Bright Sun; Bright snow...

[mkashmir]

My first post here...I've had my dSLR for about 2 weeks. I took this pic of my daughter in the snow today, and I was really confused if I should've done something to compensate for the bright sunshine, and the blinding white snow. I shot it in the "AV" mode on my Canon Rebel XSi. She also doesn't stay still! Thanks!!

http://farm5.static.flickr.com/4060/...cc6cbcd3_b.jpg

Camera: Canon EOS DIGITAL REBEL XSi
Shutter Speed: 1/3200Sec
Aperture: F5.6
ISO: 800
Focal Length: 55.0 mm
Flash : Off
White Balance: Auto

[zona5101]

I think you did fine. Direct sun is a dificult light source because it creates pretty hard shadows but you're are pretty tame. It doesn't appear you blew out any highlights on the subject. Nice capture. Background is a little busy but it's still a nice image.

[ttosifa]

Originally Posted by zona5101

I think you did fine. Direct sun is a dificult light source because it creates pretty hard shadows but you're are pretty tame. It doesn't appear you blew out any highlights on the subject. Nice capture. Background is a little busy but it's still a nice image.

I 100% agree with zona. One point of clarification: I don't think he means "pretty hard shadows" are indeed pretty. He probably means "fairly hard shadows."

The only thing I want to add is that you can think of all that blinding snow as one giant reflector. As in this picture, your shadows will be hard, but they are less dense than they would otherwise be because of all the fill light created by the snow. So the shadows tend to be less objectionable than they would otherwise be without the snow.

Also, you can take pictures with different subject placement relative to the sun. For example, you place the sun to one side and slightly behind the subject. This will give a nice rim-lighting look and, with snow in front of the subject, the face will get a fair amount of light. The light will be flat, but that looks good on some people, such as young girls. I don't know what adjustments you'll need for auto exposure since I shoot manual, but this can get tricky because the camera would more likely expose for the background rather than the face.

[mkashmir]

Thank you both for this constructive feedback. Even with no snow, I definitely need to practice with where the light falls relative to the subject.

And, is there any way to get my backgrounds even more "blurred" (to try to filter out busy backgrounds), or do I need a lens that allows for a smaller "f" number? I'm using the "kit" Lens EF-S18-55mm f/3.5-5.6 IS.

[kirbinster]

Well you could have moved closer to allow you to shoot at f/3.5 rather than f/5.6 but other than that you need a better (faster) lens. I am wondering why you shot so fast and at ISO800? Why not get your ISO down to ISO200 or lower and shoot at a slightly slower speed. Also it looks like you have some chromatic aborations going on at the right side of the brown on the hat where it merges with the pink.

All in all a very nice picture.