Simple Photos for C&C

[cailinp]

Took some photos of the hubby and my friend over the weekend. They are simple and are just meant for me to practive technique and editing with people. I find it so much harder to shoot people rather than "things". I can never seem to get lighting right. Remember these are just beginners photos!

 

[shmne]

I just posted something in your other thread, and I think I was spot on with my guess. You really do like a lot of contrast in your photos. Since I already gave you a pretty good write up I will just summarize the points again in here:

Less is almost always more in life, PP is no different. What may seem to be unnoticeable to a viewer is actually quite present on a subconscious level.

Your highlights are too high and clipped (meaning there is no detail) and your shadows are too crushed (again, basically no detail).

Focus in #3 is slightly off.

Saturation in #3 is very strong, not many people find this look to be aesthetically pleasing.

Your composition isn't bad in any of these, could use some work. Also the posing could use some work, but both of those are mainly just practice practice practice.

To help you out with the PP, give me an idea of your thought process. I'd like to see what you're thinking about it.

 

[cailinp]

What was I thinking? Good question. Photo 1 was just a candid that I made b&w. Honestly, not much thought went into taking it.....well I put thought into every photo but some are just snapped and more about catching a candid moment vs. being technically correct and thought through. Make sense. 2 and 3 were more for me to practice doing some more funky less traditional portraits. Photo 2 I wanted to capture her silliness and quirk. I wanted the viewer to see her beauty even in a moment of total innocence and joking. In my mind I wanted to give it that antique washed up look to mimic the colors of stone in the background. Her face did not come out at all how I wanted it though. Photo 3--- In this picture it was more about her posing in front of what I thought was a neat background. I love the colors and composition of the building and the door. I like the photo but I do see that it has way too much contrast. does that help with your pp at all? Thanks by the way. This is something I love doing and am very eager to learn.

 

[shmne]

^_^ I really was wondering more along the lines of what you were thinking during post processing. You did give me a clue in on #2 though so that helps a bit.

When you are processing these, are you purposely punching the contrast as well as your highlights and shadows?

 

[cailinp]

Ok, Photo 3 was a pretty drab day so I wanted to punch up the contrast and saturation a bit. To me it worked on the background but on her it didn't. I wanted the background to stand out and the colors to pop a bit more. What I didn't want was the effect I got on her jeans, jacket and hair. Too blue. I don't recall doing much to shadows and highlights.

 

[shmne]

Ok then, this is interesting actually. I'm not sure what is going on because you are losing a lot of your detail. It doesn't really seem to me that it is in camera (besides the highlights, which do resemble in camera clipping slightly), but that isn't as important.

As far as the saturation problems, how is it you are applying it? As well as what program are you using to manipulate it?

See, when you apply something globally (to the entire picture) you really need to be careful with how much you move it. In my experience it is best to make many layers and literally assign each layer to a particular section of the photo. In this case a layer for the girl, and a layer for the background.

This enables you to control the contrast, saturation, etc, on each individual item and allows you to tweak certain areas past the breaking point of the entire photo.

If you have photoshop you can do this without a problem using layer masks and multiple layers. Though I'm not familiar with any other application since all I have a use for is photoshop :|

 

[cailinp]

Okay so is this any better. Your right about the focus being off so besides that is this at all ANY better?

 

[cailinp]

I am slightly familiar with layers in Photoshop but I have being doing all my pp in Lightroom lately and not quite sure about it there.

 

[shmne]

Yeah in this image the highlights and darks aren't blown out. Generally, you want to stay within the bounds of not too dark of darks and not too light of lights.

Just try to go a bit lighter with saturation and contrast you definitely need some in these photos, otherwise they'd be flat.

 

[tsaraleksi]

The best way to keep an eye on your highlights is to click the 'highlight' tab in light room-- I think it's attached to the histogram on the top right corner. It will light up areas that have gone 255,255,255 (which is to say, white) so that you can keep an eye on it. Every image should have both 0,0,0, and 255,255,255 in it, but those should make up only a small portion of the image. In black and white you have a little more leeway, though.

 

[Breaux]

Here's my thoughts (I won't discuss the contrast issues already covered):

I think #2 is very good; her personality really comes through, and it has good composition, in that it's a little unusual, and you're not afraid to cut off some of your subject. If you were doing something more formal, I'd say the background could be more out-of-focus (use a large aperture), and that bit of chain-link fence should be avoided.

In formal portraits, very bright and very dark is generally not good. Unless you're going for something creative and artsy, try to make the midrange dominant.