What to do in the snow...

[SirGhost]

Hello-

We've been getting plenty of snow here in the Northeast -- so my first post here is a weather shot. Perhaps I'll work on getting equipment for indoor lighting, but for now it's outdoor lighting and that means snow.

I'm new, new to photography .. so I'm happy to hear any comments.




As I recall, I metered on her coat .. and then had to boost the brightness up somewhat to compensate for the slightly dim lighting.

EXIF:
Camera Canon EOS REBEL T2i
Exposure 0.008 sec (1/125)
Aperture f/16.0
Focal Length 67 mm
ISO Speed 500
Exposure Bias 0 EV
Flash Off, Did not fire

Best-
TimO

[LoveDSLR]

The hood is covering parts of her eyes (attention to details) and you should shoot wider than f/16 to get the (unattractive) background defocus more.

A quick play of your image:



Just my 2 cents.

[carlyfan]

First of all, it's a nice photo. But I think there are a few things that are keeping it from being a great photo. LoveDSLR is right about the aperture. A much wider aperture would keep the background out of focus and allow the subject to stand out more. As it is, the trees in the background are pretty much in focus and distract the viewer from the girl. The snowshoes are also kind of distracting for me, probably because they take up about as much of the frame as her body does. Maybe you could find another position for her to sit in so that her snowshoes took up less of the frame. Or maybe she could just turn her feet so that the snowshoes were laying horizontal instead of vertical. But what really kills this picture for me, is the fact that I can't really see her. Only part of one of her eyes is visible, and for portraits, you really want to nail the eyes. Especially in winter pictures where they are all bundled up, the eyes become critically important. I do like the composition though. I hope this helps.

Lisa

[SirGhost]

First off, thank you. Thank you for the comments.

When I got back from our snowshoeing hike, I did indeed see that a wider aperture would have been better. I guess, I had expected that comment and indeed it makes a difference. It's somewhat related to the comment on the eyes, in that:

There's so many details when shooting people!

Even though this isn't a perfect picture, I wanted to get something posted in this forum. (In part, I've been impressed by the level of activity and comments.) I am definitely finding it more struggling to keep all the details checked (and rechecked) when shooting people. It probably doesn't help that the kids don't sit still for long. With non-people shots, I have more time to check the lighting, focus, aperture, framing, metering, etc..

Well, I'm working on it .. and the comments do help. Thanks for them.

TimO

[carlyfan]

Originally Posted by SirGhost

It probably doesn't help that the kids don't sit still for long. With non-people shots, I have more time to check the lighting, focus, aperture, framing, metering, etc..

Oh, I'm definitely with you on that one! It's so much easier when you can take as long as you need! I think I'm finally starting to get a little better at that.

Best of luck to you!
Lisa