful light and correct exposure (I always shoot to the high side) and you are well on your way.

First I create a new layer and do all touch up work on it. Clone stamp at 20% on lighten and clean up any small imperfections. Patch tool used very, very sparingly in my work.

I then use Mama Shan’s powder action (photoshopmama.net) and keep it at an opacity of about 15%.

Then using channels and curves, I raise the highs a bit in the midtones and keep the darks deep. Result is more contrast, but it is centralized contrast through luminance ranges that I choose.

Occasionally I will use some ’smart blur’ at a very, very low setting then back it off in layer opacity, but for the most part it is pretty straight forward.

Hope that helps.

By: ncwalker

ncwalker — Fri, 29 Aug 2008 21:54:16 +0000

Don, Your blog is a fantastic source of information and I’m loving your series on small strobes. Just curious to know if you could shed some ‘light’ on the post processing of the images of Bri – her skin looks so silky smooth. Were those GI V2 Cactus triggers you used on this one?

By: doug_e

doug_e — Thu, 28 Aug 2008 19:45:33 +0000

Hi Don
What an outstanding article. It’s like a workshop on lighting all by its self. Very beautiful images. Enjoyed the video too. All photographers should be thankful you are willing to share your knowledge and work so hard on the blog. I for one really appreciate it and thank you. I visit often because it’s such a great site! thanks.

Doug