portrait by the river

[Narah]

Went to a beautiful spot today and took a few photos. My mum took these pics obviously we´re no photographers, so I´d love to hear some suggestions, or opinions. They both have many faults, I know, but we´re trying to learn.

In the second photo I´m underexposed, which is a great pity because I like the natural look and the effect the wind had. My computer screen is extremely dark, so I can hardly see my features. Is there anything that can be done now, say with photoshop to better the photo? If so, how?



http://img159.exs.cx/img159/6212/img0775copia3pj.jpg

http://img159.exs.cx/img159/7066/img0719copia5ok.jpg

[Fer]

Hi Narah...

I like the pictures, like you said, pretty natural. I wonder if you shot them in RAW, if so, you can add half step of aperture (more light) and that'll be it. If not, in Photoshop you can correct is as well. I took the liberty of doing that for you, hope you don't mind ;)

Also I want to add that the image can be viewed diferently in each monitor...

[PeaPicker]

I really like the second picture. I use Photoshop Elements 3.0 and just play with the shadows and highlights a little.

[wolverinesr1]

ok, i took a try at it myself. hope you dont mind.hopefully you took this picture in raw then it more than likely can be saved.





http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v210/wolverinesr1/Forum%20Pics/img0719copia5ok.jpg

[RI Xterra]

Two awesome photos...

[jgbeam]

I like them both very much. The first one might be a bit better if the background were a little more out of focus but as it is it is a very pleasant scene. The second one is even nicer and, as others have demonstrated, you can often make major improvements to what might at first appear to be a poor exposure. In general, as long as you haven't overexposed, you can recover a lot of detail and make the proper corrections. Pea picker did a nice job with it and didn't try to do too much.

Jim

[Niall]

I like the second photo. The alterations done to it afterwards have totally destroyed the clouds. Personally I prefer the darker picture as it's got a nice moody feeling to it, however it does need slight tweaking in photoshop. I wouldn't do much to it mind you, as it's a nice shot. I haven't tried it (as I'm about to go to bed :p) but I'd try cropping the middle third of the picture, as I think that might look good.

[RAitch]

Keep in mind, this is a quick fix. You can create a curve adjustment layer with a mask to only brighten you up and to leave the background alone.

I just used a brush to do the mask, but there are better ways to do it.

As you can see, there's some noise created from the low light. As mentioned before, underexposed is generally better than overexposed... but there are still problems. Some cameras just can't handle low light very well. Check out the individual colour channels, you'll see it.... usually in the blue channel.

It might look a little fake... but I just threw it together. I'm on my laptop so I'm not sure about image quality.

[NEC1236]

Here is a shot at photoshop masking the dark (Lo Key) and using curves to open and then re-color the subject. I did this quickly to a LoRes image if you work on the original it should do better.

[NEC1236]

If you want to shoot the second shot and not use PS, you could use a flash, that way you can keep the sky from being blown out as it would if exposed for the foreground.

here is an example

http://photography-on-the.net/forum/showthread.php?t=65717

[Narah]

Wow, thank you very much!! :D :D You have all done a really good job improving the second photo! (I´m definitely going to keep your versions :lol:). I think I have to learn how to use photoshop a bit better!

Next time I will try with the flash, as NEC1236´s photo is really good!

It still doesn´t help that my computer screen is really dark, it annoys me a lot, because I can´t objectively play about with the colours in photoshop, because really the problem´s with my screen! I really must get a new monitor, this one is rubbish!
Many thanks!

[Narah]

I forgot to say, the camera used is a canon powershot A520, they haven´t been shot in RAW (can I even do that with that camera??)

[flyfisher]

I like them both.

Definitely use fill flash if you can, it will help allot.

[lastdodobird]

i like the second pic.

PeaPicker's PSed version is the best one IMHO. :)

[ayotnoms]

since there's nothing to do while watching the baseball game, I'll give it a go...

:-)

[tim]

Nice photos, pity the 2nd is dark. When you shoot with a bright background even during the day you need to use the flash to fill in the shadows - hence the name of "fill flash". I think both could benefit from it.

[wareseeker]

Not too bad for first try. Do more...

[marie]

i like the second pic.

PeaPicker's PSed version is the best one IMHO. http://www.photography-on-the.net/forum/images/smilies/icon_smile.gif

I saw these before,
the post is over four/five months old 'lastdodobird'? http://www.photography-on-the.net/forum/images/smilies/icon_confused.gif
http://www.photography-on-the.net/forum/images/smilies/icon_rolleyes.gif