catalint Loc: oslo

Hi all,
The student is backup from homework again, and needs to evaluate.
I had the opportunity to help my good friend with some family pictures this weekend. The photographer canceled last week, and they were very disappointed, so they turned to me for help. They knew I mostly do hobby photography and I do not go around and call myself a professional photographer. They've seen my pictures and they had a lot of confidence in me that I would do just grate.

For this session I really wanted to put in use my Sigma 1.4 ART. I used Aperture mode to begin use, but because of the pale bright sky, I was getting very blown out sky, so I switched to Manual. I could not figure out how to stay on aperture mode and correct the blown out sky.

Question : Should I have changed the metering in order to solve this? I used Spot metering.

My distance was around 3-4 meter away. This is my first prime lens, and now I see the challenge of moving around rather to zoom in and out as I was used to on my other lenses. Using prime lens, it showed me how important is to remember the aperture. Cause now I have to move from my standing spot i order to frame my picture, and moving back and forward has a huge impact on the result with proper aperture.

Aperture @widest (1.4) from that distance resulted in sharper details in front on the subject, while the main subject were soft. Because of very bright light, from the washed out thin layer of clouds, in front of the sun, ISO had to go very low: 100 . I wanted to shoot more from the left, but the sun bulb would be in front of me. Wanted a little of the water in the background so I had to be happy with light from the side.

I am pretty ok with the result. Analyzing the photo on my big screen, I see it could have done it better. I feel picture could have been more sharp.

So you, please feel free to share your thoughts on this. Critics and suggestions always welcome.

Cheers everybody
and greetings from Oslo
Catalin T.


PS: Forgot to mention PP. Original picture is a little overexposed. So I had to reduce highlight a little, changed to Daylight white balance, masked and sharpened a little more.
Gear: Nikon D750 + Sigma 50mm 1.4 ART
Settings: ISO 100, A6.5, Shutter Speed 1/200 , Spot metering.

(Download)

hlmichel Loc: New Hope, Minnesota

There are just three things I would change.
Take the hands out of the pockets.
Have dad looking at the camera.
Change mom's pose. Her hand keeps drawing my eyes to her crotch.

djtravels Loc: Georgia boy now

I'm in the same boat as you, amateur photo shooter. So....I think you came up with a very satisfactory shot, but my taste would be to increase the saturation/contrast to make the photo pop. If you could have chosen a different time of day, like one of the golden hours before sunset or after sunrise, you might have avoided a lot of your lighting problems. As for metering, I use center weighted average. Get right in one's face and take a shot using the aperture you plan on shooting with. Check the readings, switch to manual mode with those readings and you're good to go....until the lighting changes. Oh! And try to move your photography goals from 'grate' to "GREAT". Other folks can probably help you more than I could. Have a great day. djt

catalint Loc: oslo

Thanx for commenting Michael.

I do have a couple of more shots from this setup where they all face me as well. I was looking for more natural behaving than "1,2,3 Smile to me"-rutine .
Now that you mentioned the arm and the crotch, I have to agree with you on that one. Funny, but it did not draw my attention until you mentioned it :D
Btw: That's the proud grandmother with her son and grandson

catalint Loc: oslo

Thank you Djtravels :) . The time of day was unfortunately decided and had to accept it. I really appreciate your comment about saturation/contrast and will be looking at this later when I arrive home.
I've also suggested to do another session if they desire better.

Grate vs Great :) yep, totally agree, and saw it myself, but for some reason, my EDIT button has vanished. Wanted to correct another line, I just don't find my edit button again. I'll figure it out soon

Infinite Imager Loc: California

I agree with himichel. I also know that the lady should remove the glasses. Best to have people in natural positions and smiling. Sometimes the photographer has to inject some humor to get the subject to relax and smile. Also, best to take 3 images in each position and review quickly. In your photo my eye is drawn to the big wheel due to the angle of the tractor and the wheels dominance. That said, it is 3 people in positions natural to them and I like it. f11 may also have helped as the background is attractive. The child inside the tractor with hands on the wheel and the parents close in all smiling would be an interesting image. The tractor does present many a possibility for composition.

catalint Loc: oslo

Thanx Infinite Imager. I was clever enough to take several takes for each setup we had, and now I do have a couple of more shots now I want to review based on the comments here. It was my idea to use the tractor. My friend is in the situation where he shares custody for the child, and therefore he's there from time to time, but he loves all the machines they have around their farm. So i wanted something to identify the place. Time of the day showed it was wrong for photos. I also wanted more of the lake in the background, just not possible since the sun would be in front. Once again, thank you also for taking the time to comment, I appreciate it :)

