Andrea Loc: Naples, Florida

Hi, my name is Andrea and I am totally new at this photography obsession. Just got a Canon 60D and I love it. My subject is my 4 year old. I am not sure why but I tend to love the look of over exposed photos. Is this something I will "outgrow" once I get more experienced? Attached is a photo I love but the histogram shows it to be over exposed. I love the look of skin and eyes when it is over exposed. Saves me a step of needing to use the skin softening in LR. Just looking for some advice. Thanks and I am happy to be part of this forum as I love to learn and I look forward to improving my skills. Thanks

my angel girl 2011


my neighbors dogs

Bret Loc: Dayton Ohio

Hi Andrea and welcome to the UH.
Yes your little girl shot is just a little over done....not by very much...I think the background has a little to do with that.
Maybe bracket and see what you get. Now the puppies....looks like a very bright light from the right...maybe a window was open or somthing like that. White can be very hard to get just right...but keep at it...and have fun :)

Andrea Loc: Naples, Florida

Thanks Bret, the photo of my little girl was taken inside. She was facing a window. The dogs where taken outside about 1/2 hour before sunset. Do you ever use a white balance cap? It seems to me that lots of people (including myself) wear white when getting their photo taken. I just had my WB on auto.

Andrea Loc: Naples, Florida

one more thing, what does bracket mean?

Bret Loc: Dayton Ohio

Does your camera have this setting? Bracket means to under and over expose your shot by a 1/3 or 1/2 an f-stop...kinda like getting 3 shots at once. Also check your manual that came with your camera...about bracketing and also...look at your spot meter section....that mite help as well.

johnrennie Loc: North Florida

I actually liked the slightly overexposed look for the image of your daughter. It didn’t really work with the poodles, too many hot-spots resulting in a loss of detail. That slightly over-exposed look has become a kind of ‘style’ for some photographers. I have some pro colleges who only shoot that way and their clients like it. Personally, I think it’s becoming a bit over-done. I’ll do it intentionally… sometimes, but certainly not in all my images. There are better options for skin-softening. Check out Imagenomic Portraiture. It’s simple to use and they have a plug-in for Light Room.

The 60D does have the bracketing feature. Adjust bracketing by pressing your joystick. The bracketing mode should come up at the top center of your view screen. Use your main dial to choose the setting. It will enable you to shoot three consecutive pics: one under exposed, one over exposed and one correctly exposed based on how the camera meters the shot. This will give you three options to choose from in post. You have to change your drive mode to ‘continuous’ (lower right hand corner of your view-screen). Then hold down your shutter release button until you hear 3 shots fired. We also use this for HDR images. This feature will not work if you have your on-camera flash engaged or have a speedlite attached.

tkhphotography Loc: Gresham, Or, not Seattle

Are you using PS Elements or Photoshop?

If so, bring up the pix in "editor" mode and look over at the layers palette on the right; you will see your pix labeled "background". Drag it with your cursor up to the "create new layer" emblem and it will duplicate it and call itself "background copy." Now go up into the layer blend mode menu above the icons and where you see the word "normal", scroll down and look for multiply. I did it just once and it popped your pix 100% better. Try it. If you want, say so, and I will post mine.

shadow1284 Loc: Mid-West Michigan

I have used a white balance tool when there are more than one kind of light exposing my subject. That will help to keep the colors more natural. You can also use the blinkies that showup when using the histogram to view the taken pictures in the LCD.
Then by adjusting the amount of light to take the picture and or the position the light hits your subject, you can better relieve the over and or under exposier of the picture.
Your manuel and the Canon tutorials that are available on line can help you greatly with your camera controls. Works for me.

Andrea Loc: Naples, Florida

Yes TKH, please post it! We use Lightroom. Thanks for all your help.

tkhphotography Loc: Gresham, Or, not Seattle

ur welcome

Andrea Loc: Naples, Florida

Is it bad to say i am still drawn to the over exposed? I really appreciate what you did but I am just wondering if mine is considered awful by others? (meaning people with photography knowledge) I am not so sure why I am so drawn to something that is not correct. While taking photos, my meter can be perfectly balanced yet I am not pleased with results until I am a bit over.

tkhphotography Loc: Gresham, Or, not Seattle

no1 brought up "awful" I saw; you asked for different.

If you find you're always not pleased with the exposure settings, try using the exp brkt button up or down as you see fit. Your camera will measure the scene then adjust for whatever factor you dial in.

(ps, in PS you can always tone down the "multiply" effect by turning down the "opacity" button.)

You did say originally your histogram showed over- exposure.

Andrea Loc: Naples, Florida

Yes, my histogram always shows what I consider to be a beautiful shot to be over exposed. I am just trying to figure out why I am drawn to the over exposed photos when they are not considered correct. Perhaps I am looking for an explanation when there is just no explanation. I guess it is just what my eyes find appealing. I just hope people are not secretly gagging when they look at my photos. LOL. Thanks everyone. I have learned a lot today.

tkhphotography Loc: Gresham, Or, not Seattle

In short it's whatever you like.
And to expose for the right side of the histogram is a good thing, as long as you're not clipping the highlites.

keep posting!!!!!!!!

tkhphotography Loc: Gresham, Or, not Seattle

One last thing--I checked your histogram and you didn't clip any of the highlites--so you did a good job in capturing it. Maybe it's your monitor needs calibrating to match your editing program.

As you know, you want most of the pixel count in the histogram to the middle right and you have it..good deal.