Was ask to do a photo I didn’t think I could do, honest opinions of its outcome welcome.
Was walking around just doing some shots for a friends Senior kid and he stoped at this fountain, sat down and we did some shots then his Mom said she wanted one with the water frozen as she had seen some of my landscape photos with the frozen water look. This was the middle of the day, nice and bright out, no filters with me and no tripod. I figured it would blow out real bad but nothing lost by trying. I set my camera to f/32, ISO to 100 and choose a 1/5 shutter speed. Told the guy to not move, I was going to try to not move and see what happens. In the end they loved the photo so that’s all that matters but wanted some honest feedback from the Pros here.
I'm not sure my answer will be helpful since I can't see what is to the left. I find the plaque on the right distracting. One of the lessons I learned was to take a few steps in either direction and look at your shot from different angles. It might have still been a nice background without the sign.
flathead27ford wrote:
I'm not sure my answer will be helpful since I can't see what is to the left. I find the plaque on the right distracting. One of the lessons I learned was to take a few steps in either direction and look at your shot from different angles. It might have still been a nice background without the sign.
The layout of the fountain didn’t give me much to play with but I do see what your referring to, it’s a pretty tight round circle with the fountain in the middle. To the immediate left is a set of brick steps. He just ask for a few pics as we walked by this thing.
He can hold still for the 1/5 second exposure but you seemed can't. Try again with tripod.
I would have chosen a wider aperture from F4-5.6 and tried to fill the frame more of him. Turning him slightly might also be more flattering. Setting a focus point on the nearest eye would have created a sharper and more interesting image.
Haydon wrote:
I would have chosen a wider aperture from F4-5.6 and tried to fill the frame more of him. Turning him slightly might also be more flattering. Setting a focus point on the nearest eye would have created a sharper and more interesting image.
I was afraid as bright as it was and for this shot she wanted the frozen water look (we were just walking around shooting, this wasn’t planned) that I need as little light as I could get. Do you think F4 or so would of blown it out with a shutter speed that froze the water?
flathead27ford wrote:
I'm not sure my answer will be helpful since I can't see what is to the left. I find the plaque on the right distracting. One of the lessons I learned was to take a few steps in either direction and look at your shot from different angles. It might have still been a nice background without the sign.
It would be easy to remove the sign in post.
JohnSwanda wrote:
It would be easy to remove the sign in post.
Wouldn't need to remove it if it wasn't there in the first place. 😉😊
JohnSwanda wrote:
It would be easy to remove the sign in post.
Nice idea but there in the ground, 4 ft deep encased in concrete. I forgot my shovel lol.
Resqu2 wrote:
Nice idea but there in the ground, 4 ft deep encased in concrete. I forgot my shovel lol.
I meant remove it in post processing.
I would have opened up the aperture a few stops and increased the shutter speed. Hope you don't mind, but since this is a special time for the Mom and young man, perhaps the attached processed photo I made from yours may be okay to share with them. I used Topaz Sharpen AI to improve the focus, Topaz ReMask to remove the sign, and Photoshop to clone in the background. It took about 5 minutes of my time, although the Sharpen AI took maybe 10 minutes to run since I tried two different setting of correction.
You were very kind to make the photo for them.
Resqu2 wrote:
I was afraid as bright as it was and for this shot she wanted the frozen water look (we were just walking around shooting, this wasn’t planned) that I need as little light as I could get. Do you think F4 or so would of blown it out with a shutter speed that froze the water?
What one desires is subjective in portrait, but typically the background isn't the focus of attention, it's more an element. As a guideline F4-F5.6 is more of a masculine aperture offering detail through much of the face but still creates a subtle out of focus blur with the background. Women are more frequently shot in wider apertures. You're using a 5DIV with a 70-200 2.8LII. Throwing the back out of focus and creating subject separation is easily accomplished with that combination. Not as easily done with a cellphone which often has everything sharp in frame.
Quote:
Do you think F4 or so would of blown it out with a shutter speed that froze the water?
The water would be blurry at that aperture and focal length of 100 mm. The shutter speed at F4 would have been 1/320 second with the exposure you made. You could have gone at F11 which would have been 1/80 second if you wanted more of the water in focus.
Actually just cropping the sign out moves him off-center, more third's rule, and reduces the "snapshot" look. Think you did fine hand holding 1/5th. Could PP for clarity & vibrance.
Unless Im missing something wouldn't a faster shutter speed freeze the water 1/5 of a second makes the water looked blurred. and a lil touch of flash would have opened up his eyes, hes got the raccoon look.
Doc Barry wrote:
I would have opened up the aperture a few stops and increased the shutter speed. Hope you don't mind, but since this is a special time for the Mom and young man, perhaps the attached processed photo I made from yours may be okay to share with them. I used Topaz Sharpen AI to improve the focus, Topaz ReMask to remove the sign, and Photoshop to clone in the background. It took about 5 minutes of my time, although the Sharpen AI took maybe 10 minutes to run since I tried two different setting of correction.
You were very kind to make the photo for them.
I would have opened up the aperture a few stops an... (
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Thank you very much for that, I didn’t even think about removing the sign as it was just us walking around snapping pics, I will for sure send it to them.
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