I'm Glad They Were free

[Sittingshooter]

I did a few Engagement photos for a couple of kids my wife works with. They have no money(who does nowadays) so I said i'd do a dew for free and the experience. Long story short, I screwed them up. They wer posed sun to their rear left, on rocks in front of water. I used my nifty and on camera fill flash. They came out ok, but the water and background is totally blown...Should I have actually metered for the water etc..and just used the flash to expose the couple ? Samples attached..

[zelseman]

Wow, i didnt even know they were sitting next to water. Lol I have seen photogs shoot by a body of water and intentionally blow out the sky, but yes i would expose for the water, and use the flash the light the people.

[Photon Phil]

Go B&W on those and perhaps even add grain and they are georgous.

Voila!

[divinemethod]

Can you save this picture? Of course you can... with a little PP and a bit of creative retouching... and voila..

I googled a lake picture... copied it in as a layer...
then used select color range to get a somewhat accurate mask..
then played with levels and color balance... and added some local contrast.

and this was the result:

http://divinemethod.zenfolio.com/img/v0/p937810077.jpg

[divinemethod]

oh btw, u could have tried using the 70-200 you have and stepped a bit back further, not only does it gove a more "pleasing" view of the couple but it also condenses the background + it is more resistant to flare and CA... oh yeah..a nice bokeh of the water...

[angryhampster]

Can you crop then tighter to get backlit head & shoulder shots? That's a look some people pay a lot of money for: :lol:

http://photography-on-the.net/forum/showthread.php?t=476999

But yeah, next time definitely meter for the background and use a lot of flash for fill.

[Sittingshooter]

Thanks for the responses. I plan to go back to that location , shoot the scene without them and then ps the real background in.

[jillybean]

This to me is one of the hardest shots to get 'nailed' in- white clothes, bright sun and water reflecting that sun on to everything- lots of practice is the only cure

[picturecrazy]

this is what it looks like when you expose for the people and the sun is in the position it was.

I wouldn't say it's total mess up. Many people (like available light shooters) shoot exactly like this as their style. Make the people pop a bit and I'm sure they'll be happy.

[JMHPhotography]

looking at your exif data, I see that your camera shutter was at 1/200 which was way too low for this lighting. The flash handcuffs your camera unless you can set it to high speed sync. Here's how to get around that if you aren't able to use a flash that does HSS. Meter your exposure for the shutter speed of your max sync. You'll sacrafice a little DOF control (likely to have a high f-number) but the ambient exposure will look good. Then you can fill with flash at full power or cut the flash power for a more natural blended look. You can use ND filters to cut ambient light to gain back a couple of stops for a more blurred background... but I suspect that this background looks quite nice so why blur it out?