Potrait cum landscape cum PP

[architkataria]

Here's a picture of my mom who let me continue taking her pictures while she was enjoying a lovely view. I liked this shot




EXIF:

Camera: Canon EOS D-450
Aperture priority
Exposure: 1/3200
Aperture: f/4
Focal Length: 70 mm
ISO Speed: 100
Exposure Bias: -0.3 EV


I would please request you to let me know what you think about the composition, angle.. or anything that could have made it a better picture. Also, while I am absolutely new to post processing, I did try hard to make it what I think is better than the original one. Here's the link to the original picture: http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2732/...42f1bafe_b.jpg

Looking forward to your comments. Thanks.

[gturner]

She is under exposed, so whilst you "get" the image, it could be a whole lot better

A simple way to get this right would be to fire you flash to blow out the shadows. Stop the camera down to F11 or F16 and fire the on camera flash if you don't have

That will also soften the sky and create much more depth in the image, allowing us to see the landscape.

[x_eternity_x]

In a portrait, the focus should be on the person. In general, your eye naturally goes to the brightest part of the image first--in this photo the focus is on the rock she is leaning on. From what I can tell, your intention was to make a photo of her and the scenery--neither of which are really the focus here. As has been said, you could fire a flash and try to balance it out. In this case, the onboard flash isn't actually going to be up to the task--this picture was taken near midday with the full light of the sun reflecting off that light-colored rock into your sensor. While the rock is an interesting piece in the photo, it is also the problem. If you had a powerful off-camera flash, you could certainly make it work in terms of putting the focus back on her, but if you want the scenery, you might want to also minimize that rock a little more. One thing you could have done is potentially used that rock as a reflector. If you had her up above it a little and kept it mostly out of the shot, it would have helped balance the lighting on her face a little with the lighting on her hair, while allowing you to work in the landscape a little more.

[architkataria]

Thank you for the valuable feedback.

Originally Posted by gturner

She is under exposed, so whilst you "get" the image, it could be a whole lot better

A simple way to get this right would be to fire you flash to blow out the shadows. Stop the camera down to F11 or F16 and fire the on camera flash if you don't have

That will also soften the sky and create much more depth in the image, allowing us to see the landscape.

Originally Posted by x_eternity_x

In a portrait, the focus should be on the person. In general, your eye naturally goes to the brightest part of the image first--in this photo the focus is on the rock she is leaning on. From what I can tell, your intention was to make a photo of her and the scenery--neither of which are really the focus here. As has been said, you could fire a flash and try to balance it out. In this case, the onboard flash isn't actually going to be up to the task--this picture was taken near midday with the full light of the sun reflecting off that light-colored rock into your sensor. While the rock is an interesting piece in the photo, it is also the problem. If you had a powerful off-camera flash, you could certainly make it work in terms of putting the focus back on her, but if you want the scenery, you might want to also minimize that rock a little more. One thing you could have done is potentially used that rock as a reflector. If you had her up above it a little and kept it mostly out of the shot, it would have helped balance the lighting on her face a little with the lighting on her hair, while allowing you to work in the landscape a little more.

I quite agree (now) that the focus should have been exactly on her (eyes). Reducing aperture would have given made the landscape more clear. She was probably not aware I was taking the picture (and that's how I wanted - a candid one) so don't think could have had her any above the rock. Exposure could have been better with maybe using stop metering, centered on her. Will keep these point in mind the next time - hope I get a chance soon! Thanks again for your comments.