Hot Ash
Portrait of a friend.
Portrait of a friend.
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Mar, 2016Views
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Same photographer See allBehind The Lens
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Behind The Lens
Location
This portrait was taken at the Cumberland Mountain State Park in Crossville, TN. The park offers many beautiful backdrops for my photographic pursuits.Time
My model and I met up at the park around 5 o'clock in the afternoon. She had a few obligations that prevented her from meeting me any earlier. This did prove fortuitous, however, as it allowed for some wonderful lighting opportunities.Lighting
Being late spring, the light was just getting right. I positioned her with the sun coming over her right shoulder, and an assistant helped light her face with a reflector to her left.Equipment
My weapons of choice for this image were my Sony a3000 with a Sony 50mm f/1.8 OSS lens. I made the shot handheld as I sat across the table from my model. I told her to give me a look as if she were bored, and the result was this beautiful shot.Inspiration
We were originally at the park to create an image for a commercial application. After we were finished, we sat and talked, and I found the light was just hitting her beautifully. I told her to turn a bit and asked her to give me a certain look, and then I snapped the shot.Editing
The image was converted from RAW to black and white in Adobe Lightroom. I raised the exposure levels to her eyes using the radial filter, and adjusted the clarity slider to give the overall image a bit of grit. I like my images to have a lot of contrast. After conversion, I opened the jpeg in Corel PaintShop Pro X6 and tweaked the contrast a bit more using the Local Tone Mapping Adjustment tool. A touch of sharpening with the High Pass Sharpen tool set at Soft Light, and the image was finished.In my camera bag
I tend to travel fairly light, though I do keep at least one old manual flash, some inexpensive radio triggers, spare batteries, and some cleaning supplies. I also usually keep a wide angle lens in the bag for when I want to get more scenery in the shot.Feedback
Always try to be aware of the background for a shot like this. I chose a darker scene because I didn't want too many distractions from my model. It's always best to visualize how you want the final image to turn out, and get as much right in camera as possible before pushing the shutter.
