Emma Grace.......

[caporip]

A900 + 70-400ssm @ 280mm f5.6 1/125

[David Kilpatrick]

Very effective use of contrast but I feel you have cropped just a bit too tightly - especially the lower lip is very close to the picture bottom, and the hairline to the top edge. It's OK for space at left and right, just a very tight crop top and bottom. You would find it difficult for example to make a print and put an overlay matte over it unless there's a bit more image available to print.

David

[Mike]

Cap,
I really like this picture although I'm not smart enough to know why. Great detail and composition I guess, could be the eyes. I'd be interested to see 100 present crop of the right eye so I could see your lighting set up. Which brings up the question: would it look even better if the umbrella/flash were PS'd out of the eyes?

Mike

[caporip]

David

I'm going to show my total ignorance here - what is an overlay matte?

Richard

[caporip]

Cap,
I really like this picture although I'm not smart enough to know why. Great detail and composition I guess, could be the eyes. I'd be interested to see 100 present crop of the right eye so I could see your lighting set up. Which brings up the question: would it look even better if the umbrella/flash were PS'd out of the eyes?

Mike

Mike

Crop:-

Lighting was a single, on camera, HV58 sideways

[David Kilpatrick]

David

I'm going to show my total ignorance here - what is an overlay matte?

Richard

When you put a printed photo under a sheet of board with an aperture (usually bevelled edges) in it, and a mount board underneath. The top sheet is called the matte, when it's in an album and just a thin card, it is usually called an overlay. 'Matted prints' refers to mounted prints sandwiched this way. The print extends for 1cm or so under the overlay normally, and is traditionally fixed using small invisible corners so no glue or acids can damage it - or mounting tissue distort the surface. It's the standard method for mounting prints for framing.

David

[caporip]

Ah I know exactly what you mean now - didnt realise that was what it was called...........