And now for my girl

fotomumma09 · May 23, 2012

C&C welcome please
F4, 1/80, ISO 160, 45mm

MTVision · May 23, 2012

Cute little girl!

Its a sweet picture but it has a couple issues. It looks a little soft and noisy - especially for such a low ISO. Did you Underexpose it in camera and then raise the exposure in post? That's the only thing I can think of that would cause that kind of noise at that ISO. She also has a bluish (?) color cast on the top of her head. The white balance looks like it might be a little on the cool side - warming it up might reduce some of that color cast as well.

Have you played around with any crops? Just thinking that it might look good by trimming off some of the extra space but that's just my opinion.

I'm assuming this is your daughter - does she like having her picture taken? My kid absolutely hates it!

fotomumma09 · May 23, 2012

MTVision said:
Cute little girl!

Its a sweet picture but it has a couple issues. It looks a little soft and noisy - especially for such a low ISO. Did you Underexpose it in camera and then raise the exposure in post? That's the only thing I can think of that would cause that kind of noise at that ISO. She also has a bluish (?) color cast on the top of her head. The white balance looks like it might be a little on the cool side - warming it up might reduce some of that color cast as well.

Have you played around with any crops? Just thinking that it might look good by trimming off some of the extra space but that's just my opinion.

I'm assuming this is your daughter - does she like having her picture taken? My kid absolutely hates it!

You totally nailed it Megan! I am a chronic under exposer

. I tried to recover in PP. I took your advice and played with the white balance. What do you think? Is her skin colour ok? It is my daughter and she loves posing for the camera if in a good mood

fotomumma09 · May 23, 2012

oops here is the pic

elizabethysmom · May 24, 2012

Oooo I love your second edit!

fotomumma09 · May 24, 2012

elizabethysmom said:
Oooo I love your second edit!

Thank you

MReid · May 24, 2012

Cute shot, skin still looks green.

The_Traveler · May 24, 2012

One of the problems with underexposure of faces, besides noise obviously, is that the raised shadows are treadfully low contrast and there is little or no detail or micro-texture in the skin.

and there is none here.

It has a blue and green cast from the environment - that's correctable - but the flat skin tone isn't.

Shoot some more.

MTVision · May 24, 2012

fotomumma09 said:
You totally nailed it Megan! I am a chronic under exposer. I tried to recover in PP. I took your advice and played with the white balance. What do you think? Is her skin colour ok? It is my daughter and she loves posing for the camera if in a good mood

I was like that in the beginning too. I read a book that said it was better to Underexpose and fix in post. But I now know that's not the best. You should look up ETTR. You expose to the right of the histogram and this way it reduces noise even with high ISO's. It takes practice because you don't want to overexpose and blow anything important. And then you can always fix exposure in post if you need to by lowering it or whatever works for that image.