Few Pics of my wife...with my new setup.

[yanz]

HI. I recently bought one alien bee. Here some results. Please let me know what you think.




Thank you very much in advance!

Yan

[mson]

I like the second one. I'm far from a knowledgeable person about studio lighting but they both look well lit, especially since it is new.

[elader]

How did you get her hair lit in the first one with only one flash? Its nice but she appears a little smooth. Maybe just a bit more skin texture.

[david888lee]

yea, looks like the skin was smoothed way too much. tone it down a little bit and the image will look good

[Glo]

I agree the skin smoothing is a little overdone and uneven.
Looks nicely exposed though ... oh and I too am intrigued by that hairlight?

[Eagle Eye]

Good pics there. I like the first one as I feel the colors all are sharp. I am not much on PP but I guess they are right. Change it and repost it so we can see how all this works please.

[yanz]

Thank you every one for the comments and critique. I am trying to learn skin smoothing and most of the time it comes out overdone. I am going to try again later on. I attached the pictures of the setup. For the hair light I used 430EX set up high on a light stand and pointed towards the hair without any diffuser. I think it was set in manual mode to 1/16.

Thanks,
Yan

[yanz]

Here another try to smooth the skin. Please let me know what you think.


Thanks a lot!!!
Yan

[jra]

Nice shots I would agree that skin smoothing can be a tricky subject....it's often difficult when to know when enough becomes too much while editing a photo. IMO, skin smoothing should be pretty much unnoticable by the viewer. IMO, your second attempt is better but I would suggest maybe lightening the darker areas under her eyes a bit.

edit...BTW...you really used your 430 very nicely for a hair light....You provided some nice highlights and some seperation of her dark hair from the background. Without the hair light, I would think that her hair would've just blended into the dark background.

[yanz]

Hi Jason. Thanks for the C&C. IT was a quick edit and i missed to do a little dodging under the eyes. I updated the pic and made it a little ligher under the eyes. Does that look better?

Thanks again!
Yan