What to do right?

[dmann]

Super frustrated right now. I have been studying and tried to put some of what I have read to practise and the end results blew! I really want to get that rich color and soft skin thats in pro shots that make the shot look pro. I either had overexposed and then I would adjust and I got underexposed. The color in all the shots also sucked everything looked drained. I am thinking I need to work the exposure triangle better and would love any advice you can give.

Also I took this at around 7 so the sun was setting, not ideal time but all that was available to me. I had a polarizing filter on my glass and I am wondering if you can only use that when really sunny out? Also why does it slow down your shutter speed? The best i could get was 1/200.

Canon T1i
f 3.5
shutter 1/200
ISO 200
50mm
Flash
Manual
White Balance Auto

Polarizing Filter and a Flash Diffuser (on the built in flash)

[Mso]

A polarising filter darkens the shot, so the shutter speed has to drop to allow more light in. Use it on bright sunny days to get rich colours.

[IABoomer]

You don't mention what the metering mode was. If I was going to guess, I'd say you're setup for matrix metering. You adjusted the settings to get the meter reading "0", but that's an even exposure taking into account the somewhat light wood and the darker rail.

What might work better is to change to spot metering and set your meter on the model's face. That way, she'll be properly exposed since this has her looking a bit underexposed. You could also read into the "expose to the right" philosophy and bump the exposure up a bit beyond zero EV.

While the pros will get the image very solid in camera, there's still post-processing to be done where you could brighten things up, smooth out the skin, etc. If you've shot this in RAW, you might be able to push the exposure up and bring some of the brightness and vibrance back to what you were wanting/expecting. You might have to do some burning to darken the wood after you've brought things up to make her correct.

Another thing to consider is the composition. You've attempted to use the railing to lead the viewer into your subject, but there's more railing behind her than in front of her, so I'm not sure it works as well as it could.

[ccting]

and move your camera to left (of subject) a bit, move subject farer a bit, making lines from 3 edges converge at the end far.

Shutter speed = 1/200!!! I believe you could make it as 1/50 or lower... I used to shot at 1/15 at 50mm for low light. You have faster len than mine. I am using VR Kit 18-55mm, the maximum aperture is f5.6 at 50mm. reach your left hand to your back as far as you could, and len your camera on your left angle, then you have capture sharper, brighter image.

Color is great , yellow with dark background. In case during golden hours, the trees appears to be green, wear magenta / red clothes.. making you pop up.

Now, are you able to see those diagnonal lines from 3 edges? I think if you include more lines.. and put subject at converging lines,, thing may look different.

spot metering on her lip, then lock exposure, focus on eyes then click shutter speed. If you are unsatisfied with the color, then use grey paper (108,108,108 - mspaint), WB PRESET on the grey paper and exposure on the grey paper too, lock then focus on eyes, shot.

.. put your subject half cover by shadow / light ;D
Anyway, I am just a newbie.. much easier to comment than action ;D

The converging lines from edges of the bridge and the trees will lead viewer focus on the pretty girl.. and wow.. bokeh on the top. For me, this is absolutely a great location to take good picture, find golden hour / when strong contrast of of tree shadows and light from side lighting may create good composition. I don't know.. try out and see.. ;D


Lines, shapes, patterns, light contrast (find suitable time), strong verticals, are so great here.. 1st shot fail, go for 2nd shot, fail again, 3rd shot, keep trying and keep posting here..

Again, i am a newbie of photography

[kelleyrie]

For me getting those light bright skintones depends on how much light I have...more light equals brighter skin for me. I also subscribe to the expose to the right philosophy, especially with kids.

[BigFuzzy]

Originally Posted by dmann

Super frustrated right now. I have been studying and tried to put some of what I have read to practise and the end results blew! I really want to get that rich color and soft skin thats in pro shots that make the shot look pro. I either had overexposed and then I would adjust and I got underexposed. The color in all the shots also sucked everything looked drained. I am thinking I need to work the exposure triangle better and would love any advice you can give.

Also I took this at around 7 so the sun was setting, not ideal time but all that was available to me. I had a polarizing filter on my glass and I am wondering if you can only use that when really sunny out? Also why does it slow down your shutter speed? The best i could get was 1/200.

Canon T1i
f 3.5
shutter 1/200
ISO 200
50mm
Flash
Manual
White Balance Auto

Polarizing Filter and a Flash Diffuser (on the built in flash)

I can very much appreciate your frustration and drive to get a great shot.
Having said that, you'll rarely (if ever) see "pro shots" done with your built-in pop-up flash. Straight-on flash rarely will give you a nice look for these types of shots. I recognize you may not be able to use anything else right now, but that doesn't change the fact.

