Eternal Guardians

[Rick58]

Ladies and gentleman, I would like you to meet Emma Clay

View attachment 24199

 

[FanBoy]

Good profile, Rick, but the photo could use some enhancement. The clone work is also obvious.

 

[Rick58]

View attachment 24204

Thanks Fan, What would you suggest? The left is straight out of the camera. As far as the background, I tried to rid myself of the gray lifeless sky by extending the hedge to the edges of the frame. I knew the sky was going to be a problem when I took the photo, so I tried to have the actual hedge all the way around her in the original so I could extend it in post. But it's that obvious, huh? I cleaned up some of her blemishes. What did you have in mind?

 

[FanBoy]

I actually didn't see the blemishes on the statue, but I was referring to the clone work in the background. I knew you probably had a disjointed background, and I would go with a solid or semi-solid background, too.

I see that you took this shot on auto-exposure? I'd stay away from that, especially in a situation like this. But you shot at a wide aperature, which is good to get your background 'bokeh'.

You can also try a longer lens, which should blur the background. I hope to attempt to get a similar photo soon!

 

[Rick58]

Thanks Fan, I went back and checked my EXIF and I was in aperture priorty. My thought process:

As I said, I knew the sky was going to be a problem so I utilized the background hedge by insuring it completely surrounded the monument. This way I wouldn't have to attempt to clone directly against the monument

I chose AP to insure that hedge stayed OOF by opening up the lens to 4.5

Spot metered off the neutral gray granite to avoid the bright sky the dark hedge

I chose the ISO 200 / 125 combo to keep the grain of the granite crisp and sharp

I'm including my thought process as a learning tool. Maybe someone can show me how it could have been done better, or maybe a beginner can see something useful

 

[pgriz]

I like the image. I think your thought process is fine too. However, to add to FanBoy's remarks: A longer focal length would have reduced the amount of background sky (because the angle of view is less), and that would have reduced the amount of cloning you'd have to do. As well, a longer focal length would have been able to isolate your subject a bit more. Of course, we don't know how much room you had to work with, and whether backing up (to allow you to use a longer focal length) was even an option.

A useful exercise in this context, is to use different focal lengths on a subject, and to arrange that the subject is the same size in all the shots. Looking the set over, you'll see both perspective differences and the way the background appears. Wider angles tend to separate the background from the foreground, and to include more of the background (because of the angle of view). Narrower angles (mid to strong telephoto) tend to compress the background (make it look closer), but include less of it (again, due to the angle of view).

 

[Rick58]

I like the image. I think your thought process is fine too. However, to add to FanBoy's remarks: A longer focal length would have reduced the amount of background sky (because the angle of view is less), and that would have reduced the amount of cloning you'd have to do. As well, a longer focal length would have been able to isolate your subject a bit more. Of course, we don't know how much room you had to work with, and whether backing up (to allow you to use a longer focal length) was even an option.

A useful exercise in this context, is to use different focal lengths on a subject, and to arrange that the subject is the same size in all the shots. Looking the set over, you'll see both perspective differences and the way the background appears. Wider angles tend to separate the background from the foreground, and to include more of the background (because of the angle of view). Narrower angles (mid to strong telephoto) tend to compress the background (make it look closer), but include less of it (again, due to the angle of view).

Thanks for that. Looking at the EXIF I was shooting at 46mm which would have given me some room to take advantage of the 70mm zoom. Maybe I'll go back "and play" one day. I can't use the "no room to back up so I didn't have a choice" excuse.