Another portrait attempt

[sallie]

This photo is straight out of the camera except for cropping out my assistant holding a reflector. How is the exposure? Does she look to pale? Should I bump up her skin tone?




Camera
Nikon D90
Exposure
0.01 sec (1/100)
Aperture
f/4.0
Focal Length
85 mm
ISO Speed
200

[Rentham]

She is a bit under exposed. You could probably push the exposure up a bit and use cloudy or shade white balance to give it a nice, warm late afternoon feel. I'd also consider cropping to have her in the left third of the frame. Otherwise you have a really nice portrait here, great job.

[sallie]

How's this? Better?

[dmann]

Originally Posted by sallie

How's this? Better?

I like the original better, sorry. What editing program are you using?

This may or may not help you but I use the photo filter or adjust color for skin tones in pse10. These usually give the image an overall "warm" feel. I also adjust the levels if an image comes out a little under/over exposed. Ideally it is better to get it right in camera but not always possible.

[zona5101]

your edit is a little over-cooked.
too much saturation and skin tones are too warm
you also lost all the shadow detail in the sweater.
I wouldn't touch the saturation/vibrance
Like Mike suggested...up the exposure/fill light a bit
You might want to scoot the black point up a small amount to give it a little pop and still retain the shadow detail.
You can slightly bump up the color temperature to make it a little warmer
Your crop looks fine.

It i a very nice shot and only needs a wee bit of tweek...

[sallie]

I did that editing using some presets from an app on my iPad. Still trying to figure out photoshop. I would love to get it right with my camera settings. This weekend we are at the dunes and it's gorgeous out. I'm gonna try to take pictures of my friends. I think the sand might be a challenge. If you have suggestions on settings, let me know please. Thanks all!

[Peach]

Hi Sallie,
May I have a spin at it and show you what may work? If you like the results, I can give you step-by-step instructions in Photoshop (either CS3 or CS5, whichever you have, though my PPing usually works across most recent versions of PS).

[zona5101]

Originally Posted by sallie

I did that editing using some presets from an app on my iPad. Still trying to figure out photoshop. I would love to get it right with my camera settings. This weekend we are at the dunes and it's gorgeous out. I'm gonna try to take pictures of my friends. I think the sand might be a challenge. If you have suggestions on settings, let me know please. Thanks all!

Sand will be like snow...it will fool your metering into under exposing your subject. So meter by moving or zooming in on your subject - the set those setting manually zoom out and take your shot. have fun

[sallie]

Originally Posted by Peach

Hi Sallie,
May I have a spin at it and show you what may work? If you like the results, I can give you step-by-step instructions in Photoshop (either CS3 or CS5, whichever you have, though my PPing usually works across most recent versions of PS).

Of course! That would be great.

[sallie]

Originally Posted by zona5101

Sand will be like snow...it will fool your metering into under exposing your subject. So meter by moving or zooming in on your subject - the set those setting manually zoom out and take your shot. have fun

Thank you!