Camila on Costa Rican Independence day Celebrations

[lillyanka]

Hi,

I just got my camera like a month ago, but I've been trying to take as many pictures as possible. This is a portrait I took of my daughter last week, when we went to the Independence Day Celebrations here in Costa Rica. I'd like to get some critique on this shot:


View in Flickr

Taken with a Panasonic Lumix DMC-FZ30
Sept 14th, 2010
ISO: 80

Camera Panasonic DMC-FZ30
Exposure 0.002 sec (1/640)
Aperture f/3.6
Focal Length 24.2 mm
ISO Speed 80
Exposure Bias 0 EV
Flash Off, Did not fire
EXIF Data link

(Durrr... Flickr. Thanks, Susan!)

The rest of the shots from that day are here:
14 de Setiembre - a set on Flickr

Thanks!
Lilly

[SusanH1970]

Flickr has your EXIF:
Camera Panasonic DMC-FZ30
Exposure 0.002 sec (1/640)
Aperture f/3.6
Focal Length 24.2 mm
ISO Speed 80
Exposure Bias 0 EV
Flash Off, Did not fire

What a beautiful little girl! The lighting here, however, is doing you no favors. Your exif shows it was shot mid-morning, and that time of day the sunlight is pretty harsh - you can see that in the harshness of the shadows and the bright highlights on her forehead, nose and cheeks. She's got "raccoon eyes" due to the shadowing, and there's no light at all in her eyes (catchlights are a good thing, they add life to the eyes).

Putting her in open shade with no direct sun would greatly help with this - you can use a reflector if necessary to put a bit of extra light on her face and in her eyes. When shooting kids, I generally shoot slightly down at them - this way, they're looking slightly up at me, and the sky reflects in their eyes.

Here's an example of what I mean:

3web | Flickr - Photo Sharing!

[lillyanka]

You are so right about the lighting! I guess I took the "shoot at their level" advice too seriously, hee hee, and actually in this case shooting down at her would have changed this shot a lot. also, I think I really do need a reflector.

Also, that pic you linked was pretty awesome.

Thanks for the pointers!

PS: Thanks for the compliments for my daughter She sure is gorgeous <3

[BK553]

You're about two stops under.

[ccting]

Sorry, at this moment, i cant see images because being blocked..by intranet.

Let me guess your light condition when you shot the image.
Based on calculation, it is 13.34 EV. Which means, cloudy bright (no shadows), or The Moon,c altitude > 40° (Quarter), or even Just before sunset. Less possible with Cloudy sky background.


If according to BK533, 2 stops under, means, Correct EV = 13.34 -2 = 11.34. The lighting condition might be
a) You are at Galleries with strong internal lighting,
b) or strong just-after sunset

Am I correct?

Assumption: You have correct exposure.

[lillyanka]

Originally Posted by BK553

You're about two stops under.

I'm still a little lost on the aperture part of photography. :S This picture was shot at f/3.6, so your comment means I should have taken it at about f/2? Am I right?

Thanks so much for the feedback, BTW

[Doug Sundseth]

You could go to f/2 if your lens will support that. This will significantly change your depth of field, which could be good or bad.

You could instead go to 1/160 sec exposure. Same exposure as changing the aperture, but no change to DoF. For a portrait, you shouldn't have motion blur issues.

Or you could push your ISO up to 320 to keep the same aperture and shutter speed.

Or you could add a bit of fill light with flash. Filling shadows in sunlight is one of the very few situations when on-camera flash isn't a complete disaster for your photos.

[lillyanka]

I think changing the exposure or using the flash would have been my better choices. My lens has a maximum aperture of f/2.8, so f/2 wasn't a choice, and my camera gives a lot of noise when going above ISO 200. Also, I keep forgetting to use my flash as a fill light, because at school they don't let me use flash right now. LOL.

This is all awesome advice! I'm really learning quite a lot from this one critique ^.^

I have an assignment this week for my Intro to Photography class this week, so I'll try to put these pointers to practice and hopefully post some shots for critique after the weekend.