The curtain doesn't bother me either. I would just adjust the color of the skin until it was right.

Adjusting color
 

Skin tones are impossible for me to adjust to complement a background. I'm afraid to try it. I always try to get a background to go with the skin tones first because it makes it easier for me. I find faces so hard to do anyway. You must be very accomplished to be able to do that! I applaud you! What I said also was that the model was too sophisticated for the frilly curtain. But that's my humble opinion.

I find that I am accomplished 2 days out of 5, and I don't know which ones it's going to be. I'm pretty sure one falls on a weekend, and some days I can't work. So as it turns out, I can go for months and never be accomplished!

I was going to send this letter a few weeks ago, but I got waylaid at a workshop in NC, so while the thread seems to have moved on, there still might be some interest in the following....


Mike,

I just returned from a photo shoot and information gathering in San Francisco and while going over the quickie digital shots, found this example of a smaller light to shadow ratio in the kind of composition that you favor.

I am probably not going to do this painting, but I thought it was a good example of being able to get dramatic shots without losing the detail in the light, or the detail in the shadows. The set up is morning sun, west window key light, white wall reflecting warm fill light.

Peggy

Detail

This will work well with a north window towards the center of a bright day, if you put a large mirror on the dark side of the subject, making sure that the light from the window bounces back into the shadow. I prefer that kind of light to the orange color of the average house lighting. Another possibility is using a flourescent full spectrum light for the fill. I have tried that recently, but the light seems too soft(diffused), and I lose the shadow.

Sharon, a portrait can be done in any color at all. For example black and white, or sepia portraits are common.

Peggy,

Thanks for remembering me. That's a lot of great information in that photo. You mentioned that this was a digital photo, what quantity of pixelation does this camera have? What type of light generated the warm glow on the shadow side, was it spotted (narrowly directed) in any way?

Oh, Peggy! Perfect exposure, lovely pose, gorgeous warm fill light -- part of why you are the master that you are. Even your photos are beautiful!

Thanks, Mike and Michele.

I borrowed the digital camera from the client because my husband asked me to leave mine at home so he could play with it. I used a standard Nikon 35 mm for the rest of the shots. This was just me running all over the house with the second daughter trying out lighting conditions, and finally settling in on the window of the stair landing. The digital was a Vaio, as I recall, and I used the highest resolution. There was no auxiliary lighting, no tungsten or florescence illuminating the room. Just the reflected light off the wall at the base of the landing. I do like the cool cool key light with the warm reflected light. We played around with some poses, and I have two rather dramatically different poses with the same lighting on the same stairwell. When I left (three weeks ago) the parents hadn't decided which to do. The Dad wanted this pose, the Mom, another more dramatic one.

Peggy