Photos from Beach

Shadowbox · Sep 2, 2011

I'm very disappointed in myself for how the photos turned out tonight. So normally they are super underexposed, but tonight it was the opposite which shocked me as on the LCD they looked perfectly fine! SO when I got home and loaded them onto my computer I was so upset to see I'd blown them all, and I did shoot in raw but none of the details were saved!

I took 339 photos and I have about 9 that turned out. I am SO upset with myself. The few that did turn out I don't even know if I have the heart to post on here because I know they will probably get a lot of great C&C but then that will mean that I basically took 339 crap photos omg lol. This is horrible. I lost my mojo. What happened..

Oh wait, okay a lot were very overexposed and then a lot were not focused properly. The few I did like weren't even that sharp either, they had some softness! I used a prime lens and I am obviously not very good at focusing yet.

The tunnel pics didn't turn out at all.

I did use my reflector but for some reason they were either pure black or overexposed.

1. My favorite photo of the bunch. I admit her teeth and eyes are a bit overdone (ooooops) but I still like it and I think she will too. I wish I had stuck to the rule of thirds more and gotten more of a catchlight in her eyes.

grassygirl by lifebyme, on Flickr

2. It's a little soft and the bg was super overexposed. That was as much as I could fix it without losing light on their faces. I didn't use my reflector on this photo. I wish I had so they could have light in their eyes. I should maybe get rid of the bright spots on the top of their heads.

pileup by lifebyme, on Flickr

3. I wish I would have used a smaller f stop and had a really blurry bg. I also wish I had stepped back more or told her to move her outside leg in further. This is cropped in, you could see their three feet so it would have been better if her other foot was in the photo too. It's also a really soft focus, I should have used a lens I'm more comfortable with or practice more with my prime lens before going.

BeachyCouple by lifebyme, on Flickr

On a side note there was a REAL photographer there doing family photos, you know the kind who gets paid! She had the SAME reflector as me, yay.

Shadowbox · Sep 3, 2011

no C&C?

Tomasko · Sep 3, 2011

Your wb is off, especially on #1.
#1 is really creepy. Why you PPed those eyes so much? You know about it, but haven't fixed it before showing them to us?
#2 like it, but one detail - try to make your models look into the camera or at one direction. From technical point of view, it could use some PP to boost the contrast a little bit.
#3 Too much head space

I would understand such composition if you had some interesting background, but there's only grass and some branches on your photo.

Shadowbox · Sep 3, 2011

I used cloudy like the book understanding exposure says, and I really like warm photos so I boosted the yellow/orange tones in all of the pics .. and I was half asleep when I edited and posted them, looking for c&c so when I came back with fresh eyes I'd have some ideas of what to fix/keep/toss. Thanks for the suggestions.

The second one they were just goofing around and I thought I'd get a pic, unfortunately though I have about zero photos where the 3 boys all look at the camera. They just did not want to look. I tried every trick I could think of.

Thankfully this is more about me learning and less about them wanting perfect photos or I'd be even worse off. Going to try some edits now based on your input.

Also I'm not sure what you mean about her eyes? All I did was use the lightroom 'iris enhance' and that was it.. if you're talking about the color, yes, I boosted that slightly but if you mean anything else about her eyes.. that's just how they look. I thought I went overboard with her teeth, again I just used a lightroom preset, but they look too white to me.

honoryourlife · Sep 3, 2011

Her eyes remind me that of an Ewok's.

Tomasko · Sep 3, 2011

Also I'm not sure what you mean about her eyes?

Well, her eyes have that "werewolf" yellowish color

When you fix WB, it may help to fix that too.

I used cloudy like the book understanding exposure says

Books can't meter your model nor give actual settings needed for the correct exposure. If you see, that some settings don't give you good results for the particular scene, you need to fix that manually. Light can't be divided to only a few categories - fine weather, cloudy, tungsten... Try to play with slider "temperature" to fix WB when the preset setting doesn't work well.

I'd suggest you try to play more with manual sliders than using only presets on your camera or in PC/MAC software. Books are great, but they can't substitute your actual knowledge nor experience. They can give you some guidance, but you're the one who decides what to do, when to press the shutter. Camera nor book can't see your scene. You need to understand what are you doing and why.

The second one they were just goofing around and I thought I'd get a pic, unfortunately though I have about zero photos where the 3 boys all look at the camera. They just did not want to look. I tried every trick I could think of.

Well, patience, patience, patience

Or you need to find some way to make them do what you want from them. (maybe some kind of reward?)

