Single Light on a Cowboy
This was my first attempt at portraiture with a single light source. Thanks to Garrett Johnson for being able to keep a straight face long enough for the shutte...
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This was my first attempt at portraiture with a single light source. Thanks to Garrett Johnson for being able to keep a straight face long enough for the shutter to close. Good glare buddy!
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Feb, 2015Views
1959
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Awards
Featured
Featured
Contest Finalist in Studio 101 Photo Contest
Contest Finalist in Got Lookability Headshot Photo Contest
Peer Award
Superb Composition
Top Choice
Absolute Masterpiece
Outstanding Creativity
All Star
Superior Skill
Magnificent Capture
Top Ranks
Top 10 rankTop 10 rank week 1
Top 10 rankTop 10 rank week 2Top 10 rank week 1
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seanbeagles
August 16, 2015
Hi, I just wanted to let you know that I really like your photo! My photo is also in the finalists for the Studio 101 contest. Best of luck!
thommorris
August 17, 2015
Thanks so much! I'm enjoying your work as well. You really know how to light the human form.
shutterbug12
February 07, 2016
Great photo, I like it better in color than the one in B&W only because of the subject's vivid blue eyes.
Same photographer See allBehind The Lens
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Behind The Lens
Location
This image was captured in Old Town Temecula in California on October 11, 2014. A group of us wandered around looking for backgrounds for our model who played the role of a cowboy. This was part of National Photo Walk Day 2014.Time
This was taken between 5 and 6 p.m. to catch the falling sun. The model, Garrett Johnson, was facing southwest to get the sun as the key light.Lighting
The strongest light in this shot was the sun. There was an off-camera flash and a reflector to put some light up under the brim of his hat and gave a little light in the shadows to work with. This was my first time working with a model and artificial lights and reflectors. I had a good time learning from the more experienced photographers.Equipment
I was shooting handheld with a Nikon D610 with a 24-85 zoom. I had it at 85mm, f/4.5, ISO 200 @ 1/250th. We shared a remote flash unit and each took turns holding the reflector for each other.Inspiration
When I heard that Garrett would be portraying a cowboy, my first though was that I would want to capture images that people wanted to look at and form an idea of what emotions might be behind the eyes. While everyone was looking to shoot Garrett against various backgrounds, I was looking to get in close and key in on his features.Editing
Post-processing was fun! First I wanted to get rid of the distracting background elements (street signs, architectural and people). I wanted my subject well lit and emerging from a deep dark background. I used a solid color layer mask in a color I sampled from the deeper shadows. I wanted to make his skin more leathery so I used Shadow/Highlight and Levels adjustment layers, a subtle High Pass filter with a Linear Light blending mode and a Neutral gray overlay to brush in deeper lines and bring forward higher skin tones. I did some color adjustments to the eyes sampling the existing colors and putting them on separate layers to stay non-destructive. I think that's about it.In my camera bag
I have two camera bodies the D610 and my first DSLR a D3100. I carry a 100mm Tokina f/2.8 whose electronics got hurt at a Color Run (a cautionary tale), but in full manual it's still an awesome little lens for macro or portrait. I carry a 70-300 zoom and the 24-85 that is my most used lens. The D3100 was my backup, but I converted it to Infrared and it always has the 18-55mm kit lens that performs great for IR. I love the drama of a good IR landscape and it's nice because when midday light is bad for visible spectrum shots, it's ideal for Infrared.Feedback
Get around photographers who are more accomplished and learn from them. Keep an eye on Viewbug for some nice tips and tutorials. Get some great techniques from YouTube tutorials, too. Shoot a lot A LOT! Make lots of mistakes and you'll figure out how to avoid them later. Save your work because you may learn techniques that you can apply to an old shot years later to make it great.
