The battle of the highlight vs. the shadow:D

[sheila3]

Hey everyone. Practicing portraits again with my daughter. I liked this shot but the blown out hair with the shadow line is bugging me. Should have caught that before taking picture but since I didn't any ideas how to fix. I played around a bit with photoshop but with no luck. And I would love any other comments on the picture. I think I managed to get her eyes pretty sharp. I like the pose. NOt sure if I made it too oversaturated when playing with post processing. Again any critique welcome. Thanx for taking the time



Canon Rebel EOS Xs
Manual mode
ISO 100
Aperture f/5.6
Exposure 1/160
Focal length 55mm
Flash fired

[MrJones]

except of the hair which you already mentioned and should deal with cause it is distracting, why did you crop it the way you did?
what I mean is, there is some space on her right and yet her left arm goes missing behind that fence pole.

[edbayani]

the best would be to reshoot and avoid the harsh light that hits the hair.

[sheila3]

Originally Posted by MrJones

except of the hair which you already mentioned and should deal with cause it is distracting, why did you crop it the way you did?
what I mean is, there is some space on her right and yet her left arm goes missing behind that fence pole.

Yeah MrJones guess that does look a bit odd. I seem to have a habit of chopping off limbs. Since I can't make the arm appear I think I will see if I can do a post editing crop to this picture. Thanx for looking!

[sheila3]

Originally Posted by edbayani

the best would be to reshoot and avoid the harsh light that hits the hair.

Yes edbayani definately think a reshoot is necessary. Very nice path not far from where I live so will try to get back there when sun not so overhead. Thanx for looking!

[SusanH1970]

Backlighting can be gorgeous...when you do the reshoot, wait till the sun is lower in the sky. It's perfectly okay for the hair to have a smallish blown out "halo" when backlighting.

[sheila3]

Originally Posted by SusanH1970

Backlighting can be gorgeous...when you do the reshoot, wait till the sun is lower in the sky. It's perfectly okay for the hair to have a smallish blown out "halo" when backlighting.

Thanx for the tips Susan. Will definately try that. Was just playing around with it again in photoshop. What do you all think of this major crop? And what about exposure? Thanx for your time!

[MrJones]

I like it better Sheila but obviously it can't replace a re-shoot. try getting some more space on the right in your crop.
I really don't think there's a need to fight for the life of this photo since the location is not far from your home and you can re-shoot easily.

[SusanH1970]

Totally agree with MrJones. Also, I see you used the flash for fill...try using a reflector next time, or having her angle her face slightly up so she gets the sky reflected in her eyes. You'll get much prettier catchlights rather than the popup flash pinlights.

[dlambert]

I think that playing with your fill-flash might have softened that shadow, too. I can see that your flash fired, but maybe if you dialed the flash intensity up a bit.... might be something to try if you re-shoot.