Baby Evan - before and after

[TimBehrens]

Hi folks,

I'm very new to this forum, and to having a digital SLR. I just recently bought a Canon T2i to take pictures of my son (and to have a creative outlet since all of my other hobbies have been put on hold). Anyways, I really liked this picture, but it was way over-exposed with all the light coming in through the window.



Here is what I did with it:

• In photoshop, blurred the background in an attempt to emulate all the wonderful portraits I've been seeing here, and focus attention more on my son.
• Added a curve adjustment layer and adjusted it til I could make out more detail in his face
• Added a black and white adjustment layer, worked on the contrast and then set it to 'Overlay'
• Added a vibrance layer to bring out a little more color in his skin

Canon EOS Rebel T2i, 1/160s f/3.5 ISO 3200

Again, I'm very new to all this, and it's mostly experimental at this point. Any suggestions or feedback is appreciated. Looking forward to participating in all the discussions here.
Best wishes,

Tim

[julieanne]

I don't really have any idea what I'm doing either, so I won't be much help on that topic. However, I'll throw my thoughts out there for whatever it's worth.

My first thought would be (if you're getting pics way overexposed with your settings) to lower your ISO. ISO determines light sensitivity, so in high light situations you need a lower ISO. For example, I got stuck in a situation the other day where everything was coming out blurry, even though my aperture and shutter speed should've been close for where I was shooting. The problem? I forgot to change my ISO, which was set on 100 because I was outside in direct sunlight. This did not work for being inside with limited light.

As far as the processing goes, I feel that the bottom one is a little dark, but I agree that the top is a bit too light. I'd probably shoot for somewhere in the middle. I like the blurring on the background a lot, and it helps focus on his face.

As I said, I'm a newbie too, so take my thoughts with a grain of salt. Good luck with your learning!

[ill_noize]

I would have to agree with Julieanne. I think the overexposed side in more on the right of the pic. You can use PS CR to decrease the exposure more to that side of the pic, and leave the other side as-is. This can ensure the details in your sons cute face aren't lost by the shadows. You can also adjust the fill light and shadows to increase the brightness back where adjusting the exposure settings may have made them too dark. Most of this stuff may have to be done in Camera Raw. Just my two cents =)

[TimBehrens]

Hey folks,

Thanks for the good feedback. I am going to try and revisit this photo and see if I can't incorporate some of your ideas. It think I need to look into getting my monitor calibrated, too. I can see on my computer at work that my end result is darker than I intended. Anyways, thanks for taking the time to reply.

Tim