My beautiful niece.

[deannamb]

The girl loves a swing!

 

[dab_20]

It looks like your subject was back lit... which in most situations doesn't work. Her face and body is underexposed with a bright background. This is composed nicely and is a good photo. I might try it again and use a fill flash or some type of front lighting.

 

[Early]

Or you could have taken a spot reading off the girl's face and let the background burn up. The fill flash is a good idea, but it takes a lot of practice to get them to look natural.

 

[deannamb]

Yeah, this was just a spontaneous portrait in the front yard, not a photo shoot or anything requiring that much effort.

 

[Robin Usagani]

You can probably use fill light on your camera raw and fix it.

 

[JasonLambert]

Yeah, this was just a spontaneous portrait in the front yard, not a photo shoot or anything requiring that much effort.

Your camera has the meter built into it. It is just a matter of pointing the camera at the correct spot. You may want to read your owners manual cover to cover. Best book you will ever read!

 

[Derrel]

If you have a recent version of Photoshop, try Shadow/Highlight with a +55 value on the shadows...that will lighten up the shadows. Then, boost the saturation by a value of 35 or so, which will counteract the "flattening" of the colors due to the original Shadow lift. That will create a fairly realistic look, almost as if you'd use fill-in flash to counteract the natural backlighting.

 

[deannamb]

I have Elements 7 for now, I'm not sure it has that option?


Upgrading to CS3 at the end of the month. I'm gonna make a note to try that when I get it. Thanks, Derrel!

I'm new to a lot of this stuff. I've been practicing photography for 6 years but I've taught myself 95% of what I know. I just go with what looks nice and work off what doesn't.

Jason, I was referring to the fill flash comment. My niece was literally on the swing for all of 30 seconds because she got stung by a bee. I snapped it, she smiled, and that was the end of it. I plan on going back and doing more photos where these were taken-- The land there is absolutely gorgeous.

 

[deannamb]

I take it back, I decided to attempt it anyway. Thoughts?

 

[Early]

Much better!

 

[PattiS]

Adorable capture! In backlight situations I prefer to set my camera to expose for the face and let the background blow out. Although I might underexpose the skin very slightly (more than I would in a different lighting situation) in order to save some highlight detail. It's a delicate balance.

 

[xiaoxuetong]

very beautiful!

 

[IaR17]

Good PP! the composition is nice!:thumbup: