What’s Your Preference?

TheMoons678 · #1 (**permalink**) 08-02-2010, 06:10 PM

My sister wanted me to take some shots and her and her husband, and I dont have much experience (especially with composition/exposure). With her hair/skin/jacket being so fair, should I have underexposed? I adjusted curves afterwards, but could only do so much. I'll take any CC, but especially would like to know what you would have done in the situation to properly expose them.

Feel free to take a look at their flickr set
Steph & Steve - a set on Flickr

Camera: Nikon D80
Exposure: 0.02 sec (1/50)
Aperture: f/8.0
Focal Length: 50 mm
ISO Speed: 100
Exposure Bias: 0 EV
Flash: No Flash

SusanH1970 · #2 (**permalink**) 08-02-2010, 06:16 PM

Would you mind posting a SOOC? This appears heavily processed and it's difficult to tell what the actual exposure looks like.

TheMoons678 · #3 (**permalink**) 08-02-2010, 07:49 PM

Oops you're right.

I think I did a warming filter, played with curves/saturation, and added that vignette with the CS3 lens correction tool.

Feel free to critique the PP if it looks too distasteful or have other suggestions. I just wanted some contrast between her tones and those of the grass behind her.

Astro Visual · #4 (**permalink**) 08-02-2010, 09:03 PM

Looking at that original shot, I think that can be processed very easily to be a nice shot.

The first things that hit me with it are it's got a blue colour cast and it lacks contrast. Use Colour Balnce in CS3 to correct that colour cast and curves to boost that contrast and brighten it a little. You may also need to back the reds off a tad in Saturation because of her face colour.
A little bit of sharpening and I think you'll be pleased.

Composition wise, it's a nice pose for her so I would assume you took something similar for his face also?
Watch the background ... I see buildings and things that don't really add to this shot. I'd have had them closer to some greenery I think so it dominated the background but was still bokeh (out of focus background) to make them stand out a bit more.

If you have an external flash with good control I might have tried a higher f-stop and just enough flash to light up the eyes.

A shot of them looking at each other rather than the camera might have been a nice idea also.

Anyhow ... hope some of that helps

hmcgrael · #5 (**permalink**) 08-03-2010, 04:43 AM

Hope this helps ..I am still learning as well!

...I would crop the left of the photo..just enough to get the house out..the trees don't bother me..I would sharpen just a bit..as previously posted..Other than that the original capture is very nice!

I love her ring and her gorgeous blue eyes! TFS! <3

ETA- btw.. DSC_4491 hue ..is simply stunning!

Life in Motion · #6 (**permalink**) 08-03-2010, 04:24 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by TheMoons678

Oops you're right.

I think I did a warming filter, played with curves/saturation, and added that vignette with the CS3 lens correction tool.

Feel free to critique the PP if it looks too distasteful or have other suggestions. I just wanted some contrast between her tones and those of the grass behind her.

Hello...i hope you don't mind...I wanted to try something on my editing software to try to remove the blue cast. the levels didn't do it on my software or i'm just not skilled enough with levels yet lol...still trying to master the levels adjusting. but there is an action that says "remove flash blue" and i think that helped the most and quick easy fix. Maybe your editing software will have something similiar...just a quick edit to show what it did to the color of the pic. then i just fixed the slightly bald patch on the back of the man's head, upped the exposure a bit and contrast and a softer vignette than your first edit. May not be your style...just throwing an option out there that may help with the blue cast problem! i'll take it down if you want me to

SusanH1970 · #7 (**permalink**) 08-03-2010, 05:08 PM

The biggest problems in the SOOC were that it was indeed underexposed, and also your white balance was off.

In ACR, I bumped the exposure - it blew the blue channel, but warming it up took care of that, as well as corrected the color. Any other blowouts on the white shirt were minimal and taken care of with the recovery slider. I also bumped the blacks a little to add contrast.

In CS2, I used the patch tool on the dark circles under her eyes and faded to about 55 to keep it looking natural. Then for a subtle eye pop, I duplicated the layer, lassoed the eyes, new layer via copy, set the mode to screen, reduced the opacity to 50%, and then used a black paintbrush to erase back everything but the irises.

Lastly, I duplicated the layer once more, set the mode to soft light, and reduced the opacity to 20% for a subtle color pop.

Let me know if you want me to take it down. Very cute shot, love the connection she has with the camera.

ETA: Looking at it here I realize I should have cloned out the light spot on the back of his head where his scalp is showing through, like Life In Motion did...lol now when I look at the photograph, that's the first thing my eyes go to.

Life in Motion · #8 (**permalink**) 08-03-2010, 05:20 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by SusanH1970

The biggest problems in the SOOC were that it was indeed underexposed, and also your white balance was off.

In ACR, I bumped the exposure - it blew the blue channel, but warming it up took care of that, as well as corrected the color. Any other blowouts on the white shirt were minimal and taken care of with the recovery slider. I also bumped the blacks a little to add contrast.

In CS2, I used the patch tool on the dark circles under her eyes and faded to about 55 to keep it looking natural. Then for a subtle eye pop, I duplicated the layer, lassoed the eyes, new layer via copy, set the mode to screen, reduced the opacity to 50%, and then used a black paintbrush to erase back everything but the irises.

Lastly, I duplicated the layer once more, set the mode to soft light, and reduced the opacity to 20% for a subtle color pop.

Let me know if you want me to take it down. Very cute shot, love the connection she has with the camera.

ETA: Looking at it here I realize I should have cloned out the light spot on the back of his head where his scalp is showing through, like Life In Motion did...lol now when I look at the photograph, that's the first thing my eyes go to.

wow i love your edit! I still have lots to learn obviously lol

. need to lurke in the critique section more and freshen up the editing skills. once again you're perhaps a godess

I'm so going back and trying to get those same results...i don't have the same editing programs but maybe i can get something similiar...love having you to learn from on here by the way

. this site wouldn't be the same without you for me!