First people pics in low light, C&C please

ARGH!!! just wrote a massive post and i received a page cannot be displayed and damn thing didnt retrieve what i had written...

anyway, cut the story short, had a few friends who wanted pics taken, female during late afternoon in a park and in the bedroom, and pics of my friends band practicing. All ambient low lighting, all pics unedited in PS.

I feel that the camera lies when you look at the LCD cos it looks a lot brighter usually, and when uploaded to a PC, its all dark! Quite annoyed actually, but its my first attempt of shooting people, C&C welcome thanks.

1.

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Nice pictures.

Took the liberty of playing around with a couple of them.

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IMAGE LINK: http://callto://mickle​uk

hi mickle, thanks for that, looks a lot better, though i havent done anything in PS myself yet

what did you do to the pics? thanks

Basically....
Adjusted levels.
Adjusted shadows/highlights.
Duplicated layer, set to soft light about 20% opacity.
Flattened image.
Changed to Lab mode.
Adjusted curves.
Applied USM
Back to RGB
Framed and slight USM with my script.

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IMAGE LINK: http://callto://mickle​uk

how long does that normally take? guess if i shoot them better first time round i wouldnt have to mess around :P

The post processing done here was quite good but he had good images to start with. Your approach mentioned above is correct, the better they are in the camera the quicker the post processing will go...

And I know that - I spend hours, no days, post processing my stuff.

Only took a couple of minutes to do them both.

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mickle, whats with this part of your PP?

Changed to Lab mode.
Adjusted curves.
Applied USM

Lab and USM mode namely... i struggle with curves to be fair, just do the levels instead.

Anyone else C&C in terms of what i can improve on? Thanks

To get to Lab mode, menu Image>Mode then select Lab
When you adjust curves in Lab mode you get 3 channels. Adjust in channels a and b.
I applied USM (Unsharp Mask) on the Lightness channel while still in Lab mode as I find it better.

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IMAGE LINK: http://callto://mickle​uk

I hope to give this a go when im back down south from secondment up north!

just wish people have better lightings at home :P

One problem I see (But am not sure how to fix it with your camera) is you can't see detail in the eyes, kind of gives off a creepy vibe. With what mikle did it really helped bring out the eyes. For the band shots try getting mroe then one person per shot, make it look as though they are practicing together, not alone. If you want single shots of the band, then getting closer or cropping may feel more intimate.

I think you should have a look at your parameter (in camera) and see what the settings are for brightness/contrast- I don't know where they are in the 20D, but you should be able to get a little more directly out of the camera. Although using PS to enhance images is important (and often necessary), I feel a camera of this calibre should be able to produce satisfying results just as our old film camera's did.

I know what you mean about the eyes, but again bearing in mind, the bedroom i was in had a really high ceiling with a low light single bulb, and the only other lighting available was the side bedroom light. So hence the massive iris in her eyes. As for the band practice, again that was at my mates living room, and i took around 80 pics that night, i just uploaded a few for some advice really. I did get a few group shots, mainly in pairs when the guitarists moved around. When im back home next, i will upload more and put it up in the band/people section for more C&C.

The one i use is the default one, i think its set to parameter 2? Which is used for creative modes Av etc., i know (i think its) parameter 1 ups a few of the elements though not sure what they are off by heart, and makes the clarity and contrast better?

Does this remind anyone else of the load screen for The Sims???
Adjusting Swashplate
Initializing Emotion Variables
Reticulating Splines

Hope someone got that.

The photoshop work came out good because your exposures were good to begin with. I've seen very few pictures that come out of the camera that look "perfect". They almost always need a little PP work. The important thing is to make sure you have as much picture info as possible to work with.

Damm!
I was there 5 mins after you and she was gone....

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