Event Photography

[jenniferrose]

I am a junior in high school, and I had the opportunity to take photos at the state track meet in Bloomington, IN. One of the girls from my high school was there, and I was assigned to take photos of her. This is the best shot I got of her in 3 hours. It was taken right after she won second place in her event. The person she is hugging is her brother. I would love some C & C.:blushing:

 

[skieur]

The most noticeable weakness is the lack of contrast between the people and the background. This can be easily adjusted in post processing.

 

[jenniferrose]

The most noticeable weakness? Are there more? I need to learn all I can so I can teach other students on my newspaper staff.

 

[caseyrbrown]

As skieur has said, a little post processing would help a ton with this. In camera, a little bit of fill flash, even from a pop-up, would help a little with skin tones. In post, brightening the shadows and toning down the highlights would make her pop a little more. A tiny more contrast would help too I think.

Composition wise, I think that keep either the top of her head or her entire hand in the shot would be a little better. Also, if you're using a zoom, it'd be pretty easy to get both of those elements in the shot. Even if you're using a prime, come to think of it, a few steps back would have easily got both of them in the shot.

You caught a good expression, and it'll look good in the paper for sure. Keep at it!

 

[The_Traveler]

It's underexposed because the sensor is seeing the bright sky behind them and trying to make that medium grey.

Do a search on back-lit exposures

 

[114florida]

It's underexposed because the sensor is seeing the bright sky behind them and trying to make that medium grey.

Do a search on back-lit exposures

Yes, this is the perfect answer i would hope and they learn and search for back-lit exposures.

 

[Tiller]

In situations where your background is brighter than your foreground, spot metering becomes useful. In this case, you should have spot metered her face, which would have given the proper exposure.

You can research spot metering online, or on your cameras manual.

 

[jenniferrose]

I added contrast and worked on the curves of the photo. What do you think?

 

[cgipson1]

I added contrast and worked on the curves of the photo. What do you think?

Her face is way too dark. You need to lighten it up a good bit. This is why flash is often used for backlit subjects... to provide light on the faces, without blowing out the background. One of the problems is that the face is badly underexposed, and so there will be some other issues like color, and clarity...

I did a curves adjustment on the white paper... to make it white... not gray


One thing that would have helped here (and would help in the future) is to use SPOT metering... and meter on the faces. This will allow a much more accurate exposure than other types of metering.

 

[DiskoJoe]

I added contrast and worked on the curves of the photo. What do you think?

Yeah, the exposure is still too dark.

 

[DiskoJoe]

I added contrast and worked on the curves of the photo. What do you think?

Her face is way too dark. You need to lighten it up a good bit. This is why flash is often used for backlit subjects... to provide light on the faces, without blowing out the background. One of the problems is that the face is badly underexposed, and so there will be some other issues like color, and clarity...

I did a curves adjustment on the white paper... to make it white... not gray
View attachment 54834

One thing that would have helped here (and would help in the future) is to use SPOT metering... and meter on the faces. This will allow a much more accurate exposure than other types of metering.

Better