Bicycle C&C

[Timo]

Alright. I'm looking for some comments on this picture. Feel free to be as brutal as necessary. Honesty is more important than saved feelings.

What I think I could have done better was to have underexposed it a little and used a fill flash to get a more light on the face while keeping the arm from blowing out.

 

[Aayria]

I like the idea, and the boy's expression I would agree though- that it looks overexposed to my eye. I don't know if a flash would improve- to me flash can be harsh, especially when trying to capture pictures of children. I like to go as natural as possible, and focus on the eyes.

I'd say (and take my opinion with a grain of salt, I'm still new to this!) that maybe if you could fill in the light on his face with a reflector (even just a piece of white poster board) increase the shutter speed a bit so it's less exposed, make your aperture as wide as possible so we see more blurred background, drawing the eye to the child's face... you might get a better result.

Again all in all, I like the photo and think it was a great attempt. I just wish you could see the child's eyes a bit more clearly, they seem kind of lost in shadow compared to the glaring background.

 

[iAstonish]

Would be nice to see more of the bike in frame.

 

[Timo]

Here is a better edit from the original:

 

[myfotoguy]

You're right, expose for the background and use fill. The edited second shot looks better, maybe boost the contrast just a hint, some was lost when lightening the shadows.

- Expose for the background under by one stop.
- Then use fill flash on the subject using +/- flash compensation. If you have a speedlight use "balanced" type of mode, on Nikon speedlight it's TTL-BL
- Used flash compensation to adjust the fill.

Example, no flash compensation was needed for this shot.
1/640 @ f/5.6, ISO 250, -1.00 EV