I'm Going to Get You!!!

[mappleby]

Hi everyone, This is a photo of my son that I took on a nice, very sunny day. I love the lines and my sons expression. However his face ended up "washed out". Any suggestions as to how I could have prevented that or any other critiques?

[Scik]

Its overexposed. You will want to use a faster f-stop or shutter speed. Your camera should have a setting you can use when you preview the image to check for blowouts, I know the D200 does.

Unfortunately there is little you can do to recover a photo that is overexposed, but in this case it isn't bad. It makes it a very cute photo on bright day!

[wijew]

I'm no PS expert but I'd try a curves adjustment. if i could shoot it again I'd use a faster shutter speed.

[ELAY]

Like the other posters have said, I think what you are describing as washed out is blown highlights, or areas of overexposure. These are a hazard of shooting in bright sun, especially when you have a light surface (like fair skin and blonde hair).

But I don't think you should be unhappy with this photo. You have captured a nice expression on your son's face, and you're right, the strong lines and perspective make it a very nice composition.

It is shot in the bright sun though, which means it will be very hard to avoid either highlights or deep shadow. You pretty much have to decide either to accept that shooting in bright sun is likely going to lead to "technical" flaws, or shoot only in shade or at the golden hours (around dawn and dusk).

If you're like me and part of the reason you take photographs is to record what is happening in your lives, then I think you just live with the likelihood of some blown highlights in the sun. If I am deliberately composing and planning a shot, then yes I will try to carefully pick my lighting. But if I am shooting the trip to the zoo, and the elephant viewing platform is in the sun, and it is 1:00pm with horrible harsh light, what can I do?

Now as for trying to cope with sun, I am pretty sure that, as has already been said, your D80 has a feature whereby you can set it to make highlights blink at you on playback. Recognizing and looking for blown highlights is the first step. The next is to consider whether you can fix them.

On this shot, i don't see how you could have avoided some highlights on the hair and forehead/hairline. The one highlight I think you could have maybe tried to nix is the one on his cheek under his left eye -- the hair and forehead highlights just tell me it is a beautiful sunny day -- the cheek highlight detracts a bit from the photo though.

The fix? Turning him slightly might have kept his cheek out of the sun.

If not, I am not sure adjusting shutter speed alone will help if you are on an automatic mode, because the camera will just compensate by opening up your aperture. What you need to do is to force the camera to let less light in, and I can think of three ways: use exposure compensation, probably about 1.5 stops or so for this shot; go to manual mode and dial in settings that will get you what your camera will tell is a slight underexposure; or, set your exposure by pointing your camera at the sky (not the sun), and then lock it and shoot (you will have an AE lock button somewhere on your camera).

Warning though -- because of the strong light coming in from high left, each of these will likely leave the other side of your son's face quite dark (which may end up being less pleasing than the current shot). You may have to be prepared to consider some fill flash to brighten him up (and of course by this time your son may be 20 yards beyond you...).

EL

[mappleby]

Elay... I really appreciate the time that you took to put into your response. I know that you are really involved here on the forum and I just wanted to say thank you. Because its people like you, Saralonde, JC, Wulf, Clockdoc, Sime, xxpinballxx, Nicole, Darren, and many others...that makes this forum a great place for new photographers, like myself, to come and learn. I know that we all say thank you but I must say that it is amazing to me the amount of time, energy and dedication that you all put into this forum... So again...

Thank you

I look forward to more of everyone's valuable incites...
Malcolm

[thistledo]

Originally Posted by mappleby

Elay... I really appreciate the time that you took to put into your response. I know that you are really involved here on the forum and I just wanted to say thank you. Because its people like you, Saralonde, JC, Wulf, Clockdoc, Sime, xxpinballxx, Nicole, Darren, and many others...that makes this forum a great place for new photographers, like myself, to come and learn. I know that we all say thank you but I must say that it is amazing to me the amount of time, energy and dedication that you all put into this forum... So again...

Thank you

I look forward to more of everyone's valuable incites...
Malcolm

here, here!

[ELAY]

Quoting myself:

On this shot, i don't see how you could have avoided some highlights on the hair and forehead/hairline. The one highlight I think you could have maybe tried to nix is the one on his cheek under his left eye -- the hair and forehead highlights just tell me it is a beautiful sunny day -- the cheek highlight detracts a bit from the photo though.

Think I meant his right eye...

As for the rest, what comes around goes around. Lots of people here (like the people you mentioned and others) have given generously of their time to help me out. I also find analyzing other people's shots really helps me think about my own.

Cheers,


EL

[jiminyClickit]

mappleby,

If not for your photo, I might not have thought of a technique that is working on other things as well, that have been almost lost to overexposure. It works best on symmetrical frontal face shots:



On a separate layer on top of copy of original, select the face, reverse it (mirror), and use opacity quantities to find a good balance of fill-in for overexposed side. It may take some experimenting in your edit program, basically you're using matching colors and shapes as a mask.

[ELAY]

Wow.

Once again JC comes to the rescue.

EL