Help Please

[MishkasMagic]

No matter what i do with this photo it just doesnt do it for me

i would like all you out there to help me

this photo has been cropped but i can upload onto 4shared.com if anyone would like the original to play with

thanks heaps

[lostdoggy]

Now this is from an uncalibrated monitor. The WB is off, can't see the baby's eyes, bad lighting altogether.

[seed808]

Exposure is terrible. You should learn more about being behind the camera, and not worry too much about photoshop skills. If you understand more about exposure, it'll save some hours from editing your pics all the time. Like I say, strive to be a better photographer... not a photograph editor.

Understand Exposure by Bryan Peterson is an EXCELLENT read.... You should pic it up...

[Robert_Lay]

Interestingly enough, this image looks like it might well be the "poster child" for why auto-exposure systems are destined to be unsatisfactory.

It's because you cannot expect an exposure control system to sample whatever is dominant in the central part of the image and set the exposure to render that part of the scene as middle gray. Such an exposure system is dumb as a rock, and the sooner one realizes that the sooner one will begin to understand what has to be done to get correct or optimum exposures.

Bryan Peterson did a pretty good job, but there are still some things that can be improved upon -
You might also want to look here:
**************Understanding Exposure***************
Help File for use with Bryan Peterson's Book, "Understanding Exposure":
http://www.zaffora.com/W9DMK/BryanPetersonUnofficialHelpFile.htm
or the downloadable PDF version:
http://www.zaffora.com/W9DMK/BryanPetersonUnofficialHelpFile.pdf

[|)\/8]

Agree with all the above, but if you would like to try to save it, put a link to the original untouched file.

[MishkasMagic]

In my defence :) the photo actualy looks realy bad on here worse than what it is
tonight i will up load it to 4shared and you can see the original photo

[bckane]

Like all above post...there is not much you can do with your photo, very grainy. but I went ahead and did as much as I can in PS
http://i13.photobucket.com/albums/a276/bckane/220051.jpg

[RedHot]

From this and your other CC post, it looks like you have a real problem with underexposing your images or making them too dark in post processing. It might be the white shirt fooling your camera's metering.

Do you have a calibrated monitor? Are you monitoring your histogram as you are shooting? I'm also guessing you're probably shooting JPG instead of RAW, right?

And from your exif I can see that you are likely using the kit lens at f16 and 55mm. There is no reason you need to be using f16 for a portrait of this kind. I strongly suggest you pickup a portraiture book and possibly a better portrait lens than the kit lens.

Just to be kind, it might help for you to sort out some of these lighting/exposure and depth of field issues before you dive too heavily into paid portrait photography and weddings as you have stated already. ;)