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Christmas Pic PLEASE HELP

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paulj623

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Hello. Please help me. I was taking these pictures of my daughter today to send out for christmas pics but just cant get it right. In order to get the christmas tree to look good i needed to adjust the flash to about +1 which then blew out aubreis face. on the other hand when i dial down she looks fine but the tree is dark. Any help or suggestions please. Can this be fixed with some post processing. I would like the shot where the tree is nice and somehow just tone down the light on my daughter.







 
If you are using an external flash, bouce it off the ceiling. If you are not, you'll have to switch to manual and begin mixing ambient light into the picture to avoid the "flash" effect.

I was testing that yesterday, as a matter of fact. Watch your meter, if is a stop or 1 1/3 below the correct exposure w/o flash, just add the flash to fill the light to her. If your shutter speed turns out too slow to freeze motion, you'll have to increase it a bit until there are no halos around moving objects.

Is kind of a trial and error, but you'll eventually get it right.
paulj623 said:
Hello. Please help me. I was taking these pictures of my daughter today to send out for christmas pics but just cant get it right. In order to get the christmas tree to look good i needed to adjust the flash to about +1 which then blew out aubreis face. on the other hand when i dial down she looks fine but the tree is dark. Any help or suggestions please. Can this be fixed with some post processing. I would like the shot where the tree is nice and somehow just tone down the light on my daughter.







Click to expand...
--
Martin Ocando
-------------------------

 
paulj623 said:
Hello. Please help me. I was taking these pictures of my daughter today to send out for christmas pics but just cant get it right. In order to get the christmas tree to look good i needed to adjust the flash to about +1 which then blew out aubreis face. on the other hand when i dial down she looks fine but the tree is dark. Any help or suggestions please. Can this be fixed with some post processing. I would like the shot where the tree is nice and somehow just tone down the light on my daughter.
Click to expand...
For Christmas trees to get the lights to register (I'm assuming you want the lights to glow) you'll need to set the camera around ISO 800, f4, 1/50th second, adjust as necessary. Start here and get the tree to register for your ambient light. Camera on manual mode will work best here.

For the flash, get it off camera if you can aimed from probably camera left side to illuminate the subject. If you can't fire it off camera, aim the flash head to bounce towards the ceiling and side walls for some directional light. Any lamps in the room can also be turned on to provide some ambient glow for more mood.

Also I would zoom in to crop tighter on this photo, too much dead space. Your daughter is the picture, the rest is just background. Here's a shot I did last year using this technique, my flash was off camera thru an umbrella but you can get a similar result with bouncing off the ceiling and walls.





--
Check out the new site:
http://www.gipperich-photography.com
Or the portrait gallery:
http://www.pbase.com/gipper51/portraits
 
Get a fire going in that fireplace, or don't include it in the photo. Now it looks like a big empty hole on that side.
Plus the fire would add some nice warm ambient light to the scene.
 
Can I fix with any post processing
 
Perfect example of why you need a flash unit. You could put it off camera and use it and your on camera, or just use a bounce.



You could use photoshop or another editing program to bring up the shadows a bit, but right now the flash is casting shadows that are too harsh. You could also try cropping in a lot, just your daughter and part of the tree - you don't need the whole tree in there to get the idea it's a Christmas tree!

Agree with other poster about a fire in fireplace, the more light sources you get in there the better!
 
Does the tree have lights? Turn 'em on!
 
Get lower. Taking picture of children is always better at their own height. Try it and you'll see the difference.

--
Martin Ocando
-------------------------

 
Little trick here, lower your ISO from 200 to 100, and the flash will not be as harsh.

Bernard

--

I measure my success in life not by my awards, but by the amount of smiles, hugs and kisses I get from my family on a daily basis !
 
In Photoshop, use the shadow/highlight tool to bring out details in the darker areas without making the entire image too bright.



--
Tymevest
 
Nice fix .
I would just drag from here and print it .

