My first try

Well technically not my first try but it is with my new camera. I finally decided to take the jump to a dSLR after using a Canon PowerShot G6 for a little over a year now. I purchased a Canon Digital Rebel XTi and so far I am loving it. Even though I dont know much about it or what it is capable of. That is why I am here...so I can learn from everyone else. Feel free to edit the picture I am posting and then post it back in this thread but if you do please let me know what and how you did to it so I may learn. Thanks everyone!

This is a picture of my Fiancee in front of Bennigan's restaraunt.

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Oh yeah and here is the EXIF data if anyone wanted it:

Camera: Canon EOS Digital Rebel XTi
Exposure: 0.001 sec (1/800)
Aperture: f/5
Focal Length: 37 mm
ISO Speed:100
Exposure Bias: 0/3 EV
Flash: Flash did not fire

I think a touch of fill-flash would lok great. And if you got your subject to turn away from looking directly into the subn, she wouldnt be squinting either,

Ok thanks for the tip! She is actually really sensitive to the flash and whenever it does fire all I get are shots with her eye's closed. But I think it would really help like you said if she wasn't directly head on to the camera.

Good photo. I would suggest trying to back up and zoom in to get a greater background blur. Also, since you have CS2, try increasing the saturation of some of the colors, and maybe play with the curves. You might also want to go for a tighter crop because the background isn't really contributing anything to the photo. Good job.
Reed

Alright thanks a lot Reed, yeah I actually just cropped that real quick last night and it was kinda late so I didn't really want to stay up all night messing around with it. Thanks for the tip about backing up and zooming in, to tell you the truth I didn't even know that is how you get a greater background blur. I will try playing around with it right now and I will post another one shortly.

Ok well I cropped it a little closer and I played with the Saturation. I tried messing around with the curves and yeah well that didn't go so well haha so this is what I came up with. I'm wondering if someone is bored out there and they can maybe edit the first one I posted and then post it back up so I can see how it "could" look if I knew what I was doing. And to get a larger one you can just go to my Flikr page, the link is in my sig.

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Backing up is not the only way to create more background blur. The other way would be to "open" the aperature a bit. I assume you have the kit 18-55mm lens so you probably had it wide open (smallest number possible for that focl length). If you get a lens like the 85mm f1.2 or f1.8 lens, you will get incredible background blur. Anyhow, here's my attempt at an edit. I cropped it to make the subject fill the frame a bit more. I also desatrated the blue in her shirt. Then I increased the red and yellow saturation to make her skin a bit more lively. I then made some very minor adjustments to the curves to give it a bit more contrast. Then I cloned out that pesky cigarette butt holder thingy.
Reed

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ha ha that made me laugh, my cats are exact same way. Others can take pictures of gorgeous cats eyes but most my cat pictures are all of closed eyes

Jemmind wrote:
ha ha that made me laugh, my cats are exact same way. Others can take pictures of gorgeous cats eyes but most my cat pictures are all of closed eyes

Glad someone else out there has the same problem I do , but I mean seriously every single picture with the flash on her eye's are closed. Oh well maybe someday I will be able to break her of the habit.

Ok wow see that is exactly what I wanted someone to do. I actually didn't even notice the blue tint in her shirt until you mentioned it. Thank you very much for editing it and telling me exactly what you did. That will definitely help me on my way to learning to become a better photographer. I will try tomorrow to shoot her again and post to see if I did a better job.

I suggest that you try subtractive lighting next time. If you had turned her slightly so you had a nice lighting pattern, and added a black reflector above her head, you would have eliminated the harsh shadows in her eyes. If you also added a black reflector to the shadow side you would have deepened them and made a better lighting ratio. In leau of buying black reflectors, you could try making them from cardboard spray painted flat black. An assistant would be good. A light stand to hold them would be even better.

Also, try using a faster shutter speed and a wide open aperature so the background goes out of focus. It would draw eyes right to her and the background would not compete.

D. Craig Flory PPA Certified, Cr.Photog., ASP
loryphotog@mindspring.​com