Fair Skin

[ttobaben]

When I shot this young lady I didn't realize how fair her skin was. Even in the setting sun there were a lot of highlights on her and as a result areas of her skin are a little bright / blown out. I have tried to do a recovery on the photo in PS, but this was the best result I could get. Other than metering her better in the shoot, anything I can do to get better skin tones in the lighter areas or am I just out of luck and need to reshoot?

 

[Ysarex]

Do you have a raw file?

 

[runnah]

The color here is beyond wonky. Go B&W.

 

[tirediron]

Use a reflector.

 

[kathyt]

This is one of those cases where you would have to spot meter off of the skin to get accurate exposure for her. You needed something else to fill the shadows as well. Flash or reflector would have worked.

 

[ttobaben]

Do you have a raw file?​

I do...

The color here is beyond wonky. Go B&W.

LOL, could you define 'wonky' for me...i.e. is it the general color of the photo that's off or maybe the color of the grass, the colors she is wearing in her choice of clothes / makeup? B&W is certainly a good option.

Use a reflector.​

Duly noted, thank you sir!

 

[runnah]

Wonky as WB is off.

KT was right about using the spot meter on her face. Having done that would have made the colors richer.

 

[tirediron]

This is one of those cases where you would have to spot meter off of the skin to get accurate exposure for her. You needed something else to fill the shadows as well. Flash or reflector would have worked.

Actually Kathy, I would suggest that reflective metering in general is going to be inadequate for this, and that the best way to actually meter the scene (irrespective of supplemental lighting) will be with an incident meter.

 

[Ysarex]

Do you have a raw file?​

I do...

The color here is beyond wonky. Go B&W.

LOL, could you define 'wonky' for me...i.e. is it the general color of the photo that's off or maybe the color of the grass, the colors she is wearing in her choice of clothes / makeup? B&W is certainly a good option.

Use a reflector.​

Duly noted, thank you sir!

Wonky isn't a very precise term but, runnah is correct the white balance is pretty far off:



Getting the WB right will help. If you do have a raw file the blown highlights may not be blown in the raw capture and it may be possible to process the photo to retain those highlights. You can check the real status of the highlights in your raw file using RawDigger.

Joe

 

[kathyt]

I don't use an incident meter. I will however generally overexpose about 1+ on her to make sure she is still on the zone I want her to be. The backround is irrelevant to me, because I can brighten it up if I need to, but if I use a reflector I generally don't even need to brighten the backround up at all. If the OP uses a incident meter then he would know more about that then I would.
OP, Wonky means:
Wickity Wack, just not right, looks funky, just "off"
This is my definition.

 

[runnah]

I don't use an incident meter. I will however generally overexpose about 1+ on her to make sure she is still on the zone I want her to be. The backround is irrelevant to me, because I can brighten it up if I need to, but if I use a reflector I generally don't even need to brighten the backround up at all. If the OP uses a incident meter then he would know more about that then I would.
OP, Wonky means:
Wickity Wack, just not right, looks funky, just "off"
This is my definition.

+1? That is wonky. I normally err on the side of caution and go underexposed. When a highlight is blown there ain't no getting it back.

 

[kathyt]

I don't use an incident meter. I will however generally overexpose about 1+ on her to make sure she is still on the zone I want her to be. The backround is irrelevant to me, because I can brighten it up if I need to, but if I use a reflector I generally don't even need to brighten the backround up at all. If the OP uses a incident meter then he would know more about that then I would.
OP, Wonky means:
Wickity Wack, just not right, looks funky, just "off"
This is my definition.

+1? That is wonky. I normally err on the side of caution and go underexposed. When a highlight is blown there ain't no getting it back.

Try it when you SPOT meter on the skin only, and then look a your histogram.

 

[pixmedic]

This is one of those cases where you would have to spot meter off of the skin to get accurate exposure for her. You needed something else to fill the shadows as well. Flash or reflector would have worked.

^^^this.

 

[pixmedic]

The color here is beyond wonky. Go B&W.

View attachment 50209

B&W is your fix for everything!

 

[runnah]

B&W is your fix for everything!

It is when I am too lazy/inept to fix bad colors.