Your 1/200th gave you a very dark background, did you want that? Remember that when using flash, your shutter speed adjusts the ambient light while the aperture controls how much flash hits your subject. As others have said, I'd have used a slower shutter speed to allow in more ambient light.

The "sucky" colors are a result of two things, not enough light hitting the colors (ie very brief summary: more light=better color reproduction, more color) and straight-on flash which tends to wash out colors as well as flatten the image in general by killing depth-creating shadows.

Yeah, shooting that late, when not actually directly in that nice "golden hour" sun will kill colors because as I said above, colors need light to thrive.

Also, in the end, PP work could have helped mitigate many of your complaints.

In the end, if you're into this type of photography, you'll want to be able to use OCF (off camera flash) ala Strobist which can be done relatively cheaply. You can get one hotshoe flash and a wireless set for under 100 if you dig. This will open up your ability to light an image nicely massively . Also check out THIS website for more flash help, he even has on-camera flash help

Keep up the frustration, it'll drive you to better your images, but don't let it get you down. Keep trying and posting, hopefully we can help if needed.

[dmann]

IABoomer, I looked at the settings and I was on pattern metering? I know nothing about metering. Is pattern the same as matrix? Would spot metering be useful most of the time doing portraits? I will read up on expose to the right and I agree with it being bad composition.

ccting - I need more coffee and to read your response slower before I can grasp what your saying

Big fuzzy - wanted a faded out background but not dark and underexposed.

Thanks everyone a bunch for your advice, I will try again with applying what you have said and possible repost.

[IABoomer]

Yes, I'm pretty sure what Canon calls pattern is what Nikon calls matrix. I do think spot metering would be preferable for portrait shooting since you clearly want a good exposure of your subject. How you handle the background comes down to depth of field and balancing flash with ambient lighting.

[ccting]

I suggest that you buy this book (The photographer's eye by Michael Freeman) before taking any photo.

Watch how experts do their framing with explanation . If you feel bored, scroll to 0:50 Minutes..


What I have learned:
a) Low light: use spot metering; Otherwise use Pattern Metering (see)
b) Low key portrait: Spot metering at lip, lock it, strong source light on one side of face. Use fill flash covered with tissue (assume no props available) (Low key portrait will be quite dark and it fullfill the theory of expressionism -> emotional) and more saturated
c) Framing: How should you frame, see Photographer's eye. There are mathematically rules, and basic rules and you need to follow
d) Design: Understand the theories / rules, then you start design how you should take your photo
e) After design, you need to apply your design with your technikal skills (exposure, shutter speed, aperture, WB, etc etc)
f) etc etc etc , learn the art theories, famous photo rules (sunny 16, rule of third, etc etc), learn to see lines, shapes, color harmony, contrast, then finally learn the basic operation of your camera before learn to take photo. otherwise, dissapointment will kill your enthusiasism of phototaking.

To sum up: 1) Understand Art theories 2) Learn rules like rule of third, sunny 16 etc 3) Learn to see lines, shapes, color & tone harmony (with color wheel), texture, etc etc as recommended by famous KenRockWell and other professonal photographers. 4) Learn about your camera and lens, particulary their pro and cons 5) Learn how to design 6) Apply design with your developed technical skills and turn their limitation/cons to something creative.

Learning good phototaking is a very long process. Only after these, you will understand how your photo is not as good as others and you will able to analyze SYSTEMATICALLY. If you learn phototaking by crituqes example, that will take you a long long time and may be you only able to byhard the technique, settings, composition without understand the fundamental. If that happens, you may able to take good pictures at fast rate but, you can't go far. Remember, learn one by one and never hope to get great pictures like others within short terms. Most of the great pictures in this website are taken by very experience photographers with more than 10 years experience.

Well, just don't take my comment and suggest too serious. I am more or less like you. Just started to learn photo taking end of June 2011, but I bought a lot of books to study. The only book that you must begin with is Photographer's eye by Michael Freeman. The rest of books you should ignore first as they don't teach you the most basic fundamental.

