Irene: Intonation

As a young violinist, Mrs. Chen would emphasize the importance of intonation in our classes.

I sucked at violin even though I've got pretty good pitch.

What's that got to do with this picture you ask? This picture screams of incredible tonal range and thus "intonation" :)

This is what I'd expect from a medium/large format camera. Excellent fidelity across a large dynamic range. Or maybe I don't know what I'm talking about. :) To be honest with you, I'm still trying to backsolve and figure out why this picture looks the way it does. As I'm looking at the original, the only thing that gives it away is the great contrast in Irene's hair and face where there are tons of highlights and shadows within close proximity.

The rest is post-processing.

But that's where I started. I looked at those golden locks and knew that this would come alive in black and white. Of course, adequate dodging and burning along with levels, etc. all aided in bringing out the proper contrast.

To tell you the truth, sometimes things work out better than I'd expect and I don't really know why. I suppose some growth is occurring that is beyond my current grasp or cognitive capacity. I mean, is it my best picture of all time? No. But there's something slightly different about it. Is it the uber blown-out background? Is it the blond hair? The darker B&W processing? The selective levels treatment? Or maybe exposing in the upper registers of the histogram? Or some combination of everything? I don't know really. I can't explain it and it bugs me that I can't articulate to you exactly why it's "better".

By the way, there isn't anything "wrong" with the 70-200mm f/2.8G VRI, I just have to learn to shoot at such shallow DoF such as f/4.5 even on the 24-70mm f/2.8G (this is in reference to the last post/picture).

Camera: D3/24-70mm f/2.8G @60mm, 1/200th, f/10, ISO200

Strobist: Single AB800 in 22" beauty dish with 40 degree gridspot from above the camera.

Model/wardrobe: Irene Yay

Makeup: Kelli Zehnder

Hair: Michelle Green