Hide and Seek

[ik631]

My daughter and I were playing hide and seek, lucky for me I had my camera with the nifty fifty close at hand! I love the expression on her face and would like to frame it but would like to make it better prior to doing so. It was shot in RAW. In pp I tweaked the wb, adjusted the exposure to bring up the detail on the tree but it also blew out the lawn, did I go too far? I also softened and saturated it a bit. Should I crop out more of the lawn and tree? Any other suggestions?



Exif
Canon T1i
f/3.5
1/125
ISO 200
50mm f/1.8 II
Thanks

[MrJones]

it's a cute picture and I like it
if you can, try lowering the exposure just for the grass (you can do it with the brush or gradient tool in adobe camera raw) and crop it tighter, losing some of the tree and the grass.

[John Hendry]

Yes a closer crop would be beter and I would remove the bit of bark at her hair.

all the best

[ik631]

Originally Posted by MrJones

it's a cute picture and I like it
if you can, try lowering the exposure just for the grass (you can do it with the brush or gradient tool in adobe camera raw) and crop it tighter, losing some of the tree and the grass.

I did some research so I wouldn't sound like a complete noob. Apparently the ACR verison that comes with elements is stripped down. Does lightroom come with the full version or do I need to step up to CS5? I couldn't find an answer for this.

Thanks for the tip I was looking for a way to do this in RAW.

[ElCapitan]

LR does have the full camera RAW adjustments, as well as the more local adjustment brush.Just some advice, try to use fill light to bring up the shadows and recovery to bring down the highlights. If you are using lightroom, when in the development module, you can see a histogram. When you are using the fill light slider, you will see a highlighted portion of the the histogram (almost far left) that shows you are adjusting the blacks. Same when using Recovery (far right), Exposure middle/middle right) and Blacks (far left).

So in this case you can use Fill Light to bring out the detail in the tree and recovery to bring down the highlights in the grass. Exposure is a good middle ground that shift the middle portion of your histogram one way or the other. You can also click the little triangles on the top sides of the histogram to see if any shadows or highlights are being clipped. The brush adjustment tool is great, but I find it better to use it only when you have used the sliders to get the best possible histogram.

Also keep in mind that when you are not using flash and the light is like that, you are either going to have to over expose the background to get your subject well exposed, or under expose your subject to get the background well exposed. You made the right choice in exposing for your subject. Try using what I mentioned about to bring that background a bit.

[Matthew_Scullion]

I agree with ElCapitan's excellent explanation of choosing how to expose in high contrast situations without a flash (his last paragraph), except for one little point (which is just a personal preference thing to throw in I guess).

In a high contrast situation like yours, when choosing whether to under expose the subject and correctly expose the background, or correctly expose the background and underexpose the subject, I normally lean towards the latter. This is because it is easier to rescue an underexposed subject in post prod than it is to rescue an over exposed background.

Once something is "blown" i.e. the pixels are white because they are over exposed, you can't get them back to show any detail that was there. But if something is very dark you normally can rescue it in software, especially if you shot in RAW.

So I correctly or only slightly over expose the background, leaving the subject darker than it should be. But then pull back the subject in post-prod afterwards.

P.S. I say this with the greatest respect as ElCapatain is a much better photographer than me!

[ElCapitan]

Originally Posted by Matthew_Scullion

P.S. I say this with the greatest respect as ElCapatain is a much better photographer than me!

You are absolutely correct. That is one great way to expose, though I have found other ways. I forgot to put that in the explanation. This is what I generally do in high contrast situations though I am migrating to a new technique in posrt. I guess I was trying to explain from a strictly in camera situation (especially for jpeg shooters), but yes, you can rescue the shadows in post extremely well if you shoot RAW. Though you do need to be careful when shooting as high ISO or otherwise it is just a noisy mess.

On the other hand, (and this is for when the background is over exposed, but not clipped. check the histogram in your camera) I have found that when I expose for the subject and the background is overexposed (but not clipped), I can use the Exposure slider to lower the exposure for the background and then use the Fill Light slider to bring back the subject. I am not sure if this method is better. It seems to work just fine, though I don't use it all to often.

I have found, and heard, that as long as you are not clipping the highlights, it is better to favor the right side of the histogram. Of course, there is no perfect histogram to base off of cause every shot is going to be different and the light will vary. I guess to sum up, always try to expose for what you want as long as you are not clipping either side of the histogram.

Sorry for all the long explanation, but I have been assisting photo workshops for the last seven weeks, and I have soaked up a ton of info, and some of it varies from instructor to instructor.

[ik631]

Thanks so much for all the tips. My pp skills are really lacking. I quickly applied the advice and this is the result.



I still need practice removing items cleanly. Its obvious I took the bark out but the driveway is now grey and the grass is yellow/brown (10 weeks without rain).

Thanks for all the help!

[Hill Country Hack]

Much better!