Self Portrait.

Onyx · Nov 5, 2005

taken with a sony p-10 no flash.
I would like a critique on the posing/lighting and composition of this picture.
I know that my shirt is overexposed. Also is there a good way to have good skin exposure without blowing out white shirts?

elsaspet · Nov 5, 2005

Expose for the shirt and you can fix the rest in raw with a good conversion program. You might also want to hit this with a noise program as well. You've got some definate color noise here, but it may be that the red sat is set too high.

terri · Nov 5, 2005

The lighting looks a little hot. No blown areas on the skin except for the hand in the foreground, but I would certainly try to tone those down a bit. You'll need to experiment with your light placement, as the hand in the foreground is blown but the other is dark.

I like this pose. This has a lot of potential. :thumbup:

mistakendavis · Nov 5, 2005

it looks like you were placed in the picture. as lighting goes i would add a back light, this will help the fact that you look placed in.

Onyx · Nov 6, 2005

elsaspet said:
Expose for the shirt and you can fix the rest in raw with a good conversion program. You might also want to hit this with a noise program as well. You've got some definate color noise here, but it may be that the red sat is set too high.

I wanted to expose for the shirt but i wasnt able to find any way to do that without me being in front of the camera. Are there any tips you might have about focusing and exposing for self portraits?

One of these days I'm gonna have to find someone daring enough to pose for me. :lol:

elsaspet · Nov 6, 2005

Onyx said:
I wanted to expose for the shirt but i wasnt able to find any way to do that without me being in front of the camera. Are there any tips you might have about focusing and exposing for self portraits?

One of these days I'm gonna have to find someone daring enough to pose for me.

Hehe. I didn't think of that. Yeah, that must have been tough! Well now that you know you were a bit over exposed just lower it and give it another go. You're shooting digital, right? Maybe make an x on the floor or something. Anyhoo, It looks great besides that. I'd say it was worth a retry.

JamesD · Nov 6, 2005

You can use a gray card, or, you can do what I do... bracket! Film is cheap, pixels are free (after the initial investment, anyway...). Or, is that a white background you're standing in front of? Meter off it, then open up 1.5 or two stops or so, and bracket up and down one each.

The classic advice for film (negative film, that is) is to expose for the shadows, develop (or print) for the highlights, adjust (ie lower) contrast as necessary to bring out shadow detail while keeping highlight detail. This is how I do black and white (although I'm new at it, but it works for me so far). I think it would work for color, too; someone correct me if I'm wrong.

Onyx · Nov 6, 2005

ok i think its less blown out this time and less noise.
lemme know if its any better or what i could do better on this one please!

JamesD · Nov 6, 2005

Pretty good! Open up one stop (or maybe 2/3 or 1/2), maybe add just a touch of contrast (but probably not), and the exposure would be perfect. The upward shadow on the background looks unnatural, though.

elsaspet · Nov 7, 2005

VERY good! I like the pose better too. You got in a bit of a hurry with the clone or healing tool around your body. Be sure to mark and feather. Best yet, bounce or defuse the flash or come away from your background so you don't get stuck with a big PS job.

Are you shooting in raw?

Onyx · Nov 7, 2005

elsaspet said:
VERY good! I like the pose better too. You got in a bit of a hurry with the clone or healing tool around your body. Be sure to mark and feather. Best yet, bounce or defuse the flash or come away from your background so you don't get stuck with a big PS job.

Are you shooting in raw?

there i touched up the cloning.
my camera is a fully auto point and shoot sony p-10. it has a built in flash and it doesnt shoot in raw. I really want a dslr, but right now i dont have the money.

elsaspet · Nov 7, 2005

Well I must say for a point in shoot, you are doing a fantastic job!!!!!! Ok, just touch up the camera left side cloning, and I think you are gonna be dead on. What you did to the right side looks wonderful!

Onyx · Nov 8, 2005

elsaspet said:
Well I must say for a point in shoot, you are doing a fantastic job!!!!!! Ok, just touch up the camera left side cloning, and I think you are gonna be dead on. What you did to the right side looks wonderful!

ok i think ive improved the left sides cloning. is there anything else i can do to make it a better image?

RickyN29 · Nov 15, 2005

Wow, 300% improvement over the original! I like the hair too!

Only thing I could think is like someone mentioned before, edit out the shadow behind you on the upper half.

Other than that, great job

OTE?

vipros · Nov 17, 2005

The second one is definitely much better than the first one. However sony p-10's sensor may have some common P&S effect that manipulate WB too much. Try to take a same picuture with anohter camera eg Nikon D.