Lighting suggestions for this photo please

[BorisMD]

Hi all,

I was taking photos for the family Christmas card and chose this one for the card.

It was taken outside, in natural light, under overcast skies and with snow falling.

I would like any suggestions you may have to improve the lighting (for future reference) or post processing suggestions -- I am a total novice in photoshop.

Taken in Av mode, f/2.8, 1/1250 ISO 400.

Thanks,

Boris

 

[handicap18]

Great shot first off.

Even with the f/2.8 its still pretty sharp in both faces and the dog's too.

Looking at the EXIF, you probably didn't need that fast of a shutter speed. Tough to say for sure on what to change that would make a difference. The kids are well exposed, but the background is blown out. Maybe pay a little more attention to the background. Looks like the trees on the left side of the image, maybe putting those trees between the 2 kids would help with the blown out part of the image.

Other than that, without actually being there to see what else is around that area I'm not sure what I would have done differently.

Maybe others can get some idea's as well.

Again, great shot!

 

[MICKEY88]

first I would drop the iso to 100, it's always best to shoot at 100 if possible, less chance of noise..

if you want to eliminate the blown background, you could actually use a minus exposure comp, to slighly underexpose the image, and use flash to light your main subject.

another possibility is to stop down the lens one or 2 stops, you'd still have a blurred background, but it would be a little more defined, that of course is a matter of personal preference

 

[Chikabowa]

First off... GREAT natural capture of the kiddos. It's really really cute in terms of posing, composition, and cutness. But you asked how to do this better using light...

It's easy on cloudy days to get lulled into shooting anywhere because there isn't harsh shadowing. But what you have here, is not harsh shadowing, but shadowing none the less. The light is actually coming camera left (you can see where it hits the male subject on his right cheek and along the right arm). Simply turning the kids to face the light would put a lot more light on their faces and into their eyes; giving a much more lively appearance.

Make that change and you have an OUTSTANDING portrait of those kids.

 

[BorisMD]

Handicap18, thanks for your comments. I agree, I could have moved myself and put those trees in the middle. I think there is enough blur that it would not have looked like anything growing out of their heads.

Mickey88, you are correct. I underestimated how bright it was out there. ISO of 100 would have been fine.

I had thought I set my camera to bracket the exposure, but forgot to press the "set" button, and therefore shot in the non-bracketed mode.

The house is to the right of my daughter, and as such, she is a little darker. Someone suggested a reflector. I am unhappy with using my popup flash as a fill flash (or any use, for that matter), it washes things out too much for my taste and creates a "artificial" look I don't care for. I don't yet own an external flash.

I wanted to warm up the faces, but keep the coolness of the winter backdrop. My Apple photo software doesn't let me do that with the temperature adjustment.

Thanks again,

Boris

 

[BorisMD]

Thanks Susan,

I hadn't really thought about turning them. It's difficult to keep everyone happy in the low temps we had. Also, this was the second time out, no one was happy with the first batch. And getting the puppy to pay attention to me and not lick snow flakes off my son's jeans was a task.

Having said that, I appreciate the input. I am enough of a novice at portraits that I have a tough time remembering all the variables I can control.

Regards,

Boris

 

[MICKEY88]

Handicap18, thanks for your comments. I agree, I could have moved myself and put those trees in the middle. I think there is enough blur that it would not have looked like anything growing out of their heads.

Mickey88, you are correct. I underestimated how bright it was out there. ISO of 100 would have been fine.

I had thought I set my camera to bracket the exposure, but forgot to press the "set" button, and therefore shot in the non-bracketed mode.

The house is to the right of my daughter, and as such, she is a little darker. Someone suggested a reflector. I am unhappy with using my popup flash as a fill flash (or any use, for that matter), it washes things out too much for my taste and creates a "artificial" look I don't care for. I don't yet own an external flash.

I wanted to warm up the faces, but keep the coolness of the winter backdrop. My Apple photo software doesn't let me do that with the temperature adjustment.

Thanks again,

Boris

does your camera have a setting that you can set flash exposure..setting it to fill helps, or if you can set the flash to a minus 1 or 2, that will help avoid washing things out..

 

[pointandshoot]

Even with some changes in exposure and position, your lighting may end up being a bit cool. This can be addressed in post processing. A simple way is to create an adjustment layer and apply a Photo Filter that warms.

I would create a Curves adjustment layer and pick a neutral point on the subject like the forehead of your daughter. Then reduce the blue channel a bit and increase the red and green channel. This would warm the picture with a bit more control.