For quick start of technical...you need to understand Optics..
a) Faster shutter speed means you increase the number 1/n. 1/200 will be faster than 1/50. 1/50 is faster than 1/15.

b) Slow shutter speed means you let more light in. When more light in, the image will be brighter. However, slower shutter speed will cause the image blur because of two factors - a) your camera is moving or b) your subject is moving. The rule of thumb for shutter speed is 1/focal length. For example, 50mm focal length needs 1/50 or faster to avoid image blur. Well, if you have Image stablizer then you can make it slower, perhaps 1-4 stops. Please ignoring other confounding factors. In your context, for the same amount of light, if you reduce your shutter speed from 1/200 to 1/50, then your image will be brighter.

c) Aperture. The wider aperture (the smaller number of f-number). For example, f1.8 is wider than f5.6 [f1.8 means 1/1.8 > f5.6 means 1/5.6]. Therefore, when you open the window wider (1/1.8), more lights are comming in for the same period of time compared to 1/5.6. Shutter speed means, the longer you open the window, the more light is coming into your room (camera sensor) too. So, for brighter image, use lower aperture or slower shutter speed or both. Ignoring the DOF of aperture cause.

d) DOF. DOF is influenced by two factors - Distance between your focused object and your camera, and the aperture. DOF means the "distance range" that remains in focused. The rest will be blurred. Blurred background, particually for portrait with rounded/hexagen/ox.. blade "Ball" are the quality of blur that photographer wishes to get, and it depends on the skillset and the lens.. So, the get background of the girl blur, the most basic is the maximum your focal length (lets say 55mm for a len with 18-55mm) and widest aperture (f3.5 - smallest number for a len with aperture ranges from 3.5 to 5.6 - see your len "1:3.5-5.6"),

e) Focus. Portrait, focus point at the eyes. Eyes, lips, and char should be clear.. (decrease aperture (increase number f) if they are out of focus.

f) Light is extremely important for phototaking. Learn to see light first...where it comes from, the quality of light, the shadow on the face, bla bla bla,,

g) White balance. Print your own grey card on a piece of white paper that non-reflective. Use mspaint for example, adjust color 108 for RGB, fill the space, print it out. Find your camera setting for White balance WB, reset from Auto to PRE / PRESET, ask your suject hold the grey paper, and you PRESET your WB to the current WB. Then focus your focus point at the grey paper, lock the exposure, then you can gain better lighting and color.

Just remember that i am also a new learner, my suggestion may not accurate, and please listen to others as well. Finally, learn the art theories, understand them, then learn Photographer's eye, before learning the technikal skills. Then only start taking photo then you will able to see what wrong with your picture. That's will be the problem of experience and technical skills that you should improve then.

Portrait:
I believe there are 3 types of portrait:
a) full length (don't cut any part)
b) 1/3 (cut a bit of hair - dun close to eyes, above hand angle)
c) 2/3 (cut until above knee)

According to my reading, if there is no horizon (a horizontal line on 1/3 or 2/3 -why 1/3 or 2/3 ? rule of third says never put horizontal line across the middle if both parts are not equally important. Put 1/3 from bottom if upper part is more attractive and this adhre to the theory of golden mean - the ratio of 1.61), it is better to put diagonal as diagnonal does not need horizon line to support. That's why you see some ppl take photo by tilting camera clockwise or vice verssa. Understanding this basic, you know why they do this. Simply copy the technique without understanding, you will find very hard to improve your phototaking skills. This has fundamental theories behind it but Michael Freeman does not mention about it... find it out yourself, will you?

My workflow:
Theoritical level --> Conceptual Design (Multiple theoritical + Rules + Justification)--> Practical Level - How-to implement my design to phototaking (depends on technical skills + Experience). Simply skip to practical level, will ensure you takes years to gasp the basic photo taking skillset. You me needs systematic processes; experienced photographers have their processes in subconscious mind which act extreme fast, and some of them may not release the processes that they have in their subconscious mind. Many actions processes that we perform daily like walking, eating are stored in subconscious mind, and when we ask, what are the processes of walking, we can't answer them. But for babies, they may need systematic processes stored in conscious mind to help you speak (lift the tougue, push the air.. etc).

Are you able to see the histogram, shadow , highlight, focus, of the picture from your camera? Post them here - EXIF.

"Who are the famous photographers?" Anyone of them learn to shoot great photo overnight? I myself study photo everyday for at least 8 hours after work, since 24 June 2011, but still can't shoot great pictures. It needs experience, skill competency to develop slowly. Otherwise, everyone can become a photographer after purchasing a DSLR. Well, i never want to be a photographer, just my interest...