May people pics: favorites and dof stumpers

lisarhinehart · May 31, 2009

These are all pics that I took this month. A few of them have appeared in other posts (sorry). Basically I am getting more comfortable using my DSLR and have attempted to remove some things that I didn't like using ps elements (for the first time ever). I think the biggest issue I have been struggling with relative to using AV on my SLR is dof and how ap can affect it. Enjoy!

Teatime-- my favorite picture from this month

"Purple Mountains, Amber Waves" The sky is very overcast here

"Birthday" This was taken at f5.6 as I was going for her and the cupcakes being in focus-- it turned out the table behind her is crip, but the cupcakes are blurred

"Tinkerbell"

"Memorial Day" I think this one has too much detail in the background (ie siding and shutters), but I was concerned about too large of an ap creating dof issues since they are different distances from the camera. This is at f4 1/120

"Father and Son" Is there anything that can be done for reflections in eye glasses?

"Easter Kiss" She is blurred even though I was at f 4.5 and 1/160

"Iris" f 2.8, I was hoping to blur the unpleasant background and maybe even, in a perfect world, have the iris in focus in front of her, As it stands the background is distracting.

"Little Fairy" This is I think my second favorite shot from this month

Tim Kamppinen · May 31, 2009

I'm not seeing any pics. Do you have external links turned on in the galleries?

lisarhinehart · May 31, 2009

oops

Tim Kamppinen wrote:

I'm not seeing any pics. Do you have external links turned on in the galleries?

I've got it now :P

divamum · June 1, 2009

Lisa -

I think these are fine!

Can you remember to number your pictures? Makes it much easier to comment

Glasses reflections. Either
- angle the person away from the source of light which causes the reflections so that they don't show to the camera, or...

- clone them out in post

Not sure why the mixed focus in "Easter Kiss" - probably not quite enough DOF to capture her (anybody care to comment on that? I'm not sure and defer to the experts in our midst!). There's a link to the "dof master" around here somewhere which will let you input the focal length and aperture and give you the approximate amount of crisp depth of field that you have for that combination - useful info sometimes. I like to shoot wide open too and still have to consciously remind myself to stop down somewhat when I have two people in the shot!

What was the focal length on "Memorial Day" - looks like the wide end of your zoom? You will always have MORE depth of field at any given aperture on a wider-angle lens, making it much harder to blur a background with a WA than a telephoto... which is one of the (many) reasons longer lenses are often touted for portraits.

"Amber waves" might have benefitted from some fill flash. Good for you to put her in the shade instead of that harsh sun, but a touch of fill flash (or, if you were using flash, a touch more fill flash) would have balanced her up against the bright background.

As for the focus point issues - are you using the center-dot+recompose method? After much trial and error, I have found that I get the most consistent results by approaching it this way, particularly with moving subjects like kids. If I'm doing a "fixed" portrait session where somebody's sitting down and not moving (or a still life, or landscape or something else stationary), then I"ll adjust my focus point to the optimum choice, but when I'm shooting on the fly I've found that I get best results either by using them all (if I'm stoppped down and/or far away enough that DOF won't be so critical), or selecting on the (more sensitive and accurate) center point, locking the focus by half-depressing the shutter and then quickly reframing the shot before I depress the shutter fully. Yes, it will still occasionally miss the perfect focus point.... but I've had better success with that than any other method so far!

lisarhinehart · June 3, 2009

in answer to your questions

memorial day was at the wide end of my zoom

I don't know how to clone out in post, i'm just starting to learn PS elements-- It can get rid of that so that you can see the person's eyes... wow!!! I just found the skin color corrector today and was blown away. I found the clone stamp last week-- lots of good stuff.

Good point about the fill flash in "Amber Waves"-- I personally think it woudl have worked in "father and son, too." Another photog mentioned it to me as well and I used just the one that comes on the camera (so it is good for something--lol) and it worked very well. What do you typically set your fill flash at? Do you rec me using my 580exII w/ fong cloud instead of the built in one? I still have no idea how to use the ex, luckily the cloud is pretty self explanatory, so i've got that one down, lol! Woudl a sill flash have blown the color out of the background?