Revet Loc: Fairview Park, Ohio

In this type of picture, you want the subjects and possibly the tractor to be exposed properly so your camera did exactly what it should have using spot metering; ie. it exposed the people correctly and blew the sky out. I would be surprised if you could not recover some of that sky in post if you shot Raw (a simple graduated filter should do the trick in Lightroom or ACR). I like the pose, I also am an amateur but I just had my daughter married and the Pro had be put my hand in my pocket for many of the family shots. I think I would have liked the father looking at the camera but I don't think what you did is unacceptable and it does capture a moment which the people may want. When I zoomed in, the detail is pretty good and in focus so I don't think it is such a soft image as you said, I think it is a flat image which needs more contrast. Try increasing contrast with a slider or better yet with the curves adjustment (Lightroom or Photoshop). You may even try using the haze slider slightly. After reading the above comment, all I see when I look at the picture now is the mother's crotch!!!!! So I guess I would have moved her hand elsewhere. Overall I think this is a good shot which would have been awesome in the golden hours.

catalint Loc: oslo

Thank you Revet. The sky is recovered yes :). In manual I was able to get some detail from the sky, in Aperture mode, it was simply white. Must say, Contrast and Dehaze slider is something I've been shy to touch. It seems I have to look more into. Thanx again for your view and comments, and appreciate it :)

Cheers
C.

jim quist Loc: Missouri

For this shot I, what if you cropped out everything to the right of that front tire?

bull drink water Loc: pontiac mi.

no comment on the pose, as for the exposure, i'd have moved the ev pointer to the left a little od darkened the photo a littler in p.p.

jaymatt Loc: Alexandria, Indiana

I think it's a nice shot; it looks real, and natural, instead of one of those "everybody smile and say 'cheese'" posed, line 'em up and shoot things. I assume from previous comments that I'm about to be crucified, but that's how I feel. I think your subjects will like the photo.

JCam Loc: MD Eastern Shore

If you were concerned about the blowout, why not switch to a shutter priority with a slower shutter speed and let the camera search for the f-stop? It almost certainly would have been higher than 1.4 and given you more DOF.

Armadillo Loc: Ventura, CA

Catalin,

Overall, your photo is not too bad, you have captured an image that is hard to get right the first time. You have a bright partly cloudy sky and this provided good lighting on your prime subjects. To improve your photo at the moment you captured it requires either some additional equipment for your camera, or a lot of Post Processing(PP) at home.
PP at home: At the scene before capturing the photograph you could have metered the scene for center average, then set Exposure Compensation to a -.63 to -1.3Ec. This would have under exposed all of the scene and at home you could have performed some careful selections and used a fill light tool to raise the exposure and contrast on the people in the scene.

On camera equipment: If you’re on camera flash is strong enough, or you have an external flash for the Hot Shoe on your camera, the flash can be used as a secondary light source using TTL exposure on the prime subjects. This uses a relatively new user control called Back Button Exposure Control. Making sure both camera and external flash are set for ETTL, perform the following.
Place camera exposure controls to Aperture Priority @ f/8 to f/11 for DOF.
ISO=200(value is not critical, the critical element is that it is not on Auto).
(TTL=Through The Lens, ETTL=Electronic Through The Lens metering).

1. Set camera Exposure Compensation to -1 to -2Ec
2. Meter the background light (clouds), press the back button exposure control.
3. Reposition the camera to compose and set focus for your prime subjects.
4. Depress the shutter release half way down to lock focus on one subject.
5. Reposition the camera for final composition.
6. Press shutter button all the way down to capture the scene.

What happens from 1 – 6?
1. The camera will under expose the general scene by the value you set in Ec.
2. Metering the background and setting the BBEc locks the camera exposure to the Ec you set earlier, and this exposure value is controlled by the shutter speed. (Aperture and ISO Manual)
3. Using the center spot focus in camera sets the focus on one prime subject, the Aperture Priority value assures good Depth of Field for focus on all the prime subjects.
4. Depressing the shutter half way locks the focus for the exposure and will assure good focus for all prime subjects.
5. Repositioning the camera allows you to compose the entire frame for the best artistic scene capture.
6. Pressing the shutter all the way down captures the scene, at that moment the background scene exposure is controlled by the Ec you applied in 2 above, the shutter speed sets the background exposure, the DOF is locked into place because the shutter is controlling the background exposure. The external flash fires at the moment the shutter opens, and the flash exposure is controlled by the light reflected back from the prime subjects through the lens.
Some minor PP may be needed to get the perfect balance you are looking for. Practice, practice, practice. It is a way to get both a bright outdoor scene and an interior room exposed correctly.

Michael G

camerapapi Loc: Miami, Fl.

I do not know if you do understand principles of photographic exposure. In the majority of cases the brightest part of a scene is the sky. I always try to avoid it if I am shooting outdoor portraits. What I am saying is I try to select the right background for the portrait and if the sky is important then I shoot at the end of the day, sometimes using flash for fill in light.
The spot meter is a very accurate way of measuring a scene for the exposure. In this particular case skin tones are important and I would meter from those skin tones but keep in mind that Caucasian skin is BRIGHTER than middle tones which requires opening 1 stop to compensate. If you did that the sky will still be the brightest part of the subject and that will be reflected in your shot.
I do not want to discuss posing, which could be better, since your main concern has been exposure. Those trees to the left could have been a very good background for this photograph but since I was not there I can only make a suggestion and I do not know what indeed you had in mind for this shot. The exposure looks very acceptable to me.
I hope these brief comments offer some useful help.