girl in dress... critique please

[colonel5]

Hey everyone, this is my first post.

I really like this shot, probably one of my fav i've ever taken. But I'd like some feedback. The style I am really getting into is "capturing life as it happens but making it look posed"

My settings were 1/100 F1.8 ISO 400 shot totally candid freehand

it seems a little to soft to me (how do i fix that?)

The post processing I did was a curves adjustment for color correction and cropping

[wazmunstr]

oof... whyd you use an iso 400? what camera did you use? it looks very grainy. you can sharpen it a bit in photoshop but the grain may pop up even more.

btw, thats a great shot i absolutely love it. you just need some post-processing work and youll have yourself an excellent shot.

[colonel5]

I normally shoot ISO 200 inside like this but I had just spaced to reset it after shooting some stuff outside the day before. I know that's part of the reason for the grainyness.

I have a Canon Digital Rebel (6.3 megapixel) with a 50mm 1.8 lens

Beyond the sharpening (or other post processing) what can I do to improve the picture during the shot?

[BLINN]

Nice pose bad colour. What else can I say

[The22oz]

I like the shot but as said above it does have some noise. If you try to reduce the noise too much it will soften the picture. You can try masking off areas and reducing the noise on different layers, would be alot more work but you most likely would keep your current level of sharpness. I rather like the colors, if you reduce the noise a bit I think it'll make the picture look a bit nicer.

[dshootist]

i actually like the noise. to me it helps with the whole mood of the image. i hope you don't mind, but i played with the image in PS for a bit and came up with this...

[colonel5]

no i don't mind. I've tried the unsaturated look too which I really like.

The attitude and post of the picture is what really caught me. I was at a graduation party last summer and was just taking pictures of those that were talking in the living room and I was lucky to get such a shot.

Thanks for the idea

[taramcg]

Love the lighting. Great shot.

[Curtis N]

The backlighting from the window creates a nice effect. I think a bit of fill flash to balance things out might have helped.

My hindsight is 20/20. ;)

[lostdoggy]

Could you explain why you choose to use iso 200 w/ the DRebel. I also use the DRebel and usually keep it at iso 100 unless I have to then I'll up the iso.

[Chilly]

I like the shot, but I wish that there was more in the picture to give more information, or tell a story.

Ann

[colonel5]

I've shot at ISO 200 since I was in college, When I was shooting film and just getting to know the camera i had been shooting ISO 800 unknowingly and getting some pretty grainy pictures. My instructor suggested I try ISO 200 for most of my shots and that's what I've stuck with for the most part.

[The22oz]

Could you explain why you choose to use iso 200 w/ the DRebel. I also use the DRebel and usually keep it at iso 100 unless I have to then I'll up the iso.

He most likely shot at 200 for the same reason any one else would .. When theres not enough light.

[Andy_T]

Stop down your 50/1.8 lens a bit ... say, to f/2.8.

Observe the backlit situation and dial in some exposure compensation (e.g. +1EV) or use fill flash. If the image is properly exposed, you won't see the noise so much. Then you might also try ISO 800.

Best regards,
Andy

[kmb]

I don't mind the grain or softness in this case (although I'd have to see a bigger version to be sure about it), they're just tehchnical details that for me do not make the image less valuable, just different. It is not necessarily bad if the image is grainy or it or some part of it has a soft feeling to it, although it should be intentional rather than an accident. I do realize others would/do disagree. For me, mood often overrules technical perfection - I believe that photographers should be artists, not engineers.

You might want to try a slight curves adjustment with the green curve though, the skin looks a bit green to me, and that's seldom desirable.

What bugs me the most is that the top of her head and her elbow are cut, for me, that's just distracting. Otherwise, I really like the shot. Keep it going :)

[kmb]

Here's my try. I'm no good at adjusting skin color, though :confused:.
Shadows/highlights adjustment, dropped saturation (with saturation mask), removed green cast, selectively removed some blue, adjusted brightness with curves, very slight local contrast enhancement. I tried not to, make it a totally different image, but to do minor adjustments to make it more pleasing (for my eye).

[DavidEB]

focus point seems to be right wrist, rather than eyes. nice shot otherwise.