First post & critique request

[scubadude]

Canon EOS Digital Rebel, 75-300 1:4.5-5.6
Natural lighting in shade at a high school stadium in early May

[jliechty]

I would suggest that a very slight amount of fill flash would make the eyes not be so dark. However, if you have a decent photo editing program, you could experiment with the "dodge" function to selectively lighten the eyes just enough to make them come out of the shadow, but not enough to be obvious. Also, consider attempting some "soft filter" attempts in said imaging program, to make the portrait more flattering (in other words, to subdue some facial imperfections).

[swartzphotography]

since this i believe is just a test shot i think most of what j said is spot on probably easier to just use a fill flash the 550 digital flash by cannon works great for that outside when you have shadows. in the future i would try composing with your subject off center some or filling the frame more to instead of hide her facial imperfections bring them out in high detail older people are far more interesting when you can see the wrinkles and imperfections of course these are all just my oppinions

[scubadude]

Thanks for your replies. I'll see what I can do to improve.

[cox]

You also might try a less busy background - the stripes are a little distracting. You could fuzz them with a wider aperture (a 50mm f/1.8 is cheap and good for portraits or when out shooting random subjects). Have you tried converting this one to B&W? Sometimes that's more pleasing with high contrast.

[Queen Josephine]

You also might try a less busy background - the stripes are a little distracting. You could fuzz them with a wider aperture (a 50mm f/1.8 is cheap and good for portraits or when out shooting random subjects). Have you tried converting this one to B&W? Sometimes that's more pleasing with high contrast.

Agree with Cox about the background.... I kept thinking that what thing in the upper right corner was a hat!

[scubadude]

The background are the bleachers, and the white blob in the upper right is the white T-shirt on another spectator.

I see what you mean, though. It will give me some things to play with as I continue to explore Photoshop.

[AjP]

I absolutely agree with everyone, background need to be more blurry and the guy in upper right corner need to disappear :), try to edit it in Photoshop, may be make background B&W and more blurry or completely replace it, definitely for this type of picture better use lenses with f/1.4-f/2.8 and fill shadows with flash

[Kevin Sadler]

Hi scubadude. Everyone is giving great advice. Honestly I would stay away from photoshop for now and concentrate on getting the best image you can make when you press the shutter. That will save you a lot of time over the long run. We all struggle at this but if you train yourself to do these steps you'll be waaaay ahead of the game:

1. "See" the picture you want before you take it
Let's take this pic for example and for sake of argument your goal is to make a portrait/headshot.
Armed with that information you can make the following decisions:
a. I need to blur that background so I need a wide aperture, better switch to aperture priority and crank it up.
b. humans need catchlights in their eyes so i better use some fill flash (you do have your flash mounted all the time right? lol)
c. hmmm even though she's got a heart of gold and a great smile she gets rather stern looking when i stick this big camera in her face so I have a choice. I can hang out and get a couple of candids when her guard is down, or I can talk to her and get her feeling comfortable about what i'm doing and how she looks.
d. these dang digital slr's are sooooo unforgiving to these poor ladies that i'll bump up my exposure compensation +1/3 to +2/3 to give her a brighter, "cleaner" look.
e. ok now remember to get the focus point on those eyes and get the eyes above the centerline.

got it? one more quick scan.......looks ok. click.

I know it sounds like a lot but with practice and taking lots of pictures and participating in places like dphoto you'll be able to do that kind of drill in the blink of an eye. You will only "need" photoshop for refinement and creative ideas and not need to "fix" photos. You've got good gear and a good attitude and the world is filled with subjects so you're on the right track to success. later, kevin

[scubadude]

Armed with that information you can make the following decisions:
a. I need to blur that background so I need a wide aperture, better switch to aperture priority and crank it up.

Roger

b. humans need catchlights in their eyes so i better use some fill flash (you do have your flash mounted all the time right? lol)

All I have so far is the mounted flash that came with the camera (Canon Digital Rebel)

c. hmmm even though she's got a heart of gold and a great smile she gets rather stern looking when i stick this big camera in her face so I have a choice. I can hang out and get a couple of candids when her guard is down, or I can talk to her and get her feeling comfortable about what i'm doing and how she looks.

Actually, at the time, it wasn't in her face. I was down on the field and used a zoom lens at about a 250-ish focal length

d. these dang digital slr's are sooooo unforgiving to these poor ladies that i'll bump up my exposure compensation +1/3 to +2/3 to give her a brighter, "cleaner" look.

I've found that the Canon Digital Rebel tends to go dark, so I'm already shooting at about a +1, but then again, I've only had it for about two weeks now.

e. ok now remember to get the focus point on those eyes and get the eyes above the centerline.


I know it sounds like a lot but with practice and taking lots of pictures and participating in places like dphoto you'll be able to do that kind of drill in the blink of an eye. You will only "need" photoshop for refinement and creative ideas and not need to "fix" photos. You've got good gear and a good attitude and the world is filled with subjects so you're on the right track to success. later, kevin

Thanks a lot for your post! Lots of good info!

John