articles/Fashion/cover-page2

And Now for the front cover - part 2 of 1 2 3

by Damian McGillicuddy Published 01/08/2009

The lighting consisted of a single Quantum into Damian's DMLS Beauty Box, another Quantum to light the wall/background (a wall papered in white anaglypta). To complete the arrangement Damian placed two, black, light-controlling killers, either side of the model, very close in and Lozie held a white reflector on her lap, but angled up towards the main light at 30° above her head so that there was just enough room to poke an 85mm Nikkor through the gap, using the upright pole of the beauty box as a support.

Lighting power was arranged to provide F5.6 on the backdrop (as measured by an incident light meter). The camera exposure was set for F4.0 by turning back the beauty box power. This was to ensure a very shallow depth of field. To further increase the three-dimensionality of the shot Damian had Lozie lean her face forward slightly, to increase the distance between the focal plane (her eyes) and her necklace. Note also that the reflections of the black killers produce a wide variation of tone in the silver of the jewellery.

DAMIAN'S AFTERWORK

No matter how much you 'Get it right' at the taking stage there is always a little enhancement that can be done in post production to further the image's impact. Remember though the key word is 'Enhance'; good post work will make a great image brilliant, but can only go so far in resurrecting a dud. This image needed very little post work but, by way of total transparency, I'll quickly highlight what I have done. Firstly I need to be true to the chic hairstyle, so that entails getting rid of stray hairs, balancing its shape and boosting its shine. Next comes skin imperfections, even top models like Lozie still suffer the odd one or two! These are simply cloned out. My own 'Special' skin smoothing action is then run on the image. Note though, the importance of keeping texture. Again for the sake of better balance, part of the jewellery was cloned, reversed and pasted onto the opposite side of the subject's neck to fill in an unwanted gap.

• And Now for the front cover page 1
  
• And Now for the front cover page 2
  
• And Now for the front cover page 3
  

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