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jonpearson
The man with the feather in his cap
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The man with the feather in his cap



behind the lens badge
cameraNIKON D810

settings Aperture f/10 ISO 64 Shutter 1/160 Focal Length 240/10 

upload_dateNov, 2017

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1432

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Awards

Contest Finalist in Looks Mysterious Photo Contest
Contest Finalist in Elderly Photo Contest
People's Choice in Studio Portrait Photo Challenge
Peer Award
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Genius
Jonben68 Argentiere
All Star
annetteflottwell
Outstanding Creativity
timk333

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2 Comments |
Witmar
 
Witmar November 27, 2017
great portrait
ArberElezi
 
ArberElezi December 30, 2017
Awesome, congrats on winning Peoples choise in my Chalange, love this Photo a lot, well done!
jonpearson
jonpearson December 30, 2017
Thankyou!

Submitted to Photo Contests

Tags

#man #feather #cap #suit #dapper #beard #sad #brown eyes #smart
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Behind The Lens

Location

This image was taken in a studio setting using only artificial light. The backdrop was originally a plain mid grey cloth but was replaced in post processing to give a more moody setting.

Time

The photoshoot took place in the evening.

Lighting

This is a single light image - my personal favourite. The modifier was a large 150cm octobox on a Bowens 400w lamp. The light was set at 45 degrees to the camera and the model asked to pose seated and mostly facing the light.

Equipment

I shot this on my Nikon D810 using the older generation 24-70 f2.8 (non-VR) lens. I always use a tripod to ensure sharp images on the D810 as the camera is very unforgiving if there is even the slightest camera shake. I used electronic front curtain to further reduce internal movement.

Inspiration

Emotive portraits are my favourite subject to shoot and the model (Pip the Gentleman) is one of the most rewarding models to shoot I have ever come across. He is a master of assuming a mood and interpreting it in front of the camera. I had seen many great images of him in the past and when I booked him, it was my aim to achieve my own interpretation of his unique look and presence.

Editing

Post processing... there was a fair bit done to give this image the painterly look and to remove the dull and uninteresting background. The initial cleanup of the image required me to remove several distracting elements of the background - in the original you could still see the strobes and the edges behind the back ground cloth. The resulting imaghe's background was then scaled up to fill the space of the original image's dimensions. I used textures to overlay some contrast to the original floor and wall surfaces. The model was treated to a through clean up and his contrast boosted using high-pass filters and clarity. For colour toning, I added three separate colour LUT (Look Up table) layers plus a gradient map to de-saturate the image. I used Camera Raw filters to enhance the lighting effects.

In my camera bag

I'm a Nikon shooter - I really like their system and the D810 is just a great studio camera. All my lenses are Nikon with the exception of just a Tamron 35mm f/1.8 SP lens with VC - a great little lens. For studio work I generally stick with a 70-200 f/2.8 or 24-70 f/2.8. Apart from my tripod, this is really all I need.

Feedback

Images like this start with an idea and require a technically solid base image - sharp focus, good expression and flattering light. If you can get all this part right 'in-camera' then it makes the post production work a lot easier - but does not remove it altogether. I think its pretty safe to say that in this day of digital imaging, the secret of turning a good image into a really memorable one comes down to your skills in doing the post processing - it really is worth taking the time to learn how to do it effectively.

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