Before and After — Steph in Transition
The Before and After series focuses on the two or three key creative choices, in terms of composition and processing, that go into creating an image. Specific technical details about the shot have been left out — you won’t hear me talking about tone curve adjustments and whatnot unless it was a key component of the end result.
Stephanie makes some adjustments to her hair during a shoot by the W construction site.
Exposure
- Shutter: 1/200
- Aperture: f/1.4
- ISO: 800
- Camera: Canon EOS 1Ds Mark III
- Lens: Canon EF 85mm f/1.2L II USM
Composition and Processing
- This is one of those shots you get when your subject isn’t expecting it. I asked Stephanie to mess up her hair and bring it forward more, then immediately started shooting while she was doing it. Since that caught her by surprise, she laughed and I got a more natural expression from her (not to mention a less posed “hands in hair” motion than one usually gets).
- I was a bit concerned about having a massive gray pipe sticking out of Steph’s forehead from the background, so I shifted her just slightly to the side to move it off center. Tilting the frame helped too, by making all the vertical and horizontal background elements a bit more dynamic (which worked since Steph herself is in motion).
- The way she’s shifting her weight, there’s a slight bulge above the waistline on the left side of the frame that’s unnecessary. That’s an easy fix with the liquify tool I should have taken care of, but missed when I did the original processing of the image.
Original:
February 18 2010 12:56 am | Photography