NY Nick get's Hitched

Hi Cindy.  I really like the entire set.  Your work is always inspriational and beautiful.  It is very contemporary.  As for the plastic skin look, if I were to venture a guess it would be due to several things that it appears you do in most of the images I have ever seen from you.  The whites of the eyes have usually been whitened to the point that there is no more shadow side to them, making them flatten out (no definition of shape) and therefore look doll-like.  Your client's teeth are whiter than most I've seen.  And they always have perfectly soft and flawless skin.  Honestly, in this series of images, I only really noticed it on the more formal image of just the two of them (#11).  The rest don't look worked on so much.  I personally am not bothered by the look of your subjects.  I don't, and probably won't start doing it in my own images, but that doesn't make it wrong.  You have a distinct syle, which is why your clients hire you.  You have mentioned that point on here before.  Honestly (and I will probable start a debate here), I think you should keep doing just what you are doing.  Some people's businesses succeed because they follow all the rules.  Some succeed because they break them all.  Some from pure luck. Etc, etc, etc.  If you are doing your art the way you want, and your clients love it, then why change?  I am not trying to say not to continue learning, but all of us are going to lean toward a certain look and style; if we weren't different, we'd all be the same.

Anyway, that's my two cents.

Travis

Cindy,

I think that the "noise reduction" being referred to is not what others think it is.  I expect that it is really just the retouching that you are doing.  Do you use a set of PS actions, like Kevin Kubota's?  My guess is that these are what Mike and others are talking about when they refer to "plastic looking" skin.  Do you over do it?  I don't think so, but the only answer that matters is between your clients and yourself. 

Ed

I only noticed one image in this series that was "overdone" in my opinion.  However, I agree with Travis, do what works for you and what makes your clients happy.  If they want to look like models (and who doesn't) they will hire you, not a bad position for you to be in.

Some people are "purists" and others are "airbrushers".  I was at a wedding expo this fall and I was next to a very prominent wedding photographer in the area.  He had the worst attitude.  We were talking about liquify and smoothing skin and whitening teeth and he said "It's not my fault if they are fat, don't wear makeup and don't brush their teeth, I am not spending my time in Photoshop fixing their problems".  I was appalled by his attitude!  I always thought my job was to make someone look their best.  My goal is to make them not realize it was post processing, I want them to think I just work magic with a camera. 

Just read your reply up there.

In each action, you can tweak a process, open the action, you can have photoshop stop at each point or just let it do it's thing.

I create actions, especially B/Ws, each action is different, reason being is, the condition, lighting, environment of where it was taken.
I made an action for a wedding photo of my friend who shot the wedding. He was having a hard time with it, I came in and said, here, let me have a look, I made the action, sent it to him with a before and after of the pic.
He sat down with the action and tried his own version, he told me, I cannot come up with my own, your's is strong.

I told him, I have different technique for landscape, slight, but, enough to make a difference between people and outdoors.

Bottom line is, you have to go into the action and have a look at where it can be tweaked.

Mike

Most times I refrain from making comments, just me, I feel as if I'm being too harsh, but, it's not like that.

Glad we are on the same wave length. Thanks. :=)

Hi,
This is going to sound crazy, but I shoot with my flash backwards.  I don't bounce it....just straigt backwards.  That way it just "leaks" light.  That, and I get close.  I always use a 35mm 1.4 for reception stuff, and it's an insanely fast lens.
Nutty I know, but that's how I get that kind of light.
Thank you for your wondeful comments.