Soft light or strong light for model?

[Joan Breckwoldt]

Originally Posted by Alexandra Tyng

You are right, Joan, there is no correct answer. If the light moves you, go with it. Just be constantly on the lookout for a beautifully lit subject and then, if you can't take a photo right at that moment, try to replicate the light for your painting.

Hi Alexandra,

I apologize for taking so long to thank you for your post. You help reinforce the fact that I can pretty much try what I like. I'm a 'rules' person and I like having rules . . . but I realize once I learn the rules (not that I have) then they can be broken.

In the samples I posted at the beginning of this thread, the girl with glasses was shot with artificial light in the studio where I take lessons. I'm going to look next classperiod at what kind of lights are being used. The photo of my son was taken indoors with a combination of weak artificial light and some light coming in a window.

I am beginning to understand that the subtle/soft light transitions can be desirable. Now I just need to paint them convincingly. As I said before, they're my biggest challenge.

I spent some time with my camera's manual and came up with what I think is a good reference photo of my daughter. I only wish I had dragged along some kind of backdrop, oh well.

Here it is:

Joan

[Molly Williams]

I didn't read all of the post before I also adjusted your photo in Photoshop. Now, I see that somebody else has also done it. I hope it helps anyways.

I adjusted it using Levels and Selective Color. I also put two images on top of each other and erased the background out of one, so that I could adjust the colors/values on the background and face seperately.

I love this face. His smile is wonderful and the pose is very classical. The shadows fall all at the right places.

When you paint it I would be sure to keep adjusting your colors. Don't accept your scrap as the final color study. Bring mixtues of flake white and Cerulean Blue into the hightlights on the nose and bridge between eyes. Bring mixtures of Ivory Black and white into other parts of the face to cool down the temperature. Sap green is a great way to do the same thing. I would also deepen the value of the eye lashes and put some white with Ultramarine blue into the whites of the eyes.

Basically, if you can bring cools into the whites of the eyes and highlights on the face than it balances out a warm face.

Good luck. . . I would work from this scrap. I think it could be an amazing portrait!!

[Michele Rushworth]

Molly, thanks for showing us what modifications are possible in Photoshop, and for explaining what functions you used to do it. I use Photoshop every day but there are so many features I don't know at all. I had no idea an original photo with color that was this far off could ever be brought back to something so natural looking!