Controlling Highlights

[mountaindad3]

Hi,

This is my first post to the forum! - My photography is mainly constrained to my family and this is a picture of my daughter Tess.



I have started to experiment with B&W photography and seem to be (well in my world anyway!!) struggling to control highlights - I think the highlights on my daughters hand are too overpowering, but lowering exposure darkens the picture too much.

Settings for the picture where:

f10
1/800
ISO 1600
shot on a Canon 400D

Which were set to try and freeze the bubble.

Do others agree about the highlight? Any suggestions on what I could change would be gratefully accepted>

[Benji]

The main light source is coming from overhead which in portraiture is the second worse direction for light to come from. Overhead lights tend to overexpose anything horizontal, which in this case incudes her hand. It could be darkened by burning it down in Photoshop.

At first I was not sure what she was doing because I didn't read the entire posting, only the text above the exif data. From the direction you shot it, it is unlikely anyone would know what is going on unless they read the entire posting. Now had you been on the opposite side we would have been able to see the little bubble making stick and the bubble and it would have made perefct sense.

Benji

[mountaindad3]

Thanks Benji.

This was actually taken on a sunny winters day in the UK so controlling the overhead light source would have been difficult - maybe a flash could have balanced it?

An excellent observation about changing my position, to the other side of my daughter - I really should have taken time to think about this and will try this shot again.

Cheers.