Critique please.

bisdakr · Jan 22, 2007

Here's a shot of my sister right by the window, the shot was taken in RAW on a Digital XTi and Canon Digital Professional was use to edit the RAW file a few tweaks on lighting, white balance and RGB. Have I properly edited the picture? It seems as though there is more noise on a RAW file, could this be due to my editing?

shot on 50mm 1:1.8 Aperature at 2.0 E1/40s ISO 400

let me know what you guys think, any tips on how to improve the picture editing and what not. thanks.

russrom · Jan 22, 2007

Looks like you have a little too much blue in there (Hair in the window) Warm it up a little and it should be fins

bisdakr · Jan 22, 2007

thanks I'll give that a try, how about the noise level? is there anything I can do about the noise.

bisdakr · Jan 22, 2007

russrom said:
Looks like you have a little too much blue in there (Hair in the window) Warm it up a little and it should be fins

warmed it up a bit and less blue, let me know what you think.

newrmdmike · Jan 23, 2007

her face isn't as sharp as it could be, and theres going to always be an odd color cast here bc your under two different light types, whatever is coming through the window and the incandescent/tungstan light in your kitchen, where you shot your sister while eating breakfast and kind of sort of caught her off gaurd.

and the background is strange and distracting.

this doesn't do anything for me.

before you nitpic about color or anything else, have a good image!
if its not good starting out in SoME sense, then chances are it won't end up looking good.

sorry if this seemed totally negative . . .

LaFoto · Jan 23, 2007

As a spontaneous, almost candid photo of someone, it is nice.
The warming did not help the photo. I don't mind the blue around her hair, for that is from the outside light that fell through the window. I much prefer an adaptation to less yellow tones of the lamp light that lit her face in the moment you took the photo than the attempt to "fight" the blue from the other light.

So I would stay with the first version.
The noise could come from the ISO 400 you used to take this.

It looks like your focus slipped towards the glass your sister's holding...

All in all I am not quite as "negative" as Mike here (he isn't, not really, it is not his way to be truly negative!) about this photo. It certainly is a better candid than some and a better photo of someone else than many have in their albums. Maybe your sister's in for some more photo shoots? She is very pretty and could be an ideal model for you!

midnitejam · Jan 23, 2007

bisdakr,

I hope you don't mind that I've experimented with your image. If you approve of what I've taken the liberty to do, I'll provide instructions. If you don't approve I will delete.

bisdakr · Jan 24, 2007

thanks for the comments guys, any comment positive or negative is welcome, this is how I will learn to get better at this so anything is fine with me, and midnitejam i'm very interested as to how you edited the image in that way, I see that softening was used on the area of the face and her hair is more pronounced, i'm very interested on how this is done. my editing tools available at the moment is photoshop and neat image. Instructions to how this editing is done would be of great use for the future . I am mostly taking RAW pictures now and practicing my editing which is not so good but this will be a great addition to my practice. thanks again guys.

shingfan · Jan 24, 2007

your current setting is 50mm 1:1.8 Aperature at 2.0 E1/40s ISO 400

for the same image...try to use F2.8 1/40 ISO 200

this should reduce the noise a little...ISO 400 is the source of noise i think...and F2.8 should still provide a adaquate DOF and help with the focus....i kind of feel that your image is a little blur

bisdakr · Jan 24, 2007

yeah you're right it does appear blur it must be from the 1.8 i'll try 2.8 on my next shot with better backround, I took this shot of my mom against a black backround, is there a way to make the black hair stand out from a black backround? I don't think it was the best idea to have her on a black backround. I guess I was trying the affect of less noise and make it seem like she's the only one in the picture, make the backround seem like there's nothing there kinda shot I wanted, but her black hair seems to blend with the black backround.

shingfan · Jan 24, 2007

i'm a newbie.....but flash might bring out the hair with the reflection....need some creative lighting...or change the background to white...or other color with higher contrast........

Big Mike · Jan 24, 2007

your current setting is 50mm 1:1.8 Aperature at 2.0 E1/40s ISO 400
for the same image...try to use F2.8 1/40 ISO 200

If he did that, the shot would be two stops underexposed. If you lower the ISO, you have to open up the aperture to compensate...or increase the shutter speed.

I do think that shooting at F2.8 would help...because your DOF is a little too thin...and she is not all in focus. However, unless you add light...you won't be able to use F2.8...without further increasing the ISO or making the shutter speed too long to hand hold.

I guess I was trying the affect of less noise and make it seem like she's the only one in the picture, make the background seem like there's nothing there kinda shot I wanted, but her black hair seems to blend with the black backround.

What you would need to do...is to add a back light. That will separate her dark hair from the dark background.

bisdakr · Jan 24, 2007

thanks for the reply guys, I will try these on my next shot, i'm curious though as to how midnitejam was able to bring the hair out like that, I may not have gone that soft on the face but I like the way that her head stands out and makes your eyes go around her face with the hair being brought out, sorta make you feel to forget the backround. Any ideas on how he did this?