Sunday, March 6, 2011

Common troubles with photos.

I thought I'd discuss some obvious problems we can look for in a photograph.

All of the photos in this post are some old photos that I took with a different camera than I currently use. I keep these photos because they are what I call nice "snapshots".  We all take and keep snapshots as that may be all we have of a certain moment or time. And we don't usually or always have time to set up a photo ahead of time.

If you click on the photo, you can see a larger version, if you are having trouble seeing what I'm talking about.

In the first two I used the on camera flash. The lighting is flat, and produces bright catch lights in the center of the pupils (often causing red-eye).  I avoid that now if at all possible, and if I do use a flash, it is one mounted above the camera to try to avoid the dead-center catch-lights.

In the first photo of my son, he has a great expression, but he's not sharp! His eyes are blurry. This is the type of photo I don't keep (or offer a customer):




In the second, although the lighting still isn't very flattering, he is sharp. I will say that this is a better use of fill flash, in that you don't see it as much. I believe I had my camera on Aperture priority mode. The aperture for both was f/5.6, the focal length 55mm, and the exposure 1/30th of a second. The last is exactly why the first photo turned out blurry. 1/30th of a second is just too slow for hand-holding a camera and taking a photo of a moving child. The second is sharp by chance. One other note is that the white balance looks blueish (kind of like he's sick)! The auto white balance on the camera may not get it right. Since I take my photos in raw format, I can change this easily in post processing. If you take in jpeg, you should set it to look right in the camera.


Here is the same photo with white balance corrected:


This photo is simply back-focused, so the subjects are blurry. The camera focused on what was behind the children, rather than on them. Always watch to make sure you are focused on what you actually want to have sharp. (I think that is a sticker, "tatoo", or bandaid on his shoulder)



In the next photos I want to show some examples of lighting or exposure problems.

The first photo is simply underexposed:


The lighting would be helped if I'd used a reflector on her left to lift the shadows in her eyes just a little. It also helps to raise the exposure of the picture in post-processing, although it is better to get it right in the camera first. Here is the photo with the exposure and brightness raised:


Here is an example where the light is coming from directly overhead, casting the whole face in shadow and illuminating his hair. I actually used the on-camera flash so his face wouldn't be so dark. However, I should have lowered the exposure compensation on the camera so that the highlights wouldn't be "blown". This means that they are so bright that all detail is completely lost in those areas. Mid-day is a tough time to take photos, due to the unflattering overhead lighting.


In the next two photos we will look at where the light falls on the subject and his surroundings.

In the first, the light on the bubble is nice, but all the rest of the light in the photo is lighting the back of the subject's head and shoulders, and actually falling on the dog on the background as well. So, unfortunately, with no light on his face, our eyes are drawn to the light on his back and behind him.


In this photo, the light is better, as it at least lights his face (although there is still shadowing in his eyes). However, the bubble isn't as sharp or as well lit:




The other thing I can do to the first photo is crop it tighter and brightening a touch. Although the lighting still isn't quite right, cutting the brightness out of the photo on the right helps draw our eye more to the face and bubble. I also like the highlight on the right side of his face, and the way the light hits his hand and the bubble.


Anyway, these are a couple of things to look for in photos!