Layilah, Drink and Click Portrait – Austin, Texas
For my last in this Drink and Click mini-series, here’s Layilah, who I’ve featured before, when I shot her with the Olympus 45mm f1.2 Pro. I’m always amazed how, woman in particular, can remarkably change their looks with a new hairdo. Today’s photo, like yesterday, is also an out of camera JPEG from the Olympus PEN-F with my usual 25mm f1.4 lens.
The shadow area on the top right, and the almost band like horizontal lighting, from top left to bottom right, is by accident. There was an umbrella with a continuous light that inadvertently cast a shadow. However, there’s a certain balance that I like about this photo.
While not as mysterious and dramatic as yesterday’s portrait, I like the simple background that doesn’t compete with the subject.
Update
My friend Mike, with a keen eye, suggested in the comments that I process the RAW to recover some detail from Layilah’s face. He has a point and I wanted to give it a try. Here’s the photo above, converted in Capture One from the RAW file. A bit less contrast and subtle details recovered.
As a bonus, here’s the processed RAW in color. Highlights recovered in the face and added contrast using curves.
Notice also that the band of light through the middle is not as visible in the color version.
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I like the look to this one with that contrasty band of light. While I do like the look you get from the Olympus’ JPEGs, this is one case where I might be inclined to work with the raw file. The detail in her left cheek seems lost in the rendering by the camera’s processing, at least in the web sized image. Maybe it’s my aging monitor not able to render the tones. Great concept though and good eye to see this.
Great suggestion. I’ve added my RAW conversions in black and white and color to the updated post.
That looks like a nice improvement to me. There is deep contrast without any loss of detail and it would print well. Of course, I prefer the black and white version. 🙂 This is a good example of why it pays to capture a raw file. I try to do that too, at least in high dynamic range scenarios. If I don’t use it, I delete it but it is there if I need it.
Comparing the two black and white versions now, the original JPEG has an almost posterizing quality that maybe could be pushed further and used for an interesting alternative. Nice portrait either way.
Thanks, Mike. I like all three photos. All are different in subtle and not so subtle ways.