Looking for technical critique, 1st post

[ferrinbonn]

Hi all. I'm very new to this DSLR stuff (just bought one a few weeks ago and no experience before then) and I'm looking for some general feedback to help me learn.

So, here is my first submission. I didn't spend any time planning this shot (my daughter in front of a campfire) so I'm not really looking for feedback on the setup, but I would like some technical critiques on the shot. I don't have photoshop or anything, so the only postproduction that was done was a crop.

Here's the photo info. Thanks for the feedback!
Canon T2i
50mm focal length equivalent to 78mm
1/80 exposure time
f/1.8
auto white balance, no flash

[Johninbigd]

I really like this shot! I think the white balance is off, though. The image is too blue. You might try some free software like GIMP to correct the white balance and warm it up a bit. Other than that, I love it, especially for a quick snapshot!

[Johninbigd]

I wasn't sure how to do this in GIMP, so I thought I'd try it for you to find out. If you download and install GIMP, which is free, load the image up and go to Color > Color balance and tweak the hues for the midtones, highlights and shadows. I took out a little blue and added in some red, mostly. It turned out pretty good, so you should be able to get an even better result if you play with it for a few minutes.

[SaraJane]

Yeah, white balance, and it is under exposed.

[Doug Sundseth]

I'd like to see a bit more space behind your subject. The current crop looks pretty cramped on that side. Because of the angle of the subject's head, I think you could comfortably remove some space on the left to compensate.

I agree about the white balance.

I don't know that the overall photo is underexposed, but the important part (the subject's face) is shadowed and thus locally underexposed. In future, you can fix this with exposure compensation or by adding light (or quite a few other ways, really). Here, I'd recommend increasing the midtone contrast (at least) and perhaps the contrast of the entire image in post.

While the background is out of focus, there's enough contrast that the OoF areas still draw attention away from your subject. When shooting to isolate your subject, you usually want to choosing the tonal values of the background carefully.

All that said, you've captured a very engaging expression and the pose works pretty well, so I don't think you're all that far off of a very nice photo.

[Matthew_Scullion]

I think it's the nice photo. Composition and story are excellent - those are the hard bits. You asked for technical crits and whilst I agree with the WB comments and also the fact that the face needs light, my biggest comment would be that the face isn't sharp. You could be slightly out of focus or perhaps at this quite slow shutter speed, you just moved a bit.

Keep up the good work!

[ferrinbonn]

Thanks for all of the great feedback! I have a question about the white balance, since it is still one of the features of my camera that I least understand. I've always just left it on auto. So why would the white balance be off on this one? Are there certain things you can see before taking the shot that would cause you to know to change the white balance setting to something different on the camera, or is this something most people do in post production?

I download GIMP and made a few changes. Thoughts?

[Johninbigd]

I'm still a noob, so forgive me if this explanation isn't exactly right. The camera does the best job it can at capturing the light, but it does make some assumptions about the temperature (or color) of the light source. A light source could be very "warm", like a candle or low wattage indoor light bulb. Under those conditions, something that was actually white could appear more yellow, orange, or even reddish.

If you were take a similar picture under a fluorescent light, whites would look more blue because of the higher color temperature of the light source. Something similar happens on cloudy days. Everything will lean toward being bluer than it actually is. Setting the white balance corrects for this before you even take the picture. If you're outside on a cloudy day and you set your WB to Cloudy, the camera adjusts for the bluer color temperature and your pictures will come out more natural looking.

Auto often works, but the camera can still guess wrong. If you're saving your images as RAW files and have some post-processing software like GIMP, Photoshop or Lightroom, you can correct the white balance in software. But if you're saving your images as JPEGs in your camera, it may be best to set the white balance in the camera so you don't have to manipulate the images as much after the fact.

HTH,
John

[Doug Sundseth]

Auto WB will try to balance the overall tones to a normal mix. What that might mean will depend on exactly how the engineers built the software in that camera.

In general, though, if there's lots of blue in the field of view, the camera will treat the shot as having been made in cool light and will warm the image. If there's lots of orange, it will treat it as having been made in incandescent light and cool the image.

This is all just a guess based on the light that hits the camera, though, so it's pretty commonly wrong.

If you're shooting RAW, you can just set the WB in post processing. If you're shooting in .jpg or .tiff, your ability to fix in post is more limited. In that case, you're best off to choose a reasonable value before shooting, so that you're close enough to be able to adjust effectively. Most cameras have reasonable presets; pick the one that most nearly matches your lighting.