my little girl - opinions on skin

I have photoshop and LR2. It was in the shade. All I have is a pop up flash :( I am consistently overexposing everything and I don't understand why. I just cannot get a properly exposed photo! She's pretty pale, all my kids are, and even though none of them have red hair, whenever I take their picture, their hair is always orange! I will try fixing the overexposure and upping the red. Thanks.

#1.. When using flash, don't use the TTL function (at least until you figure out how to use it well). Manual flash is much more accurate than TTL... It will allow perfect exposures. An external flash will be much better than the pop-up flash!

#2.. The overexposure / brightness was either in the editing, or when you took the shot... Can't know that without seeing the original. You might try spot metering.. instead of center weighted average. That type of metering can still be affected by backgound colors... which will affect the overall exposure. I spot meter on faces... makes it easy to correct.

#3.. shooting in Program mode... gives control to the camera, and the camera may not have a clue what you want. Aperture priority will give you much more control... and manual will give more yet.

#4 Auto White Balance can be thrown off by foreground / background colors.. a manually set WB is always best.

Exif on this shot:

[PhotoME]
PhotoME version: 0.79R17 (Build 856)

[Overview]
URL: http://www.thephotoforum.com/forum/...my-little-girl-opinions-skin-img_5313-web.jpg
File type: JPEG
File size: 628.8 KB
Creation date: 5/26/2013 19:29
Last modification: 6/4/2013 07:56
Make: Canon (http://www.canon.com)
Camera: Canon EOS 40D
Software: Adobe Photoshop CS5 Windows
Dimension: 768 x 960 px (0.7 MP, 3:4)
Focal length: 50 mm (equiv. 81 mm)
Aperture: F4
Exposure time: 1/200"
ISO speed rating: 400/27°
Program: Normal program
Metering Mode: Center-weighted average
White Balance: Auto
Flash: Flash did not fire, compulsory flash mode
 
Any better? Now she looks really red to me ? :grumpy:

A little warm.. but not bad. Better than the brightness. I would really recommend monitor calibration... if the color looks too red to you, it is probably a monitor setting that is off.
 
I have issues with getting the skin tone right on my little girl too. I have decided she just picks up the colors of her background too much being so pale. So, I try not to shoot her around anything with a heavy color of it's own, but wearing white on a white backdrop does quite nice.
 
Sounds good! Let's recalibrate my brain too, defrag, install some more RAM while I am at it...
 
Sounds good! Let's recalibrate my brain too, defrag, install some more RAM while I am at it...

Look into my eyes... you are getting sleepy! Sleepy! You will give me all your money and will even find me handsome! (Ok.. I know that last part is a stretch, but gotta try... right?) lol!
 
Here is what I got. I adjusted the RGB and red color curve a tad, reduced saturation and brightness a little bit and messed a little with a selective color layer mask.

$IMG_5313 web.jpg
 

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