Mirror

[tish_lily]

How do you like this picture as a portrait shot? What could I do to make this picture better?



Camera: Sony a230
Shutter Speed: 1/60
Aperture: f/5
Focal Length: 35mm
ISO: 800

[kleidascope]

I really like the concept - alot!!
Is he crying? There appears to be some 'dust/distraction' on the left eye on the mirror
Do you have editing software to lighten it just tad and maybe minimize the shadow of his head? I don't think there was much more you could do with your camera settings to keep the camera hand held and not too much noise, unless you could have bumped the aperture down more (not sure what the aperture limit is on your lens). Flash would have probably disrupted the mirror image. Others may have a suggestion to offer on the camera setting. Again I love the concept, the mirror deal is a tough one to get that's for sure. Maybe just better lighting at the time, but sometimes opportunity presents itself and we have to take the picture under the conditions as is.

[tish_lily]

Thanks! No, she isn't crying...It's actually her spit. She was goobering on the mirror for a while before I got this shot. I haven't tried to edit the image in anyway other than changing it to black and white. Thanks for the editing tips...I'm still figuring my way around the camera so I haven't really gotten into editing yet but I'm excited to try some things out!

Thanks for the input

[Indigo November]

In black and white the drool definitely looks like tears. I don't really know how to explain this but the drool makes a kind of warpy effect on the mirror making her face look contorted and mad. I think I would prefer the color version, can we see it?

[tish_lily]

Here's a link to the picture in colour on my Flickr page:

on Flickr - Photo Sharing!

I suppose I could just edit out the drool...

[kleidascope]

Dang kids. don't cooperate for photo ops very well sometimes!



I played a little with editing.I completely understand how the quest to understand the camera fills your brain and you have to take this one step at a time. I just moved onto editing not too long ago, so here's my limited editing ability play with your photo, just to give you a feel for what you could do real easily. If you object, I will gladly take down.
I cloned out the wall and dodged to get rid of the shadow, ran thru noiseware, tried to clone out the drool - that was tricker than I thought. Adjusted the exposure and burned the blown whites, then converted to b/w.