J O H N  A L L A N wrote:
Yeah, I still don't see it (no matter how many MMers you can get to say they do). All I see is flat diffused midtones.

See another image from that same shoot... No processing, just cropped and uploaded... Hope this tells you what issue I am trying to resolve...

GPS Studio Services wrote:
Nobody has mentioned it to you, but what you are actually doing is over-exposing the "red channel."

Bang on... Thanks for your insight.!!

I researched some more and found the individual Green & Blue channels were almost bang on, but Red channel was the culprit.!!

Click to see in larger size

So now I know what the problem is.!! Need to figure out the best possible solution... Any tips would be more than welcome.!!

Mark Salo wrote:
I'm viewing the image(s) on a different monitor today and I do not see the problem.

It certainly depends on the brightness setting of the monitor.

See last post, now everyone should see the issue!!

Tim Summa wrote:
Spectral highlights, yes you can look that up but it not where the problem is located, but it is good to know what a spectral high light is and how it works in the scheme of things.

There has been a number of posts about poor behavior on the forums, this is one example.

Now to answer your question. You are using digital so your exposures should be for the highest white in which you want or KNOW should contain detail. So the answer is essentially that you need to make you4r exposure for the highest white in which you want/require detail.

Now for the information you seek: When using flash, exposure is predominately controlled by the f-stop. If you are on the sync speed you will find that the ambient light will have little to no real impact on exposure. As you dial down your shutter speed you will discover that your 'correct' f-stop for the high lights will begin to need adjusting, as in increasing the f-stop so that the ambient light (all of it from reading lights to the modeling lights). So you stop the lens down by 1/3 stop increments and the high lights come back under control. This is all technical stuff and you will need to master such things.

Now what the ambient light can do for a creative image can indeed have a huge impact. On the basic level, if you can adjust the modeling lights of your flash and this is independent of the flash to modeling light controls you will find a vary powerful control in your hands. In the vary distant past this had a name, it was called 'pupil-metrics'. The term was coined by one of the greats Dr. Leslie Strobles Dean of the Rochester Institute of Photography (were talking the late 60's).

In essence research was conducted in which two portraits were rendered to common regular people and they were asked to choose the most appealing photograph. It was the same exact image with one set of eyes expertly retouched to open the center of the eyes by reducing the iris in size. This was the image chose in a 4 to 5 choice. A person with wider pupils was found more appealing.

What Dr. Strobles states is that one should use this technique to control the pupil dilation to more effectively communicate emotion to the viewer. A high degree of strong modeling lights will render ones sitter to have what is classically referred to as 'snake eyes'; conversely, one can generate what are called bed room eyes when large open space with reduced iris. If you want the subject to look like they are on drugs, turn off all the lights and with perhaps a 10 watt bulb back behind you and fire the flash, the pupils will be heavily dilate open.

A simple means to this end is to turn off any modeling lights and use a weak incandescent light back where the photographer is standing. It is the need to be mindful of the practices of portraiture and then to apply this with what ever technique that one finds appropriate to communicate the emotion in ones subject.

Hope that all helped.

Tim Summa wrote:
Spectral highlights, yes you can look that up but it not where the problem is located, but it is good to know what a spectral high light is and how it works in the scheme of things.

There has been a number of posts about poor behavior on the forums, this is one example.

Now to answer your question. You are using digital so your exposures should be for the highest white in which you want or KNOW should contain detail. So the answer is essentially that you need to make you4r exposure for the highest white in which you want/require detail.

Now for the information you seek: When using flash, exposure is predominately controlled by the f-stop. If you are on the sync speed you will find that the ambient light will have little to no real impact on exposure. As you dial down your shutter speed you will discover that your 'correct' f-stop for the high lights will begin to need adjusting, as in increasing the f-stop so that the ambient light (all of it from reading lights to the modeling lights). So you stop the lens down by 1/3 stop increments and the high lights come back under control. This is all technical stuff and you will need to master such things.

Now what the ambient light can do for a creative image can indeed have a huge impact. On the basic level, if you can adjust the modeling lights of your flash and this is independent of the flash to modeling light controls you will find a vary powerful control in your hands. In the vary distant past this had a name, it was called 'pupil-metrics'. The term was coined by one of the greats Dr. Leslie Strobles Dean of the Rochester Institute of Photography (were talking the late 60's).

In essence research was conducted in which two portraits were rendered to common regular people and they were asked to choose the most appealing photograph. It was the same exact image with one set of eyes expertly retouched to open the center of the eyes by reducing the iris in size. This was the image chose in a 4 to 5 choice. A person with wider pupils was found more appealing.

What Dr. Strobles states is that one should use this technique to control the pupil dilation to more effectively communicate emotion to the viewer. A high degree of strong modeling lights will render ones sitter to have what is classically referred to as 'snake eyes'; conversely, one can generate what are called bed room eyes when large open space with reduced iris. If you want the subject to look like they are on drugs, turn off all the lights and with perhaps a 10 watt bulb back behind you and fire the flash, the pupils will be heavily dilate open.

A simple means to this end is to turn off any modeling lights and use a weak incandescent light back where the photographer is standing. It is the need to be mindful of the practices of portraiture and then to apply this with what ever technique that one finds appropriate to communicate the emotion in ones subject.

Hope that all helped.

Hi Tim!
Thanks for that explanation because I think you helped me with one of my issues I saw in a few of my most recent shoots. Normally in studio I would shoot with a sync speed of 160 and over power the ambient light in the room. So in essence any lighting in the image would be provided by my studio strobes. Recently I was shooting with a lower sync speed to include ambient and my images were overexposed. I guess even though I was metering my flash I wasn't taking into account the extra light coming from the ambient source which was sunlight coming from through the window. Am I right in this assumption? Maybe I should have metered the ambient and then set my flash power tot he same f stop that the ambient showed? Thanks for the time and help.

J O H N  A L L A N wrote:
@OP
It's not the most interesting lighting in the world - but I'm just not seeing the over-exposure you're talking about.
People are going on and on - but I'm not seeing it. You don't have any contrast to speak of, but you're not even close to over-exposure.

Yes - don't use auto white balance in studio with strobes.

The image inst over exposed at all

Saurabh Makkar wrote:
Also, by local brands I meant ones you would never have heard off as are manufactured and sold here only...

"Local brands" is very unlikely to be the main cause of blowing out highlights unless the lights put out inconsistent amounts of light from shot to shot.

1472 wrote:

The image inst over exposed at all

The image is over exposed in parts, not fully... see this post from yesterday with some more details....

https://www.modelmayhem.com/forums/post … st19320067

Toto Photo wrote:

"Local brands" is very unlikely to be the main cause of blowing out highlights unless the lights put out inconsistent amounts of light from shot to shot.

Yes, that's what my fear was and that's why highlighted that as a possibility!!