IMO, white is not the best color for portrait clothing...
You are starting from a difficult situation here, Harmon.
Shooting outside is obviously different from carefully controlled studio work so you are bound to get some hard shadows, and her wearing white is just adding to the potential exposure problems.
However, apart from a few slightly bright areas I think the overall exposure has worked well.
But in that location you are bound to have background problems and trying to further reduce the depth of focus would probably cause as many problems as it solved.
So the first shot suffers from that light swirly background, but you can probably reduce that a bit more.
I would substantially crop the second one. I think you could get away with a 5 x 4 ratio crop which would remove the house on the left and a bit of the right side background. Plus, cropping closer above her head would help to remove the foliage which appears to be growing from the top of her head.
After cropping the remaining piece can easily be cloned out.
So, considering the starting problems, I think you have done well here.
Last edited by Dave Humphries; 20th November 2011 at 09:54 AM.
I thought the brown would offset the white.
Thanks, I am very new at this, and your advice is very helpful.
I thought the brown would offset the white.
With carefully placed lights/reflectors you could get away with a lot more but in this case you have shadows to consider. However, that tan colour certainly works better than having a really dark contrasting colour.
Harmon, bright spots or not, I like the first one.
The second one, I don't like the brown vest. If you cropped to a head shot I think it would look good.
Thanks Viana. I like the adjustment.
Thanks Speedneeder, I honor your judgement. I did alot of head shots, I will post one to see what you think.
Perhaps it might in overall tonal values Harmon, but it is the exposure issues that come with it, as you see in both shots, that cause the problems.
Especially when lit by a relatively close, relatively small light source like flash (even if diffused)
Lit by a daytime cloudy sky alone, it would be far less an issue.
Cheers,