Sunset

[JosC]

Hi Guys, as you can see i'm a newbee. This was taken on a boat. Anybody has any suggestions on the pic? I know the faces are a little dark. Sun was giving me lots of trouble!! Any suggestions on how to take pictures of sunset? I attached the Original picture and an edited picture. Kinda new at Photoshop too.
1st pic is the edited pic. 2nd is the original.

[smittymike19]

1.use fill flash.
2. use exposure compensation.
3. shoot raw so you can adjust the exposure later.

if you want i can ps it and post, i think i can help.

[smittymike19]

here is my ps rendition since you asked

[smittymike19]

oh and sometimes facing away from the camera makes for a better picture, it could have worked nicely here.

[JosC]

WOW! very cool. What did you do to get it like that?

[smittymike19]

i actually did this 2 ways.
1. in photoshop i used teh magneticlasso to select just you and your girl. once it was selected i just increased the brightness. i am at work so its tough to tell if the brightness is right as this monitor isnt calibrated. brightness is under...image>mode>brightness contrast.
2. using picassa ( a free prog by google for picture eidting), i got exactly the same results using their "fill light" slider. it really does a pretty decent job imho.

[JosC]

Very Cool! Thanks for the tip!

[learjet035]

Would you post your camera info for those 1st shots? I too am struggling with backlit shots. It seems that 1 or the other comes out perfect and the other is either over or under exposed.
Smitty- when you say "fill flash" do you mean, just pop up the flash and let it fire? It looks to me that the flash fired but that it was a bit weak. For a shot like this do you compose the background and the focus on the subject and fire with flash or would you focus on the subject and change shutter speed for background exposure? I am a bit confused if you can't tell. Thanks!

[JosC]

I used the canon Rebel XT with a 18-55mm Lens. I know whay you mean Learjet. I had a lot of problem with this shot and I still couldn't get it right. I had to use the flash. Wish I had a more powerful flash (external). Need to buy one.

[smittymike19]

Would you post your camera info for those 1st shots? I too am struggling with backlit shots. It seems that 1 or the other comes out perfect and the other is either over or under exposed.
Smitty- when you say "fill flash" do you mean, just pop up the flash and let it fire? It looks to me that the flash fired but that it was a bit weak. For a shot like this do you compose the background and the focus on the subject and fire with flash or would you focus on the subject and change shutter speed for background exposure? I am a bit confused if you can't tell. Thanks!

well the thing i would do is this. Fill the frame with your subjects (get in close enough that the background is not visible) and press the shutter halfway. this will give you the proper exposure for the subjects. Then press the exposure lock button (the *) button on the back of the camera. recompose the shot with the background and shoot.
or you could bracket
or you could shoot in raw and clean up later. I always shoot in raw and clean up later. its quite a pain, but then again its not as painful as being on a cruise and getting a great shot, just to get home an dthe shot is ruined. though with the new progs, as long as it is in focus, it can pretty much be salvaged.

[Bitmap]

My shot at improvement

[MAD DOG]

Smityyymike is right adn his PS version shows you what he means, but I like BITMAPs version best of all.

Your composition looks very nice by the way.

[smittymike19]

Smityyymike is right adn his PS version shows you what he means, but I like BITMAPs version best of all.

Your composition looks very nice by the way.

must be my monitor, cause it looks way too dark. ill check it ot when i get home. the point of the fix wasnt to show exactly how it should look, but to show that it could be improved, as the first shot was so dark it needed light, and i wanted to show him that he could fix the shot. :) if you imagine the shot printed up sitting on your desk, i think you will realize bitmaps is too dark. it may be that somewhere in between the 2 is the correct brightness.

[smittymike19]

btw, i had this picture opened at work and my co worker asked "who is that babe? is she a friend?" .lol i have to agree she is a babe. unless you are the "she", then you are a babe.lol

[KevC]

I would use fill flash with sunset portraits. I've always wanted to try these, but never had a chance.

[buginajar]

Here's my rendition. I am used to a little more reddish, orange sunsets.

[JosC]

WoW!! Thanks a lot guys for all your replies. All the edited pictures look great!! I really need to learn more Photoshop!! Oh, and the babe... Thats my wife! hehe. Yeah, i know. She is a babe. I kinda sat the camera on top of something and put it on timer. Maybe thats why the pic didn't come out that great either. Well, I had trouble with sunset pics that I manually took as well. Prett much dark too. Guess I have to learn PS and fix them. Thanks for all your help guys!

[DOrtiz]

I hope you don't mind.
http://photos.imageevent.com/dortiz/general/variousimagefolder/sunset.jpg

A little adjustment then cropping to bring more attention to your subjects and also align the water-line so it's not directly in the middle of the image (third's rule).

Just my feedback. ;)

Regards,
Dave

[DOrtiz]

Here we see it with some slight curves adjustments to add a little fill light to the subjects' faces. Same framing (rule of thirds) and composition.

http://photos.imageevent.com/dortiz/general/variousimagefolder/sunset2.jpg

Regards,
Dave :)