My second submission for this forum, this shot was taken on the same day as my first submission so not ideal re light , and I think that the whites may be a bit blown around the face.
Shot Details
Cannon 40D
Cannon F5.6 400mm @400mm
F5.6
ISO-200
Exp comp = - 0.7
1/1250
Tripod mounted
Shot has been cropped for composition.
I look forward to your feedback
Nice pose Adam - agree about the whites, and think that it is a bit oversharpened.
A piece of advice given to me by Simon Litten on my first post was to first resize the original image to 720px on the longest side. Then convert to sRGb, before increasing saturation a bit as sRGB dulls the image. Then use USM it at 100%, radius 0.2, threshold 0 five times. (if it was a RAW file).
It was great advice and worked well for me.
Oscar
Posted by Neil Burton on October 7, 2010 at 2:48 PM
Further to that you could convert the LAB before sharpening and do it only to the L(uminosity) channel...avoiding any colour noise being sharpened.
Yes hard light is impossible to avoid those whites, unless you can retrieve in RAW and mask in later in PS? (use the linear check box in DPP to see if any detail still exists in those whites at all)!
The pose is nice with just the right amount of headturn, although I might have placed the subject a little higher in the frame, giving it room to look down.
The main problem though appears to be in the processing, you don't state whether you shoot in RAW or not, if you do then you should be able to rescue a lot of the lost detail and tame that excessive contrast, as here not only are the whites on the edge also the yellows on the upper breast... a simple reduction in the contrast plus a reduction in the level of the blacks (it is important to remember that there should be a good black somewhere, no matter how small for the contrast to 'appear' right) might be suffice to improve the image...
If trying to compensate at the taking stage then the only way is to either use a blip of fill flash (frowned on by some, but not me) or a reflector to lower the density of those blacks and even the light out a little, but best of all try to shoot on a bright but overcast day or early/late in the day when the light is naturally softer due to the extra atmosphere etc it has come filter through....
You don't say what software you use for finishing the image, sorry Neil, no need these days to convert to LAB (you lose bits of info in the process) simply fade any sharpening to Luminosity (ctrl + shift + F)...
HTH
Phil
Posted by Neil Burton on October 8, 2010 at 3:50 AM
"You don't say what software you use for finishing the image, sorry Neil, no need these days to convert to LAB (you lose bits of info in the process) simply fade any sharpening to Luminosity (ctrl + shift + F)... "
Yes, or do it like that
Posted by David Sewell on October 8, 2010 at 4:27 AM
Hi Adam, great pose, and some very good advice from PhilH.
David
Posted by Adam Dunn on October 9, 2010 at 11:21 AM
Thanyou everyone for your great feedback my pp are very scratchy at the moment it is an area I really need to get my head around. I always shoot in Raw and do all my pp in CS3.
Discussion
6 repliesShot Details
Cannon 40D
Cannon F5.6 400mm @400mm
F5.6
ISO-200
Exp comp = - 0.7
1/1250
Tripod mounted
Shot has been cropped for composition.
I look forward to your feedback
Thanks
Adam
A piece of advice given to me by Simon Litten on my first post was to first resize the original image to 720px on the longest side. Then convert to sRGb, before increasing saturation a bit as sRGB dulls the image. Then use USM it at 100%, radius 0.2, threshold 0 five times. (if it was a RAW file).
It was great advice and worked well for me.
Oscar
Yes hard light is impossible to avoid those whites, unless you can retrieve in RAW and mask in later in PS? (use the linear check box in DPP to see if any detail still exists in those whites at all)!
The pose is nice with just the right amount of headturn, although I might have placed the subject a little higher in the frame, giving it room to look down.
The main problem though appears to be in the processing, you don't state whether you shoot in RAW or not, if you do then you should be able to rescue a lot of the lost detail and tame that excessive contrast, as here not only are the whites on the edge also the yellows on the upper breast... a simple reduction in the contrast plus a reduction in the level of the blacks (it is important to remember that there should be a good black somewhere, no matter how small for the contrast to 'appear' right) might be suffice to improve the image...
If trying to compensate at the taking stage then the only way is to either use a blip of fill flash (frowned on by some, but not me) or a reflector to lower the density of those blacks and even the light out a little, but best of all try to shoot on a bright but overcast day or early/late in the day when the light is naturally softer due to the extra atmosphere etc it has come filter through....
You don't say what software you use for finishing the image, sorry Neil, no need these days to convert to LAB (you lose bits of info in the process) simply fade any sharpening to Luminosity (ctrl + shift + F)...
HTH
Phil
Yes, or do it like that
David