I did a quick edit. This image has:

1) Curves adjustment layer to warm color
2) Curves adjustment layer to whiten eyes and teeth using a mask
3) Curves adjustment layer to brighten faces using a mask. Used a soft brush at 50% opacity
4) Hue adjustment layer to saturate the reds with a mask
5) Curves adjustment layer to add a bit of contrast

These are small changes. I really like the image. Not harsh shadows and a simple background makes it easy to work with. I think your image is perfect and with a little post processing, you can polish it.

 

[singjenn]

Hi all,

I was taking photos for the family Christmas card and chose this one for the card.

It was taken outside, in natural light, under overcast skies and with snow falling.

I would like any suggestions you may have to improve the lighting (for future reference) or post processing suggestions -- I am a total novice in photoshop.

Taken in Av mode, f/2.8, 1/1250 ISO 400.

Thanks,

Boris

Here is my try.
I used curves and a couple Kubota actions. I think it's a great shot and your children are beautiful!

[/IMG]

 

[Steve's Girl]

does your camera have a setting that you can set flash exposure..setting it to fill helps, or if you can set the flash to a minus 1 or 2, that will halp avoid washing things out..

I've recently started doing this and have been pretty happy with the results. I have been using my pop-up flash at -2 exp comp for a little fill for outdoors photos and it is just enough to give the eyes a small catch light and fill in some of the under eye shadows, but it is not a harsh, artificial light.

I love the photo BorisMD, I think it is perfect for a Christmas card.

 

[SueInBoston]

no advice, just want to tell you - great composition!!

I should've had the kids outside yesterday for our holiday photo, there was light snow here too.

 

[SharonLowe]

I really like what pointandshoot did. To tone down the blown out background, you could do a vignette around the kids. Make a duplicate layer, select an oval shaped area around the kids, put a large feather on it, change your selection to the outside of the image and then do a curves or levels adjustment to darken it to you liking.

 

[MICKEY88]

my quick edits

 

[manning]

I did this fast using Photoshop Element 6

Use the selection brush tool (hand not steady enough to use magic lasso) and select the background.

then enhance
select adjust lighting and shadow/highlight
set values from top to bottom at 25,100,100
click ok

Go back to enhance and select lighting and shadow/higlight again but don't reset any values. just click ok.

PS I hope that is right. I typed this from memory.

If you notice the bottom right hand corner it is lighter. I goofed there that is the original background

 

[BorisMD]

Thanks again folks.

Manning, I really like that rendition.

PS elements 6 is what I have, but I haven't yet learned how to use it. When you start talking curves, layers, masks, oh my! My head starts to spin. I haven't yet come to grips with this software. I will, however, work at it.

One PS question--is this a non-destructive program? Or, do I make a copy and work on that?

I'm using a Canon Rebel XT, and will have to look at the manual to see if I can manually control the pop up flash for fill-in work.

Thanks all for your help and kind words,

Boris

 

[dpic]

One PS question--is this a non-destructive program? Or, do I make a copy and work on that?


Boris

Make a copy---always make a copy.

 

[manning]

Thanks again folks.

Manning, I really like that rendition.

PS elements 6 is what I have, but I haven't yet learned how to use it. When you start talking curves, layers, masks, oh my! My head starts to spin. I haven't yet come to grips with this software. I will, however, work at it.

One PS question--is this a non-destructive program? Or, do I make a copy and work on that?

I'm using a Canon Rebel XT, and will have to look at the manual to see if I can manually control the pop up flash for fill-in work.

Thanks all for your help and kind words,

Boris

It's not destructive until you do a save. What you want to do is a "save as" and give it a different name. Then you will have two pictures, the original and the corrected copy

 

[manning]

You may want to get "Photoshop Element 6 the missing manual" by Barbara Brundage. You can find it in the major bookstores on on amazon.

 

[BorisMD]

You may want to get "Photoshop Element 6 the missing manual" by Barbara Brundage. You can find it in the major bookstores on on amazon.

Thanks for the suggestion--Ironically I already have it; Just haven't gotten real deep into it yet.

On the other hand, I used you directions, coupled with the built in help, and was able to achieve a rendition similar to what you did.

Thanks a ton,

Boris

 

[Experiment_626]

Here's my swing at it. I did everything in Adobe Camera Raw; total time was about two minutes.

I rode the "Recovery" slider pretty hard to bring the background back from the brink. I also warmed the overall tone a bit, just for personal taste.

SSB