I took this portrait of a young woman in Venice, Italy. She worked at my hotel, and I asked if I could photograph her. She reluctantly agreed, saying she never liked pictures of herself. I accepted the challenge. I positioned her in front of a large window because window lighting is so easy to use and it’s very complimentary. Notice how the diffused front lighting left only subtle shadows on her face. The out of focus background is traditional Venetian wall decor in one of the rooms in the hotel. In post-processing, I used the plug-in 'Portrait Professional' to smooth her skin and eliminate blemishes. Finally, I applied the Topaz ‘Glow’ filter and lowered the effect’s opacity until it was very subtle. My settings were 1/60, f/4, and 1250 ISO. When I sent this picture to her, I was gratified to know that she liked it.
0 Comments