Trying a different approach

Trying a different editing technique to a set I posted previously. C&C welcome

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The light is really harsh and looks way to over-sharpened to me.

Ratjack wrote in post #16215182
The light is really harsh and looks way to over-sharpened to me.

He's very pale, and she's very tanned/dark so is that what makes you think that?

Harsh meaning direct (on camera). Also looks a bit cool or blue in the temp department.
Why are they wedged in the left side?

ChunkyDA wrote in post #16215974
Harsh meaning direct (on camera). Also looks a bit cool or blue in the temp department.
Why are they wedged in the left side?

This was with an external flash, TTL, on top of the camera with a diy Gary Fong type diffuser. One of my first times using it (TTL Flash), always manual external flash before...

On the left side due to the way I took the shot, and cropping out some undesirables.

And is this better?

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This isn't huge, but the tree growing out of the top of his head is distracting to me. I would have reframed in the green part behind the girl.

Your first edit appears overexposed and the second appears a little under exposed on my monitor. I agree that the tree behind the boy is distracting too.

Here's a quick edit where I lowered the exposure of your first edit, adjusted contrast, lowered sharpness a bit and adjusted white balance to what looks good on my monitor. I also removed the large tree trunk and cropped to 4x5/8x10 so there wouldn't be quite so much empty space on the right. I forgot to mention I darkened the bg some too.

I love the pose, and the composition is great! But... (sorry there, is always a but, eh?)... the lighting is awful. I'm wondering if you might consider turning it into a B*W to see if that solves the lighting issues at all? Just a thought.

What does the DIY diffuser look like? The flash is still mounted on the same axis as the lens and a few inches away, therefore it is direct lighting. See the harsh shadow of chin on neck? The Gary fong stuff I have seen is used indoors where there is walls and ceiling to try and get some bounced light. Outside this is nearly useless but it does make a 3 square inch source into maybe 9 square inch and rob your light of much of its power by directing it into the air and not your subject.

I think NavyDoc's edit and crop is spot on but I'd clone out the little blue antenna sprouting from his head.

ChunkyDA wrote in post #16218155
What does the DIY diffuser look like? The flash is still mounted on the same axis as the lens and a few inches away, therefore it is direct lighting. See the harsh shadow of chin on neck? The Gary fong stuff I have seen is used indoors where there is walls and ceiling to try and get some bounced light. Outside this is nearly useless but it does make a 3 square inch source into maybe 9 square inch and rob your light of much of its power by directing it into the air and not your subject.

Here is a link to the DIY instructions, and I agree this thing works great indoors:

http://www.instructabl​es.com/id/DIY-Gary-Fong-Lightsphere/

So how to use fill flash outdoors?

Qbx wrote in post #16218386
I think NavyDoc's edit and crop is spot on but I'd clone out the little blue antenna sprouting from his head.

Good catch!

and hrm, guess I need to re-calibrate my monitor more often, or maybe before every edit...

I just re-calibrated and my first edit looks to have a blue cast, the second a bit less blue/leaning towards green and Navy's seems a bit high in Magenta

Now that I'm re-calibrated I took Navy's edit without any changes (except to get rid of QBX's antenna)

Am I off?

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Thanks.

Qbx wrote in post #16218386
...but I'd clone out the little blue antenna sprouting from his head.

Boy, see one black dot on a large white sheet... I tried warming up my edit but the blues and whites didn't look right to me then. I think my edit is a little over saturated so that may be what is making it appear a bit heavy on the reds.