Jeff Ascough Actions Complete Actions

but equally i have seen many good pictures where the whites are sacrificed on order to expose a beautiful face shot or expression. the good examples of this are usually, but not always seen in reportage style. i can think of one example that stand out - a beautiful jeff ascough shot of a bride having her veil sorted, the background is blown but her face is exposed perfectly (you can see it on his website).

Jeff Ascough Actions Complete Actions

Blown whites can be deliberate and I think there has been some trendiness towards them over the past 4-5 years. Personally I think the trend was given a huge push after Kevin Kubota came out with his very popular artistic actions about the same time. I don't believe the treatment was created by Kevin but I think he helped it become quite popular. The sample images below show the classic studio-style lighting at the portable backdrop at the reception site. The 2nd image shows the exact same image but it was given an artistic action designed to push the whites among other things.

Agreed, Mark ... I think that with today's advanced post processing software, actions and plug-ins, one need not make high-key decisions while shooting ... but instead shoot for the best balanced exposure possible, and make the more creative or trendy decisions later. 350c69d7ab