Joanne

Canon EOS 1D MKII. 70-200 f2.8 IS, 140mm, f5.6, 1/200, ISO 640, 2 continuous lights, one level with BG, one behind camera to the right. 580EX as fill. RAW, RSE, CS2

Hi All,

Looking for some honest critique on this image please. Took this for a gift for the family for Xmas. My little girl loved posing and have around 100 images, but me and my wife liked this one the best. Are the colours OK or should I go for B/W?

All comments welcomed.

Regards

Rob

www.robhowardimaging.c​o.uk

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Cute snapshot.

She is a sweetie.but I am seeing a blueish color.probably my monitor.a crop would be a good thing as well.removing the hand to the right?

Yep, definitely a color cast. Correct the white balance and it will look much better.

Yes, I agree with the rest color corect the image.
Alex

I'll be super honest, and please don't take this offensively, but it looks like a snapshot taken with a kit camera.

There's very apparent shadows, especially below her chin, for using 3 lights. The lighting is super flat, and the colors are very dull as well. Further more, her pose looks like it was caught mid-action, so it looks like a lucky shot at best.

It looks like there was no post processing done either. You have a stellar equipment list, but the shot looks

Hi All,

Thanks for the feedback, it's all taken onboard. My main area of photography is wildlife, so this is all a bit new to me!

Regards

Rob

You have mixed different color temperatures of light. Since the camera set the white balance for the ambient incandescents, the flash looks blue. You notice it more on the shadow side since that is where the fill was doing its work. You can either filter the flash with an amber gel or filter the incandescents with a blue gel, but it rarely works to mix them. In this case, you would have been better off using a third incandescent as fill or a reflector and not used the flash at all. Also, the pink top looks brighter than the face. Most reflectors tend to have a hot spot and it looks as though yours was aimed at the top rather than the face. You might be able to darken the top and bring up the face in post production.

I wish my kids were still young and cute and willing to pose instead of being hairy-legged guys in their 30s. Maybe they'll give me some grandkids some day.