Subversi0n

[ashleysmithd]

Nikon D40 18-55mm
ISO200

Taken for a friends band, Subversion.


Any critique appreciated!
thanks for looking.

 

[plentygood]

The band is really underexposed on my screen. You need to find a way to light the band or spot meter for them.

 

[ashleysmithd]

hmm.. seems fine on the monitors i've seen it on, I was going for a darker effect anyway

 

[Senor Hound]

I really like the photo, and I think the idea has a lot of potential. I will say that you cut off the frontman's sneaker a bit, which is somewhat distracting. But the idea is great! Also, more than it being dark, I think its the way its lit that's a problem. With the sunset in the background, I get kind of confused whether I'm supposed to look at them first, or the sunset first. But this is an opinion, not a critique. And seeings how I'm a beginner, I wouldn't take it very seriously.

Keep shooting, and keep posting!

 

[eravedesigns]

hmm.. seems fine on the monitors i've seen it on, I was going for a darker effect anyway

All of their faces and bodies are way underexposed. You shot them with the sun behind them which naturally creates a silhouette but they way you exposed made it halfway between a silhouette and a correctly exposed image. Try fixing it in photoshop or something with levels and curves.

 

[fotokman]

you should have used a strobe camera right, and balanced them with the background our a half stop over. imho

 

[motorshooter]

Crop tighter on the left side. Lighten up their faces in PS
The photo is a good group shot with those corrections

 

[kellylindseyphotography]

You were given spot-on advice here. Good luck

 

[ashleysmithd]

Ok cheers guys.

I've taken all the advice in, and what I've done is add half an EV to the overall image and then used the dodge tool to lighten the faces slightly. Should have given the face roughly 1 and a half EV more exposure.

 

[motorshooter]

Still too dark

 

[kellylindseyphotography]

It is still pretty dark. Here's my (very quick) edit of it.
adjusted the midtones through levels (was -2 off in exposure.. quite common if your shooting auto or an auto mode like AV where you can't tell your camera what to do)
made a curve to add lightness and contrast
sharpened
added a bit of overall saturation
added a little vingette

 

[motorshooter]

It is still pretty dark. Here's my (very quick) edit of it.
adjusted the midtones through levels (was -2 off in exposure.. quite common if your shooting auto or an auto mode like AV where you can't tell your camera what to do)
made a curve to add lightness and contrast
sharpened
added a bit of overall saturation
added a little vingette

BINGO!

 

[ashleysmithd]

I think the time of day is being mistaken here, this was shot at dawn, the orange glow from the left is the sun behind the clouds going down, it was about 9pm (I think)

But that's the style I wanted to go for, contrasty, warm and low key.

But thanks Kelly for making that edit, some interesting techniques used

 

[motorshooter]

If you were shooting for a warm glow, try using a bit of fill flash and don't over power the light of the background.

To me it looked like you missed the best light of the morning.

 

[kellylindseyphotography]

Your "idea" of lighting would have worked if you had metered right.. the first version has very bad exposure unfortuently. You would have had to have used fill flash OR exposed for the subjects correctly and taken the shot, then taken another shot and exposed for the sky (while underexposing the subjects very badly, which actually would look something like your first picture) and then merged the 2 in PS. )

I totally understand wanting lowkey etc.. but underexposure that bad just looks like you didn't know what you were doing.

Anyhoo, here's a warmer version