Joy

dlplumer

I am considering entering this in the next DSS challenge and would appreciate some coaching and feedback.

Thanks,

Dan

Joy

jeffreaux2

My initial thought upon viewing was that it could stand to be warmer....much warmer.

A curves adjustment layer....to try and get more color and detail in the butterfly....then masked to only affect the bug might help in giving it more oomph and definition.

Im not a fan of out of focus foreground elements and wish her hand were sharper, but in this particular shot I am not totally put off by it.

I definately think that it is worth keeping, and exploring different processing options to get more out of it.

Nice shot!

Thanks for sharing

divamum

Dan -

I'm obviously no expert, so take anything I say with a grain of salt, but fwiw...

I like it, but I find that I wish the butterfly weren't actually in FRONT of her face - the dof blur doesn't bother me, but the location of the butterfly seems to make neither element seem to be dominant, if that makes sense. Do you have another one from an ever so slightly different angle?

The buttefly is absolutely AMAZING, not at all by the way.

dlplumer

jeffreaux2 wrote:

My initial thought upon viewing was that it could stand to be warmer....much warmer.

A curves adjustment layer....to try and get more color and detail in the butterfly....then masked to only affect the bug might help in giving it more oomph and definition.

Im not a fan of out of focus foreground elements and wish her hand were sharper, but in this particular shot I am not totally put off by it.

I definately think that it is worth keeping, and exploring different processing options to get more out of it.

Nice shot!

Thanks for sharing

What do you think?

jeffreaux2

dlplumer wrote:

What do you think?

I am unfortunately on an uncalibrated laptop, but what I see looks promising. Ill look again when I get back to my main monitor...tommorrw. It definately look like you got some color going now though. It was a bit short on that before.

It appears....just an educated guess...that you were using some TTL controlled flash here. Am I right?

dlplumer

jeffreaux2 wrote:

I am unfortunately on an uncalibrated laptop, but what I see looks promising. Ill look again when I get back to my main monitor...tommorrw. It definately look like you got some color going now though. It was a bit short on that before.

It appears....just an educated guess...that you were using some TTL controlled flash here. Am I right?

Aperture priority with fill flash

Tango

i really like #2, the blur under the hand in the first image really did not seem right, also i prefer the 2nd's colors and temp too!

jeffreaux2

dlplumer wrote:

Aperture priority with fill flash

OK

The great thing I have noticed with Canon's ETTL flash system is that it WILL expose for the highlights. It can also frustrate me under the right circumstances.

Lets disect what happened with the flash in this shot....Not that you have made some sort of mistake, but just so we can understand what is happening....

-As you pressed the shutter, the flash fired once to get some metering info. It immediately found her hand (its right there close right?)and calculated what it needed to do in order to expose, but not overexpose it. Next, as the shutter opens the flash fires again to expose the shot...but it is going to protect those highlights.....which in this case will be her hand since it is so near the camera. Done, image captured.

...and I can see what the flash was trying to protect....the highlight area near the thumb between the thumb and forefinger.

As a result, the background was not really taken into account for the flash exposure....instead the natural light accounts for most of what happened back there. In this case not at all a bad balance from foreground to background so far as exposure goes.

There is one thing though. Now you have light of two different temperatures. One...the flash...striking the foreground, and then something else (I presume afternoon sun) that has a slightly warmer color lighting the background. An inbalance.

Not a terrible thing, but there is a remedy.

In this case, a color correcting flash gel placed over the business end of the flash can tint that light to match your ambient light. For afternoon sun people typically use a straw colored gel or 1/8 or 1/4 CTO (color temperature orange) to rectify that inbalance. In shade, use blue (CTB).

Well, there ya go!


Forgive me if you already are aware of EVERYTHING I said. Even so, someone less experienced who reads this thread may learn a new trick.

dlplumer

jeffreaux2 wrote:

OK

The great thing I have noticed with Canon's ETTL flash system is that it WILL expose for the highlights. It can also frustrate me under the right circumstances.

