portrait of girl w/ doll

[ipsoliver]

this is one of my 40 days of Black&White, No post processing project...it is shot in Monochrome (SOOC). what do you think of the composition? how about the exposure? to me it seems i over exposed the highlights...how should you do it?

btw, this is all natural light & a 18-55mm kit lens. should i upgrade?



Camera: Canon EOS 450D
Exposure: 0.013 sec (1/80)
Aperture: f/7.1
Focal Length: 29 mm
ISO Speed: 800
Exposure Mode: Manual
White Balance: Auto
Contrast: +2
Metering Mode: Evaluative
AFMode: Single-point AF

[cphoniball]

"Should I upgrade?"

Don't ask that! You'll never stop once you start :P

Anyways, for the picture, you did a very good job exposing this. Scenes like this are difficult because there's so much variation between shadow and highlight. You look like you retained most of the highlights, although there is a little bit of a patch on the doll where it looks like you lost detail. Good job overall though - maybe a smidge (1/3/-2/3) less exposure would have brought that in.

I like the composition and the use of light, especially the way you've highlighted the subject and made her brighter than the rest of the frame. I would have perhaps burned the grass on the left down a bit, as it's a little distracting that bright.

Good job, keep it up!

[LeeR]

In my book, you get no extra points because this image is straight out of the camera (SOOC). This image needs post processing and you should make use of it. Photoshop has some wonderful tools for converting b&w images and I reccomend you use the full array. We could be having a much different conversation here.
As for the composition, I love the light on this girls face, but I see no good reason to put her so far down into the lower right corner. If this is to be a portrait, then this is indeed a very odd place to put her. Are you trying to juxtapose the girl against the grass? What are you telling us? What were you hoping to say with this placement? I'm afraid it comes across rather unbalanced and I'm not sure any amount of post processing will save a tilted composition.

[jango]

great shot