technically terrible

Took this yesterday at a off-camera flash workshop that I attended. I don't have any OCF gear, but was able to use extras that people so generously lended me. A very informative time, I must say. This particular one is actually taken using the onboard flash (I never got the hang of OCF!)

Yes, I know there are many things wrong with this one.

But I kinda like it, so I'm posting these different versions to see what everyone else thinks.
If you hate it, say so. I'm a big girl, I can take it.

There are some wonderful photos from this workshop posted on the Memphis Photo Forums.

If you'd like to check them out, go HERE

Yep, nice shot. I like the colour one the best, despite the purple haze. (Hey!) I'm sure that purple colour can be cleaned up.

Interesting but purple always means trouble in digital. How well you've rescued it in mono, though!

Regards,

Andrew

I should hate it, but I love it.

Not for me I'm afraid. The branches don't help the young lady at all and her hair frizzes over the tree trunk.

All you need for off camera flash is a wireless trigger/receiver which you can buy from this site at modest cost (eBay given you're a long way away) and any old flash from a thrift shop. I got a Vivitar 283 for modest money and a Hannimex for 5 ukp. There is a really quite cheap but good Chinese flash available on eBay and mentioned a lot on the strobist site which I think is $50 or so.

Get two though and things get better

Mike

The model looks really at ease giving a nice natural feel. I downloaded the first image and had a play around with it in photoshop, if you convert it to black and white but select the maximum black option the overblown highlights disappear from above the models head and hair, also with the colour version I tried removing the magenta colour using the hue and saturation tool, changed the magenta settings to hue +86, Saturation -100, lightness -100 this had a passable improvement but not perfect.

All that aside taking pictures of people is not my strong point and I like the result.

Its a nice shot...the mono version works best in my opinion...I reckon the colour version, corrected, with a little "mistyness" added would be superb......but backlighting is hard to do and I think you have done a good job here. Yes, the branches do distract a little but her pose, her expression and the light are pretty good...I like!!!

I really like the first one, it has a kind of an 70s/80s polaroid style to it which the purpleness enhances.

As technoblurb said the models ease infornt of the lens really adds to this shot and I think thats what is lifting it

I also had a play with it too. I conveted it to a B&W, did some burning on the front of her hair to get rid of the misty bits added some blur to push the background, tree and whispy bits of hair further OOF and then toned it in sections, it kinda works to my eye anyway.

Its definatley worth a play in photoshop (or what ever you use)

Regards
PaulM

Thanks for everyone's comments. It was my first time using a model, and she was very good. I, on the other hand, was not.

If you played around with it, go ahead and post it in here, if you'd like. I'd love to see what others have done.

Well this is my little bit of tinkering, I suspect however that others could do much better. If I had spent more time on the colour version I probably could have removed the remaining magenta hue around her hair line and evened out the complexion a bit.

This was my take on it Givingtree.

With a little more time an effort I could have put the splits in different or less distracting places and lined things up a little better (ie her arm on the L/H side) I am also not all that keen on the border colours, (I wanted match the colours in the image to it)
anyway, I hope you like it

[IMG]http://i206.photobucket.com/albums/bb113/pnjmcc/Happy-color4tonesplit.jpg[/IMG]

Regards
PaulM

The mono version works best for me Emily. I'm not fond of the magenta. I think the picture you entered in the fortnightly competition far exceeds this one in quality.
david

Thanks for the different takes on this pic. I agree, the magenta is bleh and hard on the eyes. Thanks for the input, everyone.