This evening during our WACC photo seminar we used flash to explore and emulate lighting conditions and how they affect a portrait. The four sample cases below simulate how direction, distance and size of the light affect the portrayal of facial features.

The first shot shows how on-axis (same direction lens is pointing) light flattens facial features. The next sample used bare flash in a close-up from-above pattern to emulate how overhead sunlight might affect a portrait shot. We get hard and deep shadows. The third sample shows what overhead, but highly diffused light does by bouncing the flash from the ceiling. With this shot we get soft shadows, but also unflattering shadows for the eye sockets. Finally, we brought light from a 45 degree angle to the camera and from above the subject. We get softer shadows and more flattering modeling of the face.

You will notice that for all these we used a fairly high ISO (2000), allowing enough ambient light into the shot to demonstrate how different light sources can mix and affect the overall color of the photo, and this is particularly apparent in the third sample shot.

Our thanks to our willing model for patiently putting up with all the strobing.

After noticing that many professional studio portraits not only have soft light, but also a certain glow to them, I tried post-processing with a technique I recently discovered, which more or less mimics what one can do with a soft-focus lens or filter. You can take the effect as far as you like, but I prefer a moderate application where I play with opacity, curves and even some light masking to customize the look for each photo’s needs. What do you think?

Original	With soft focus glow

As the year comes to a close, I decided to review how well I met my goal to improve my portraiture portfolio. Here are some of my favorites.

As I wrote in a previous article, I was hesitant to use a D7000 because it doesn’t directly support the D2XMODE1 Picture Control, which I have come to value for my portrait work. After trying out the camera for a few days, it turns out that in addition to the D7000′s inability to load the D2XMODE1 as an optional picture control, ViewNX 2.x has disabled the ability to apply D2XMODE1 during conversion in post-processing.

What to do, after writing in to Nikon to complain, without much hope that anything will come of my whining? Well, I went back through my archives and revived an old emulated D2XMODE1 picture control (PORTD2XM1) which I had based on the Portrait picture control. Then I made another attempt at creating an emulated D2XMODE1 control, this time titled D2XM1SIM (for simulated). Neither of these is exactly the same as D2XMODE1, but either of them does a credible job with portraits. Some samples for you to assess for yourself follow here, along with a link to download the picture controls at the bottom of the page.

Nikon’s D2XMODE1, created to reproduce the D2X’s color rendition; useful for portraits	Nikon’s Portrait, allegedly a newer version of D2XMODE1, but as discussed previously, not 100% the same
Emulated D2XMODE1, based on Nikon’s Portrait picture control	Emulated D2XMODE1, based on Nikon’s Neutral picture control, and a bit brighter in the midtones and shadows

To download these two emulated D2XMODE1 picture controls, along with their tone curve (NTC) files, click here…

Instructions for Picture control installation:

1. Unzip the downloaded file into a folder of your choice.
2. Insert a formatted, empty card in your card reader.
3. Copy the resultant NIKON folder to the card.
4. To install for use in ViewNX2 (or Capture NX2):
• With the card still in the card reader, open Picture Control Utility.
• Click the Import button, and select each picture control.
• Close Picture Control Utility, and in NX2′s picture control drop-down list, verify that the new controls are now available for use.
5. To install in your camera:
• Insert the card in your Nikon DSLR.
• Access the “Manage Picture Controls” menu and select the load options (consult your manual if necessary).

In the following few days, I’ll be posting a set of writeups documenting informal, non-scientific comparisons I performed among the D7000, D300 and D700. I do this mostly to learn about my gear through hands-on use. By finding out about limitations or differences in how different pieces of equipment work, I can better adjust while shooting and later on in post-processing when handling shoots where I combined output from two or more of these cameras.

For the first set of experiments, I wanted to check out a claim that the D7000 renders skin tones differently than, and allegedly not as complimentary as the beloved D300. This concerned because I plan to use the D7000 for some of my portrait work, especially in studio settings were its additional resolution might yield a marginal advantage over my 12MP machines.

To ensure an apples-to-apples comparison I controlled for the WB and set the same Picture control (Portrait) in ViewNX2. Regarding WB, I shot reference shots including a gray card for all these, but this didn’t work well (see the WB blurb at end of this writeup), so I simply forced my own Kelvin temperature setting. For the ambient flash shots I used 5400K, and for the ambient shots I used 4500K. I also used the same lens (85 f1.4D) for all shots to eliminate the possibility of lens differences introducing color casts. The results are shown below: first a pair of ambient lighting shots, followed by two studio flash lighting.

D300	D7000

If you look at these side by side, each in separate browser windows, you will see a difference in skin tones. You may also notice that for the flash shots, though lighting was held constant with manual flash power and exposure was also locked down in manual mode, the background for the D7000 shot is lighter. I’ll leave it up to you as to whether this makes a difference, but I know it won’t matter much to me.

Now let’s deal with that issue I mentioned about using a gray card as a white balance reference. If I have the time, I stick a gray card that I can use later in post-processing as the “dropper” reference, like so:

I ran into an interesting problem if I used the reference card from one camera to batch-adjust shots from both cameras. Basically, the other camera’s shots would turn some interesting colors. I’ll keep this in mind: in the future I’ll have to shoot reference shots with each camera and use each reference only for the same camera’s shots. When I did that, I obtained the next set of shots. I’ll let you decide if these have the same type of difference we saw in the first set of samples. I’ll just say that after this experience, I’m not so convinced about the reliability of using gray cards as a reference in ViewNX2 (see note for revised assessment).

D300	D7000

By now you might be wondering why I didn’t throw some D700 vs. D7000 shots in here. Come back tomorrow and you’ll get your wish.

Note: It turns out that one must a reference gray card shot from each camera only for the shots taken with that same camera. Using a reference gray card shot from one camera for shots from another camera won’t work because each camera has its own unique color cast. That is the real take-away here.

Discussions about post-processing usually focus on the ability to correct exposure or white balance flaws that could not (or were not) addressed during the shoot. However, I find that post-processing offers so much more than that by enabling completion of an artistic vision. Especially when one starts with a compelling moment bathed in complementary lighting, there seems to be almost no limit to what a little re-interpretation can achieve. With the 4 samples in this slideshow, I hope to demonstrate what one can do through color alternation or removal.

Copyright (c) 2011, Eduardo Suastegui

Click on the image to advance at will

If the slide show isn’t fully showing you the effects, click on any of the Image1 through 5 links and open them in separate browser tabs for cross-comparison.

For those who must know, the first color image (Image 1) is the as shot version, with added selective sharpening around the infant’s eyes and cropping to a 8×10 aspect ratio. With this as the starting point, the next 4 photos were processed as follows:

• Image2 applied curves cross-processing followed with desaturation of the red channel.
• Image3 applied black and white conversion with green channel filtering, followed by S-curve adjustment and finished with soft glow effect.
• Image4 applied emulated Infrared conversion with levels adjustments to darken the shadows a bit, then adding a soft glow effect.

Which of these I end up liking best depends a lot on personal mood. For today, I’m liking the cross-processed version best… though that last emulated Infrared with soft glow is also beckoning.