outside fun

[rbonaddict]

Hi all...I'm VERY new to photography, so new that I only use my kodak digital camera small enough to fit in my purse...however, I am really just learning and enjoy candid shots. I haven't learned how to pose subjects yet. This is my first time submitting a photo to be critiqued...and don't go easy on me...(i looked for the rules for submitting to this part of the website, but couldn't find them....any help would be greatly appreciated.)
This photo is of my brother and his 2 yr old daughter. we had been outside all day, and I finally went and got my camera and started taking pictures. This has been my favorite...

[highlydope]

Awesome picture but KILL the date stamp (crop just above it) and learn how to control your exposure - this one is very over-exposed and cannot be fixed because the highlights are completely blown out.

Also, you were wondering about the rules and the only one I can see that you broke is not providing exif info (stuff like ISO, shutter speed, etc).

You've captured a wonderfully candid moment and that's half the battle, just learn how to use the camera settings properly and keep shooting!

[rbonaddict]

Originally Posted by highlydope

Awesome picture but KILL the date stamp (crop just above it) and learn how to control your exposure - this one is very over-exposed and cannot be fixed because the highlights are completely blown out.

Also, you were wondering about the rules and the only one I can see that you broke is not providing exif info (stuff like ISO, shutter speed, etc).

You've captured a wonderfully candid moment and that's half the battle, just learn how to use the camera settings properly and keep shooting!

Thank you! I'm almost embarassed to admit that I don't know what the exif info is....pathetic i know. I can submit the original picture to show you what I was working with.

[highlydope]

Originally Posted by rbonaddict

I can submit the original picture to show you what I was working with.

Ah, now that I can work with! Give me a few minutes to edit it up to show you what I'd do with it.

[rbonaddict]

great! thank you and can't wait!

[highlydope]

Based on your original edit I got the sense that you wanted a sunny/dreamy appearance so that's what I tried to achieve. There were some tough highlights/shadows to work with but I think this version gets the idea across better without all the hilight blow out...

[highlydope]

And here's an even warmer version...

[rbonaddict]

very nice...thank you. what did you do?

[highlydope]

Originally Posted by rbonaddict

very nice...thank you. what did you do?

Well, I color corrected it a bit first and softened the skin on a separate layer with a moderate surface blur, the I dropped the opacity in the blur layer back about 50 % and flattened the image. I then rotated it slightly to reduce the distracting effect of the background wall not being straight. Then I cropped the image to remove the date stamp and focus the image on the main subjects.

Then I converted the image to B/W and applied a sepia tint and warm photo filter. Lastly, I applied a bit of background bokeh and edge vignetting to kill interest in the background a bit more.

Hope this helps. All was done with Photoshop.