New here, and would like some criticism.

Stilltime · Dec 30, 2008

Hi all! I'm knew to this forum, and DSLR's, and would like some feedback on a photo I took the other day. I took several photography classes in high school, but otherwise I'm a total newbie. I just upgraded from a point and shoot to a DSLR (the rebel XSi kit).

Anyway, I took this picture the other day and really like it. There are a few things I would try differently next time, but I'm just curious what some of the more experienced people think of it.

samal · Dec 30, 2008

i like it - addition of circular polarizer could probably bring the sky out more

Stilltime · Dec 30, 2008

Filters? Gah! I'm just trying to figure out how to work my camera! :lol:

That picture was 3 days out the box, and I've never used a DSLR before in my life. I'm just trying to figure out how to work the darn thing.

I was wondering if it's a bit over exposed, though? We were in a shaded spot under a tree and I kept getting darker pictures. So to keep the crispness since she was moving I used the flash to fill in some of the shadows. I go back and forth between loving it and thinking it's a tad over exposed.

OldClicker · Dec 30, 2008

To me there is some overexposure on the back of her arm and hand (plus a little on the right side of her face), but this isn't from the flash unless you had it way off to your left and high over her right shoulder. Looks like sun to me. If you have it in RAW, you may be able to recover some of the detail.

Try cropping it a little to her left and on the right so that the chain goes into the corner. Brighten it just a tad (though all monitors are different) and it will be an excellent memory.

TF

Overread · Dec 30, 2008

you did right in using the flash to fill in the light.

The sky is very bright and the dominant lighting in the photo appears not to be hitting the child - she is shaded. This gives you 3 options

1) point the camera at the sky, see the settings and then shoot with those when taking the shot - the sky will be well exposed, but the child will be underexposed

2) point the camera at the child and shoot with that exposure settings - this time the child will be well exposed and the sky will be way overexposed as its a far brighter light source.

3) expose for the sky and use flash to fill in the light for the child - the flash won't affect the lighting in the sky, its too far off to be affected, but it will make up for the missing light on the child.

Shooting in the bright sunlight is tricky at best as it has a good chance of overexposing areas (blowouts) and even in RAW you cannot restore detial in those areas - the camera only records the white and details are lost. A circular polarizer can be used to good effect to lessen this problem of shooting in bright situations/with the sky in a shot - however if your going to go down the filter line then make sure you spend good money on one - cheap filters are worthless as they will degrade your image quality which is something that you don't want.