Early Morning

[Ed B]

Only my second post to this forum and another older image taken with an older DSLR.

Some of you take such great shots that I'm almost embarrassed to post my meager efforts here.

 

[cantinflas]

Very nice and cute shot.

 

[dad_of_four]

I'm having a hard time understanding the lighting. It's coming from the side, which is fine, but her entire face is in the shadows. Any particular reason?

 

[Ed B]

I'm having a hard time understanding the lighting. It's coming from the side, which is fine, but her entire face is in the shadows. Any particular reason?

That's a good question and one I don't have an answer for.

The picture was originally in color and had a pretty bad background. I converted it to black & white and did a lot of work (cloning) on the background to get something a little more acceptable.

Can't explain the lighting, that may just be the way it turned out or, I may have screwed something up when I made my adjustments.

 

[sabrina81]

The face in shadow isn't necessarily a deal killer on this one. A little more fill would have been wonderful ... but! ... you can't give us what you ain't got.

So here's the main problem I see: All of these highlights (green arrows) are clipped in the posted image. In the original image they are 1) probably languishing in the raw file waiting to be recovered, or 2) if you didn't shoot raw, they are lost forever and the image isn't worth bothering with.



If the answer is 2, I suggest that you solve the problem immediately by setting your camera to shoot raw, and learn how to process raw files. It ain't rocket surgery.

 

[Ed B]

The face in shadow isn't necessarily a deal killer on this one. A little more fill would have been wonderful ... but! ... you can't give us what you ain't got.

So here's the main problem I see: All of these highlights (green arrows) are clipped in the posted image. In the original image they are 1) probably languishing in the raw file waiting to be recovered, or 2) if you didn't shoot raw, they are lost forever and the image isn't worth bothering with.



If the answer is 2, I suggest that you solve the problem immediately by setting your camera to shoot raw, and learn how to process raw files. It ain't rocket surgery.

You're right, the highlights are blown.

 

[DenWil]

I'm having a hard time understanding the lighting. It's coming from the side, which is fine, but her entire face is in the shadows. Any particular reason?

That's a good question and one I don't have an answer for.

The picture was originally in color and had a pretty bad background. I converted it to black & white and did a lot of work (cloning) on the background to get something a little more acceptable.

Can't explain the lighting, that may just be the way it turned out or, I may have screwed something up when I made my adjustments.

I realize this is not a job, you are just shooting so to speak, but my images were not always for a job either, so a few thoughts...

Why shoot it if there is a bad background. Change the background or do not shoot. Such an easy fix. Conversely-

Why force the reinvent when it had a bad background rather than simply starting again another time with what you learned.

Lighting does not just turn out. Certainly someone with 7400 posts knows this.

Expose for the brightest light and let the shadows fall where they may or expose for the shade and expect blown lit areas. I always do the former but that is not so popular on this site where backlighting and electrics are king. Either case get yourself a grey card and no more unintentional exposures. Ever.

Lastly, never convert to B&W to salvage. Shoot B&W from the beginning. Design in B&W or design in color. Ridiculously few images work equally either way but when they do the subject matter is significantly changed and it plays differently.

 

[sabrina81]

Why shoot it if there is a bad background. Change the background or do not shoot.

I absolutely disagree with this. If it isn't a commercial job (and often even if it is a commercial job), it costs zero to press the shutter and take your chances. No film or chemicals or darkroom time required. You might just capture a priceless expression on a child's face that will warm your heart for the rest of your life.

Given that possibility, why not shoot if there is a bad background? When in doubt, shoot. Maybe the background can be fixed, maybe not. It costs nothing to find out.

 

[sabrina81]

Shoot B&W from the beginning. Design in B&W or design in color.

More bad advice. If your goal is a B&W photo/print, shoot in color. That will give you far more creative flexibility when you convert to B&W. Don't let your camera decide which colors get which grayscale values. Shoot in color so that you can make those decisions.

 

[Ed B]

I'm having a hard time understanding the lighting. It's coming from the side, which is fine, but her entire face is in the shadows. Any particular reason?

That's a good question and one I don't have an answer for.

The picture was originally in color and had a pretty bad background. I converted it to black & white and did a lot of work (cloning) on the background to get something a little more acceptable.

Can't explain the lighting, that may just be the way it turned out or, I may have screwed something up when I made my adjustments.

I realize this is not a job, you are just shooting so to speak, but my images were not always for a job either, so a few thoughts...

Why shoot it if there is a bad background. Change the background or do not shoot. Such an easy fix. Conversely-

Why force the reinvent when it had a bad background rather than simply starting again another time with what you learned.

Lighting does not just turn out. Certainly someone with 7400 posts knows this.

Not disagreeing with anything you or anyone else said but as I said in my original comment, this is an old picture.

It was taken 12 years ago. Long before I had 7400 posts.

Here is the original picture with the EXIF data; Taken in 2004

Expose for the brightest light and let the shadows fall where they may or expose for the shade and expect blown lit areas. I always do the former but that is not so popular on this site where backlighting and electrics are king. Either case get yourself a grey card and no more unintentional exposures. Ever.

Lastly, never convert to B&W to salvage. Shoot B&W from the beginning. Design in B&W or design in color. Ridiculously few images work equally either way but when they do the subject matter is significantly changed and it plays differently.

 

[Nick_Brisbane]

[No message]

 

[curiosifly]

Not disagreeing with anything you or anyone else said but as I said in my original comment, this is an old picture.

It was taken 12 years ago. Long before I had 7400 posts.

Here is the original picture with the EXIF data; Taken in 2004

Expose for the brightest light and let the shadows fall where they may or expose for the shade and expect blown lit areas. I always do the former but that is not so popular on this site where backlighting and electrics are king. Either case get yourself a grey card and no more unintentional exposures. Ever.

Lastly, never convert to B&W to salvage. Shoot B&W from the beginning. Design in B&W or design in color. Ridiculously few images work equally either way but when they do the subject matter is significantly changed and it plays differently.

I like how you processed it and you did a good job hiding the background. And I don't think you should lose the shot just because you don't have a good background. The face is a little dark though. Would be great if she's slightly looking to her right and smiling (but again, she's not a professional model, or is she?). I don't think the blown out bear is too much of an issue since it's not the main subject. if it is, it's because it is much brighter than your lovely girl's face. So again, she should have looked to her right I like your black+white version.

--
ciao

 

[Ed B]

Not disagreeing with anything you or anyone else said but as I said in my original comment, this is an old picture.

It was taken 12 years ago. Long before I had 7400 posts.

Here is the original picture with the EXIF data; Taken in 2004

Expose for the brightest light and let the shadows fall where they may or expose for the shade and expect blown lit areas. I always do the former but that is not so popular on this site where backlighting and electrics are king. Either case get yourself a grey card and no more unintentional exposures. Ever.

Lastly, never convert to B&W to salvage. Shoot B&W from the beginning. Design in B&W or design in color. Ridiculously few images work equally either way but when they do the subject matter is significantly changed and it plays differently.

I like how you processed it and you did a good job hiding the background. And I don't think you should lose the shot just because you don't have a good background. The face is a little dark though. Would be great if she's slightly looking to her right and smiling (but again, she's not a professional model, or is she?). I don't think the blown out bear is too much of an issue since it's not the main subject. if it is, it's because it is much brighter than your lovely girl's face. So again, she should have looked to her right I like your black+white version.

--
ciao

Thanks for the nice comment.

The picture (neither version) was ever intended to be anything other than a family type snapshot and I realize (especially after a couple of the comments ) that's it's far from perfect.

Hopefully my portrait abilities and Photoshop skills have improved a bit, over the years

 

[dankwok]

I realize this is not a job, you are just shooting so to speak, but my images were not always for a job either, so a few thoughts...

Why shoot it if there is a bad background. Change the background or do not shoot. Such an easy fix. Conversely-

Why force the reinvent when it had a bad background rather than simply starting again another time with what you learned.

Lighting does not just turn out. Certainly someone with 7400 posts knows this.

Not disagreeing with anything you or anyone else said but as I said in my original comment, this is an old picture.

It was taken 12 years ago. Long before I had 7400 posts.

Here is the original picture with the EXIF data; Taken in 2004

Expose for the brightest light and let the shadows fall where they may or expose for the shade and expect blown lit areas. I always do the former but that is not so popular on this site where backlighting and electrics are king. Either case get yourself a grey card and no more unintentional exposures. Ever.

Lastly, never convert to B&W to salvage. Shoot B&W from the beginning. Design in B&W or design in color. Ridiculously few images work equally either way but when they do the subject matter is significantly changed and it plays differently.

I like this original photo much better than the B&W one. Did you shoot in RAW? Maybe you can recover some of the highlights if you still have the RAW file. To me, the background isn't that busy, and I would just leave it. Plus, most of the busy objects are in the shadow, so they do not fight for attention with the main subject. The highlights on the bear are more distracting than the background. With this kind of candid photos, I actually prefer to leave some bg to add context anyway.

In addition, the color version actually makes the highlights of the bear less of a distraction than in the B&W version. In B&W, all you have is tonality and so the stark contrast of the blown highlights really stands out.

--
-Daniel