Camera:  NIKON D300
Exposure:  1/125sec at f/5.6 ISO 200
Exposure Mode:  Shutter Priority
Lens:  AF-S DX VR 18-200mm Nikkor f/3.5-5.6G IF-ED
Software:  Nikon Capture NX-D
Software:  Photoshop CC 2015

My Nikon D300 remains my go-to camera for informal shoots like this one.  The 18-200 lens means that I don't have give any thought to carrying extra gear, and the resolution of the image is just fine for web display.

This was shot at Upham Beach.  The expected fabulous sunset never happened, so the light remained quite soft, which happens to work well with this high-key style of image.

The image was converted to TIFF using Nikon's Capture NX-D.  After all is said and done, I still feel that for Nikon RAW images, the colour, sharpness and contrast are better using the Nikon converter.

The captured image contained a number of minor distracting elements.  Post-Processing was aimed at simplifying the image, and forming it into the style of image that I like.

Here are the Photoshop layers, in the order I would have created them:

* Image layer:  Clean-up manually with the clone and healing brushes.  A more major job was the removal of a visible bra strap.
* Curves Adjustment Layer:  Everything masked out except the face.  Adjusted to throw a little more light into her face.
* Curves Adjustment Layer:  Everything masked except the skin, and adjusted to give a slightly warmer hue to the skin.
* Curves Adjustment Layer:  Set to Screen Blend mode and masked to bring out the highlights in the hair.
* Curves Adjustment Layer:  Set to Colour Dodge Blend, to emphasize the high-key quality of the image.  The figure was masked to prevent it from being affected.

Posted April 19, 2016 at 7:28 pm.