Beautiful Gracie by the Window

[EJBPhoto]

Alright- mostly concerned about how the focus looks. I think I've got it? Tack sharp or not quite? I know the main CC will be the hot spots, so I'm saying that already. I realize my shutter was kind of slow (it was a dark room) so I'm actually surprised it's this sharp! I didn't use a tripod or anything. I'm having trouble getting my window lighting to work right... i either don't get enough light or I blow the face out. *Heavy Sigh* Anyway, CC please.

200, 1/40, f/4.2

 

[Aquarium Dreams]

The eyes look tack sharp to me. I love the expression on her face. It's hard to read. She looks very serious and grown up.

20

 

[EJBPhoto]

Thank you Can you believe she's in Kindergarten?

 

[milkofglass]

Window lighting can be tricky and irritating. One thing I've found to be very helpful is to set your subject up about 3 feet from a window that doesn't receive direct sunlight. Thats not the tricky part.

The tricky part is fooling your camera meter so that it doesn't see a huge white area near the window that is flooded with light (metering off that light) and seeing the skin tone of your subject and metering off your SUBJECT.

So what you do is go up to your subject, like seriously right in their face, and fill your frame with just them. Take those settings and use those, forget what your camera thinks you should use at a distance, switch it to manual and force it to take the picture at what it thought your subject should be shot at when it was inches away.

Then, bracket a few shots. Shoot a few at 1 and 2 shutters higher / lower and then choose which is best once you see them all blown up.

This is also a great method for when you want to shoot your subject inside a window. Typically your camera would meter the huge white space behind your subject, but if you get right in their face and meter your subject and just your subject (neglecting your background) and shoot it at those, you'll get a nicely overexposed background, but your subject will look perfect.

Most subjects in kindergarten don't let you get away with this, but you're looks like an exception, so give it a try and let me know if it helped

 

[EJBPhoto]

I can no longer photograph this subject unfortunately, but this was really helpful and I will keep it in mind for the future with other models. Thanks so much for the tips

How's the focus look?

 

[tpe]

Focus looks sharp from here, and very nice lighting, just enough detail in both highlights and shadow

 

[LaFoto]

Focus is correct!
And milkofglass's hints on how to plan a portrait shoot with parts of the background probably being too bright to the camera to measure correctly on the subject are very helpful. I will keep this in mind, too! Good to know! Thanks for that!

(And that makes me remember 40 years back when my father and uncle used all manual cameras without inbuilt light meters and they used an external one and would go right to my sibling's or my face to measure, they actually did the very same then! Only did they have to use to different instruments).