Baby's Day Out

[avishek24]

Here is a picture that I ended up taking in a hurry (am regretting now) and couldn't blur out the background using the camera. I ended up using photoshop to do so and I suppose it has become somewhat obvious around the two figures in the picture. Apart from that, would you think that the exposure is fine and whether using this tone in the picture is a good idea?

The details of the picture are -
Camera: Canon EOS Kiss X2
Exposure: 0.025 sec (1/40)
Aperture: f/10.0
Focal Length: 55 mm
ISO Speed: 400

[amymnc]

With F10 you're going to have everything in focus, no background blur. Depending on the lighting and background situation, you'll probably need at least F4.

Your subject is dark but background area seems overexposed. Unless that's the look you were going for. I would try to blur the trees and building some more in photoshop if you can. My eyes are thinking that your subject is the background since I can see details there (the tree and building) but the people are dark. Hope to have helped a little. Thanks for sharing!

[avishek24]

Thanks amync. You are right, I do need a f number of 4 or something around that. I clicked the picture in a hurry and wasn't able to change it. I will try and blur out the background a bit more as you have suggested. Slightly difficult to do in photoshop, but will try my best

I do have one question though. If I try and reduce the exposure for the background, it would reduce it for the overall picture and therefore make the subject darker as well. Is there any way that I can selectively reduce the exposure only for specific areas of the picture?

Thanks for your help!

[swedg]

I'll let someone else answer in detail, but Photoshop has a "burn" tool as well as the possibility to "select" and modify portions of an image independently. I've just been discovering some of these things. Nice shot.

[avishek24]

Thanks! I will try and find out how the burn tool works as well....