over exposed or under exposed?

[sadie2888]

I am wondering if my picrtures are under-exposed? I have noticed other photographers lighten theirs up quite a bit and I'm not sure if it's just me, but I'm not really liking it.. the more they lighten it the less color is there.. ie the sky but maybe it's me? Should I be brightening my pictures? I have attached one if I should be doing this let me know please

[RecurrentNerve]

I would say it is not so much underexposed as it is 'flat'. There are no true highlights or shadows to provide contrast and thus depth. That could be for just this particular photo of course.

[sadie2888]

How do I make it not "Flat". is that just my shot or is there something I should do in post production?

[RecurrentNerve]

In the case of this shot it looks like you've shot the subject in a shaded area so it's difficult to tell if you're underexposing every shot. If you shoot RAW (and you really should) you'll be processing it anyway so you might as well tweak it to improve contrast. I can do you a quick example using the above image if you like.

[sadie2888]

That would be great!! I tried to shoot raw and the processing in the camera was very long didn't work well when out on a shoot.. I'm going to put another photo/portrait up and could you tell me if it is still flat?

[LeeR]

One of the keys to getting images that are not flat but have the 'pop' we all look for is using the entire dynamic range available to us. In this image, partly becuase of the lighitng situation, you are only using a part of the range; there is no pure white, nor is there any pure black. Increase the range and the image will improve dramatically. At the risk of making a shameless plug, I would encourage you to check out the tutorial I did some time back on Levels. It will show you A) hoe to see a grahpic representation of the values in your image where you can see this for yourself, and B) show you how to correct this. I can tell you I did this myself on your image and I think you will be highly pleased with the results.(I used the reflection on her upper lip as my white, the darkest part of her hair as black and a light bit of mortar as gray.)

[RecurrentNerve]

The second one is much better. If the light was hitting the subject's face a little more it would be better still. Take advantage of the capacity and flexibility of digital photography to take plenty of shots from all the angles you can, that way you increase your chances of getting The Shot.

As for the first shot, how's this:



Levels slightly adjusted, then duplicated the layer and set it to Overlay and reduced the opacity of that layer a little.

[sadie2888]

that looks much better, I will try to do that on some others I took that day. I will try to post them. I am also going to watch those videos on levels.. maybe it will all make sense to me lol