My wife

[JKJD]

I took this down at the coast this past weekend. I've never been very confident taking photos of people. I would love to know your thoughts on the composition, and just the overall look of the picture. There is a color version on my flickr page. I can't decide which one I like better.



D40
78 mm
f/5.0
ISO 200

[zona5101]

Nice capture! I like it better as a candid...capturing a moment in time rather than a portrait. As a portrait the arm/elbow coming in front of her face isn't the best. I like the black and white version but with such lovely red hair it should be flaunted! (slight bias there). The natural light works but the forehead and collar are a bit overexposed. The depth of field works putting the background and harbor out of focus. Some of your other Flicker pics are stronger portraits than this particular shot...keep up the good work and have fun!

[lcb]

zona, what could he have done different so the forehead and collar are not overexposed?
lcb

[FirstLight]

Originally Posted by lcb

zona, what could he have done different so the forehead and collar are not overexposed?
lcb

lcb, you can either increase the shutter speed or F number. One issue here is that there is so much contrast in the light from one side of her to the other (sunlight shining directly on her in front), so one way or the other there will either be really dark darks or really bright brights, kwim? If the collar were not white it would not be as big of an issue. Not that 'contrasty' is bad, but the collar being the biggest lightest part of the image draws your eye, which means the first thing you notice is not her face, as it should be.

I still like this image, though. And it seems to have been just something caught in the moment, which would make the whole 'remove the collar' thing not so much of a solution. You could always darken that area in post-processing if it is really bothersome to you.

HTH

[JKJD]

Thank you for your comments. Yes, this was a candid moment. I just started snapping away at her while we were walking on the boardwalk. It was late afternoon and the sun was shinning directly on her. I tried to darken up the collar a bit in post production, but wasn't able to really do much with just Picasa. That's one of the things I wasn't really happy with, but could overlook because I liked the rest of the shot. I'm about to pick up some new programs, so there might be something I can do with it then. Her beautiful hair color is what made this a hard choice between the B&W and the color. She really liked the B&W so I put that one up.

[zona5101]

Originally Posted by lcb

zona, what could he have done different so the forehead and collar are not overexposed?
lcb

dodge it in post...or on location and you wanted the direct sunlight, underexpose it. I think getting the skin right would be more important than losing detail in some of the shadows.