I would turn camera upside [ bounce flash off floor, use pop up flash ] and sit in a chair . Then crop out sides . Turn on xmas lights .
--
1st it's a hobby
7D gripped XTI gripped
Canon - efs 10-22 , 17-55 , ef 18-55 IS
EF 28-90 , 28 @ 2.8 , 50 @1.8 , 28-135 IS
L's 35-350 , 70-200 MK II IS
Quantaray lens 70-300 macro
Sigma 135 - 400 , 180 MACRO
2X III , Life Size converter
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kenko auto tubes , EF 25
 
A quick go in pp. Obviously this was a low quality jpeg so it could be better.





--
Chris
 
Here's what I did by just opening it in Photoshop Elements, Edit & Enhance, then selecting Enhance/Adjust Lighting/Shadows & Highlights, then I just pushed the slider on Lighten Shadows, and that was it.

Photoshop is quite good about lightening shadows without affecting the rest of the photo. In fact, it's so good that I use it as a simple HDR processor.





--
Canon since 1969
 
Gotta think Background Exposure (Christmas Tree) and Foreground Exposure (your daughter).

I thought I read somewhere that you were using a 580EX speedlight? The nice thing about your 7D is that it has an integrated speedlight control….meaning, it can serve as the master to fire your 580EX speedlight off-camera .

Assumption: You know how to setup and fire your 580EX off-camera using your 7D as the master.

Here’s how I would go about it…very, very simple to do.
  • Cut off all the room lights you don't want on
  • Cut on the lights to the tree
  • Set your camera to manual mode
  • Set your ISO to 200 (starting point only)
  • Set your Aperture to f/5.6 (starting point only)
  • With your camera in manual mode (my preference), point it at the lit tree and dial in a shutter speed that gives you a balanced exposure (The EV needle will be centered).
  • If the shutter speeds are too slow, then increase the ISO.
  • Take a test shot of the lit tree. Increase or decrease the exposure of the tree to suit.
  • Once you have a nice shot of your lit tree, it’s time to put your daughter into the scene. But, put her into the foreground, several feet in front of the tree. Let there be some separation between her and the background .
  • This is where you will use your flash to set an exposure of her. To keep things simple, shoot with the flash set to ETTL. Simply place the flash on a table/stand/whatever. You can use direct flash. Just use Flash Exposure Compensation (FEC) to adjust the output. You could try bouncing the flash, but it needs to be in a direction where it won’t light up the room and ruin the ambient lighting of the tree. Nevertheless, it’s important to place the flash relatively close to the subject, for soft light. Or place the speedlight farther back for harsher lighting/shadows which can be very dramatic too.
That's all there is to it.

A Background exposure (ISO, Aperture, Shutter Speed) for the tree.
A Foreground exposure (Flash on the subject)

Once you get the hang of it…you’ll be smacking yourself in the forehead.

Regards, Mike

--
B.R.A.S.S. (Breathe, Relax, Aim, Sight, Squeeze)



A Link To - WilbaW's Unofficial Rebel Forum FAQ- http://snipurl.com/RebelFAQ
 
Thx. Will give it a try
 
My Ambient Light exposure for the Christmas Tree (the background) is: ISO 1000, Shutter Speed 1/8, f/4.5

The Foreground Exposure was from a 580EX flash in the camera’s hotshoe set to ETTL.

I was too lazy (and cold) to setup an off-camera flash on a stand. :(

Remember this tip…Generally speaking, the flash from your speedlight will not affect the background ambient-light exposure. This really becomes problematic when you are in a small space and you don’t have the space available to physically separate the foreground from the background. Although you can place an off-camera light (with an appropriate modifier, softbox for instance) really close and feathered to the foreground so that it doesn’t illuminate the background.



Best Regards, Mike

--
B.R.A.S.S. (Breathe, Relax, Aim, Sight, Squeeze)



A Link To - WilbaW's Unofficial Rebel Forum FAQ- http://snipurl.com/RebelFAQ
 
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