The concentration of a new photographer

[CactusTri]

My youngest son started expressing an interest in photography and I was showing him the basics of using my "old" PowerShot A95.

Not sure "Portrait" is the right word or place for this, but the Mods can feel free to move it as they see fit.



Aperture f/6.3
Exposure 1/160
Focal Length 22 mm
ISO 100
No flash

first Question. I had to go dig a copy of this from my recycle bin because somehow, I lost the properties. Does that happen when you rename or perform certain editing functions?

Q2. I think cropping a bit off the right side would be best, but what about the left side? Is it ok to leave the foreground mushroom in?

Q3. The bright spot on the left side of the sky is a bit distracting. What is the best way to reduce that without darkening the whole picture? If you can point me to a tutorial and what techniques I should be thinking about, that would be great.

Thanks in advance for any tips.

[jiminyClickit]

CactusTri,

You're good in the "Portrait" section. In Windows, and with Adobe PhotoDeluxe, I have the Properties always available. The EXIF doesn't upload with the photo to Flickr, though. And too, once I've edited, I have to go back to the original for EXIF.

A little off the right side would still leave your son in the thirds area, and a snip off the bottom and top will keep your aspect ratio intact.

If you're able to work with layers (you haven't named your edit program or experience), overlaying an edited darker layer, then removing all but the area over the upper left, with some care taken around the tree, should fix it. You might consider Selecting your son and pasting on a separate layer to adjust differently from the b/g.

[CactusTri]

jiminyClikit, Thanks for the input. I have the GIMP, but I haven't learned how to work with layers yet. But working with "layers" is what I had suspected I needed to know and it was good to get confirmation that that is the skill I need to learn.

[SJH Foto]

A lot of times it's hard to tell if you should use a flash when you're outdoors. In this case, I would have. That way your subject would be brighter, and not just a shadow backdropped by the bright sky.

[R lake]

I hope you fix the lighting, it is a wonderful picture.

[Loose_Canon]

My thoughts too. Brighten overall and crop off the right side a little.

[CactusTri]

Thanks for the input. I really didn't think this was too dark till I looked at it on my work monitor. Strange how different monitors show a picture differently.

I have the original in RAW, but do not know how I would edit things like light that way. I think GIMP doesn't work on RAW (I could be wrong, but I thought I got an error when I tried once). Picasa doesn't have a lot of control over some of the tools. I have the tools that came with my Nikon (and no $$ available right now to buy any more )

Thanks

[Loose_Canon]

You can always try Photoshop Express online:
https://www.photoshop.com/express/landing.html
It's free...

[peachy]

GIMP does work on RAW photos. If you have a Mac, you can get a version of the GIMP that has UFRAW (the little chunk of software that makes GIMP play nice with RAW files) packed right in: http://darwingimp.sourceforge.net .

If you have another operating system, you can get UFRAW as a plug-in at http://ufraw.sourceforge.net .

I use UFRAW all the time, and I actually have come to like it better than the RAW converter that came with my camera. It seems to have more tools.