background

[angeleyes216]

any comments on the background of the photo. Im not sure if i should have done something different. But i wanted a close up of her face and i took this as she was climbing the ladder to get out of the pool

[ELAY]

Hi Lori --

Lovely summery shot. I think a background like the one you have chosen can be quite nice -- apart from the nice effect of the backlit leaves, they diffuse sunlight well and help cut down on the shadows which you can otherwise get shooting in the summer sun.

One thought i had is that you might want to experiment next time with different f/stops to see the effect on depth of field (you probably know this, but lower f/stop equals bigger aperture equals smaller plane of focus equals more stuff in your shot out of focus or blurred). Your background would likely look good both either way.

Two thoughts on the rest of the shot. Your subject's face has a distinct blue cast, created no doubt by the reflected light from the swimming pool. You may want to play around in post-processing to see if you can introduce some yellow and red (using white balance adjustment, and setting it warmer might help). Second, because this scene is effectively backlit by the light filtered through the canopy, your subject's face is a bit dark. To deal with this you can: 1) make your camera meter off your subject's face; 2) use exposure compensation to get a brighter shot; or 3) use a little fill flash (this may be best because methods 1 and 2 may get you some blown highlights).

One last thing -- we could all enjoy this picture more if you attached it in a bigger size.

EL

[jiminyClickit]

angeleyes216,

The background has good coloring and could easily be blurred and perhaps lightened to contrast with subject. The post on left does throw off photo composition, like it was an uncropped scan.

[angeleyes216]

i try to post photo but it always says its too big. Not sure how to post in correct size but i appreciate your comments and i will try to edit a bit more

[angeleyes216]

Originally Posted by ELAY

Hi Lori --

Lovely summery shot. I think a background like the one you have chosen can be quite nice -- apart from the nice effect of the backlit leaves, they diffuse sunlight well and help cut down on the shadows which you can otherwise get shooting in the summer sun.

One thought i had is that you might want to experiment next time with different f/stops to see the effect on depth of field (you probably know this, but lower f/stop equals bigger aperture equals smaller plane of focus equals more stuff in your shot out of focus or blurred). Your background would likely look good both either way.

Two thoughts on the rest of the shot. Your subject's face has a distinct blue cast, created no doubt by the reflected light from the swimming pool. You may want to play around in post-processing to see if you can introduce some yellow and red (using white balance adjustment, and setting it warmer might help). Second, because this scene is effectively backlit by the light filtered through the canopy, your subject's face is a bit dark. To deal with this you can: 1) make your camera meter off your subject's face; 2) use exposure compensation to get a brighter shot; or 3) use a little fill flash (this may be best because methods 1 and 2 may get you some blown highlights).

One last thing -- we could all enjoy this picture more if you attached it in a bigger size.

EL

[angeleyes216]

thankyou for your help, finally learnt how to use flickr

[jiminyClickit]

angeleyes216,

Yea, flickr! Great background. Really one good portrait.

[ELAY]

I'm so glad you posted a bigger version.

The shot looks gorgeous now that I can see it better -- you captured a great expression on your subject's face, the waterdrops are a nice touch not evident on the small pic, and it looks to me now like you got the background just about perfect.

From the smaller version, it looked like the background was just slightly blurred, but based on the larger version I would say you got very nice bokeh (the out of focus light coming through the foliage). It almost forms a circular pattern around her head which is very pleasing and really complements your choice of perspective.

It is hard to tell comparing the small to the large versions -- but either the lighting and colour were different on the initial capture than was apparent to me on the smaller image, or you did a very nice job in post-processing lightening and colour correcting your model's face.

I shoot tons of pictures of kids, and i would be delighted to have got this shot.

EL

[angeleyes216]

It helps when your subject is such a cutie but thankyou for your encouraging words.

[ELAY]

Lori,

I was curious about your shooting parameters. I had a look at your flickr site but I think you have the show EXIF info disabled.

Do you remember if you shot this with the kit 17-55? Do you recall at what aperture? I'm only curious because your background turned out so nicely, and I generally don't get such good bokeh from my kit lens (I switch to another lens when I want my backgrounds out of focus).

Cheers,

EL