Did I pull it off?

[TexasShutterBug]

Ok so I was taking a picture for my husbands business. I dont have kind of lights or anything, poor folk here. Well, I at least got something useable right?

I blurred the background and cloned out the shadow on his face.
any comments for me?


Before


After



Except now when i look at the after the shadow or something around him is kinda annoying

[chrismar]

Yea, there's this nasty halo around him. Can you do anything with natural light? The flash left some pretty harsh shadows.

[Japaslavian]

Originally Posted by TexasShutterBug

Except now when i look at the after the shadow or something around him is kinda annoying

That's coming from the blur you applied to it. Even if you were to mask off your husband, the blur would still bleed in a little and look kind of strange.

Though it will be very tedious and annoying, you might just try cloning everything instead of using blur.

[beatles2]

Myself i would just clone out the box to his right and the shadow under his ears. and maybe just continue the line to his right.

[TexasShutterBug]

Originally Posted by chrismar

Yea, there's this nasty halo around him. Can you do anything with natural light? The flash left some pretty harsh shadows.

I didnt use a flash.

The piano is no where near natural light.



I tried cloning but Im not skilled like that, it just was looking really bad. lol. really bad.

[private]

What is the business that he is in? Does it have something to do with the piano? If so, at first glance, I cannot tell that he is sitting at the piano. I do see the strings inside - does he tune the piano. B4 I had my son, I was the Director of Sales and Marketing for a software company. Not knowing what the business is I am not sure that the picture tells me what he does.

And since you did not use a flash, where is that light coming from? There may be a way to diffuse it some how.

[Tajemi]

Hey

Can I ask what the Exif was? Is there anyway of doing this again and letting in some natural light and slowing the shutter speed to avoid the shadowing? Also the flash has left a bit of a glare on the piano...

TBH I don't think either of them are good enough to use for advertising sorry

[prrs4me]

According to the EXIF your flash DID fire. I would try again with natural light. I agree that they don't look natural and would not be good for advertising.

[TexasShutterBug]

thanks guys. i am not a professional photographer at all, still in the beginning stages here.
he told me he needs it taken vertical instead of horizontal so i have to retake it anyways

[Cemil97]

It looks like there is a staircase behind him? If so, instead of taking the picture head on, why not try to take the photo again from a few steps up the staircase and have him look at you over his left shoulder with e.g. one hand on the tuning wrench and the other on the piano keys. That way you might be able to illustrate more clearly what he's doing by showing more of the piano and you could get a more interesting angle to the photo. Just a suggestion :-)