Shadowbox · Sep 3, 2011

GroupContrast (1 of 1) by lifebyme, on Flickr

Okay boosted the contrast like suggested.

TiffEnhance (1 of 1) by lifebyme, on Flickr

This is trying to fix the white balance. I don't think my monitor is calibrated and I didn't think it made much difference until I printed and then I seen it really did. I think fixing the white balance helped with her eyes some too. This is my step-sister so if you're commenting on her eyes because of the iris enhance I did then okay I will see if I can change them, but if it's for how they naturally look that is really not necessary.

CroppedIn (1 of 1) by lifebyme, on Flickr
Cropped in but maybe too much so.

Shadowbox · Sep 3, 2011

True Tomasko, I should know what I am doing and normally I have never used cloudy WB. It was my first time trying it per the suggestion of this book, which everyone on here tells you to read- so I read the book and try out the suggestion and then I am told to think on my own lol. :lol:

OH! I also had this orange colored cap I put onto my flash. I like how it makes photos look but with my sliding the bar toward the yellow side I definitely went overboard.

The one of them cropped in is very blurry. I'm going to look at the others I have like this one and see if I have one that is more focused.
I think next time I do photos I will forget about all of the rules and guidelines and just get back to what comes naturally to me, and adjust based on the scene as you suggest. That is when I do my best.

Shadowbox · Sep 3, 2011

I just don't like this photo as much but the ones of them sitting are all blurred due to me stepping back and then not focusing again. Not sure why I did that but I must have because all of them after a certain point of me stepping back are out of focus!

Standing (1 of 1) by lifebyme, on Flickr

KmH · Sep 3, 2011

Shadowbox said:
...on the LCD they looked perfectly fine!

The LCD is not there to critically judge image qualityby looking at the photo. The LCD is to small and to crude to be used for that purpose. The amount of ambient light falling on it is to variable, and it's brightness cannot be calibrated to ensure what you see there will look anywhere near the same on your computer display.

The rear LCD can be used to look at the histogram (which is how you critically judge exposure on the rear LCD), verify focus sharpness by zooming into the photo, and to verify compsition and framing.

I already provided you with links in another of your threads to tutorials on how to interpret a histogram.

The Raw image cannot be displayed on the rear LCD, because it's not actually a photo. A JPEG Basic thumbnail is embedded in the Raw file and that (and it's histogram) is what is displayed on the rear LCD. That JPEG Basic thumbnial has been edited in the camera by the camera software and according to whatever camera menu settings you have made regarding contrast, saturation, and sharpening.

Shadowbox · Sep 3, 2011

Hi KmH

Yes I do know how to interpret a histogram, I guess I felt rushed and didn't think to look. They seemed like they wanted me to hurry and instead of saying .. can we slow down and let me focus I just composed the photos and took pictures as quickly as I could. Blah. I messed up!

redessa · Sep 3, 2011

It says your photos are okay to edit so I hope you don't mind me taking a go at this one. I understand that you like your pictures warm, but it was still too much, IMO. I know my monitor is not properly calibrated (I'm running the stuff, my monitor is just too dang old for it to work right) so I'm sure these colors aren't perfect either but I do think this image has some potential. Mostly though, it was the eyes. They were really yellow and it's not just how her eyes are because they don't look that way in the other pics of her w/ her husband. Aside from changing the color temp, I whitened the whites of her eyes a bit and did a light dodge on the irises (sp?). I also tried to increase the pupil size slightly as I think that was contributing to the "werewolf" look.

6108215222_20977582fd_b

Shadowbox · Sep 3, 2011

Thanks redessa, actually in all of her pics her pupils were almost all but gone! I've never seen this before so didn't know how to really fix it at all. I was surprised and not sure why her eyes did this, but they have a pinprick of a pupil in most photos. Strange. I do like your edit, her eyes look a little green and in real life they are almost a yellow color but I still like the photo.. of course they all love the photo and want huge prints lol so obviously it's only those of us who are in the know that have any issue with the photos! I might try to go with a similar effect and start that photo over from scratch and see what I can come up with, thanks for the edit!

KmH · Sep 3, 2011

Shadowbox said:
Thanks redessa, actually in all of her pics her pupils were almost all but gone! I've never seen this before so didn't know how to really fix it at all. I was surprised and not sure why her eyes did this, but they have a pinprick of a pupil in most photos.

It looks from her's and your shadows that she is almost directly facing the Sun. If so, that's why her pupils are so small. You're lucky she wasn't squinting.