Lets disect what happened with the flash in this shot....Not that you have made some sort of mistake, but just so we can understand what is happening....

-As you pressed the shutter, the flash fired once to get some metering info. It immediately found her hand (its right there close right?)and calculated what it needed to do in order to expose, but not overexpose it. Next, as the shutter opens the flash fires again to expose the shot...but it is going to protect those highlights.....which in this case will be her hand since it is so near the camera. Done, image captured.

...and I can see what the flash was trying to protect....the highlight area near the thumb between the thumb and forefinger.

As a result, the background was not really taken into account for the flash exposure....instead the natural light accounts for most of what happened back there. In this case not at all a bad balance from foreground to background so far as exposure goes.

There is one thing though. Now you have light of two different temperatures. One...the flash...striking the foreground, and then something else (I presume afternoon sun) that has a slightly warmer color lighting the background. An inbalance.

Not a terrible thing, but there is a remedy.

In this case, a color correcting flash gel placed over the business end of the flash can tint that light to match your ambient light. For afternoon sun people typically use a straw colored gel or 1/8 or 1/4 CTO (color temperature orange) to rectify that inbalance. In shade, use blue (CTB).

Well, there ya go!


Forgive me if you already are aware of EVERYTHING I said. Even so, someone less experienced who reads this thread may learn a new trick.

I am ignorant with respect to flash Jeff, but do you like the shot I do understand what you are saying though and I really appreciate you taking the time to help.

dlplumer

AaronNelson wrote:

i really like #2, the blur under the hand in the first image really did not seem right, also i prefer the 2nd's colors and temp too!

Thanks Aaron

jeffreaux2

dlplumer wrote:

I am ignorant with respect to flash Jeff, but do you like the shot I do understand what you are saying though and I really appreciate you taking the time to help.

It is much better.....and yes I like it. Not sure how well it would fare in DSS though. The competition can be insanely good there. That is always a consideration...but GS has taken the cuffs off everyone by not specifying a theme. Many folks are better at a particular area of photography and will be allowed to do that ...theme free...on this one.

The real question is do you like it?

Id hang on to it....AND keep shooting. Then make the decision on an entry later.

divamum

jeffreaux2 wrote:

Forgive me if you already are aware of EVERYTHING I said. Even so, someone less experienced who reads this thread may learn a new trick.

::someone less experienced reading the thread and learning a new trick::

That would be me. Thank you! This has, of course, all been mentioned before, but that "reverse engineering" breakdown is wonderfully helpful. Thanks Jeff ... and Dan, for posting the original!

Btw, Dan, I prefer the second more saturated one a LOT - in the first shot, the butterfly was almost white, now it has some real colour to it.

.but GS has taken the cuffs off everyone by not specifying a theme. Many folks are better at a particular area of photography and will be allowed to do that ...theme free...on this one.

Bingo. I'm almost hesitating to submit to this one for just those reasons, but I'll see what I come up with this week before ruling myself out....

dlplumer

divamum wrote:

::someone less experienced reading the thread and learning a new trick::

That would be me. Thank you! This has, of course, all been mentioned before, but that "reverse engineering" breakdown is wonderfully helpful. Thanks Jeff ... and Dan, for posting the original!

Btw, Dan, I prefer the second more saturated one a LOT - in the first shot, the butterfly was almost white, now it has some real colour to it.



Bingo. I'm almost hesitating to submit to this one for just those reasons, but I'll see what I come up with this week before ruling myself out....

Thanks diva. I was unable to find a shot in which the hand/butterfly did not partially obstruct her face, but for this shot I don't think that is bad. I'll keep shooting and playing before submitting.

Thanks.

divamum

dlplumer wrote:

Thanks diva. I was unable to find a shot in which the hand/butterfly did not partially obstruct her face, but for this shot I don't think that is bad. I'll keep shooting and playing before submitting.

Thanks.

Interestingly, with the colour temp change that bothers me a lot less. Isn't it interesting how a change on one thing alters one perceptions of other elements?!

dlplumer

What do you candidly think about this version?