Is the center-dot and recompose really that easy or is there another catch? I don't understand how it would work as he camera focuses on a point in one plane and then you are moving it-- I guess there is room for error b/c the dof is deep enough? I'm probably missing something! I'll play with that a little.

soloshooter · June 3, 2009

Pics
For the father/son pic, you could use a large 42" reflector to diffuse or block the light from left of camera. If it is a light, raise it up. I like the shot of the kids on the porch but I find myself playing a tennis match when I am taking it in. Since they are near the borders separately, it draws my eye to one or the other but not both. I love the shot of your daughter under the lone tree, keep up the Great Shots!

wadesworld · June 3, 2009

Is the center-dot and recompose really that easy or is there another catch? I don't understand how it would work as he camera focuses on a point in one plane and then you are moving it

Lisa,

I'm no expert and your work is great, so hopefully I'm not misunderstanding and just rehashing things you already know, but the concept is to "lock" your focus and then recompse the shot. Most cameras nowadays have a button that will lock the exposure and focus. On my Nikon it's the AE-L/AF-L button. So you put the subject in the center of the viewfinder, press the shutter release halfway and let the camera focus. Once it's focused, you hold the focus lock button and recompose the shot with subject no longer in the center of the frame. The camera will remain at the locked focus point until you release the lock button (well, that's the way mine works). Obviously, the distance from the camera can't change - only left/right.

This also works with exposure. You can meter on someone's face, hold down the lock button, recompose the shot, and the camera will keep the exposure of the face and not the bright background.

Obviously how it's done on your camera may be different and not all cameras may have the option, but most nicer cameras should.

Scott_Quier · June 3, 2009

lisarhinehart wrote:

Good point about the fill flash in "Amber Waves"-- I personally think it woudl have worked in "father and son, too." Another photog mentioned it to me as well and I used just the one that comes on the camera (so it is good for something--lol) and it worked very well. What do you typically set your fill flash at? Do you rec me using my 580exII w/ fong cloud instead of the built in one? I still have no idea how to use the ex, luckily the cloud is pretty self explanatory, so i've got that one down, lol! Woudl a sill flash have blown the color out of the background?

When shooting in Av mode and your subject is backlit, the Canon camera will (typically) set the exposure for the background - resulting in your subject being a bit under-exposed. When you turn on the flash, the Canon camera will attempt to set the flash to about the same level of luminosity as the background - usually not something you want as it makes your subject look like it's been added to the photo in post-processing.

With that as a foundation, what I like to do if I'm shooting in Av is to set the Exposure Compensation (EC) down about 1 to 1.5 stops to reduce the background's impact on the image.

With that set, if we leave the Flash Exposure Compensation (FEC) set at zero, we will increase the appearance of a really bad post-processing paste job. So, I then set the FEC to something in the neightborhood of -1/3 to -2/3 stop.

All that sounds like you would end up with an under-exposed image. But, usually not. Usually, I get a very well lit subject on a slightly darkened background - makes for good seperation.

The way I usually shoot with flash outdoors (and indoors for that matter) is to put the camera in Manual Mode (that's the "M" on the dial

) and set the shutter/aperture/ISO combination to get the background slightly under-exposed. Then I apply the FEC as described above. I tend to get better results that way than trusting to Av. But, then again, this only works if the ambient light isn't changing real fast ... and moving clouds will really cause the ambient to rapidly change.

lisarhinehart wrote:

Is the center-dot and recompose really that easy or is there another catch? I don't understand how it would work as he camera focuses on a point in one plane and then you are moving it-- I guess there is room for error b/c the dof is deep enough? I'm probably missing something! I'll play with that a little.

The focus-and-recompose method works better as the distance between camera and subject increases. Assuming a decently long focal length lens (i.e., 50mm or more), problems begin to appear as this distance decreases and can become quite significant by the time this distance approaches 10' or less. Why Focus-and-Recompose Sucks presents a pretty good treatment / visual depiction of why this is so. There are a few minor errors in the image, but these don't detract significantly from the message that is being conveyed. Of course, all this only applies if you have time to select the appropriate AF sensor. If you are shooting kids on the move, well .... use the center AF point and "spray and pray".

divamum · June 3, 2009

lisarhinehart wrote:

memorial day was at the wide end of my zoom

I don't know how to clone out in post, i'm just starting to learn PS elements-- It can get rid of that so that you can see the person's eyes... wow!!!

Before you get too excited... you CAN clone out the large white reflections in the glasses but it WON'T actually "clear" the glasses so you can see the eyes; it will be replacing what's there with a sample from another area of the photo that you select (think of it like a very sophisticated, refined and controllable copy/paste function).

Good point about the fill flash in "Amber Waves"-- I personally think it woudl have worked in "father and son, too." Another photog mentioned it to me as well and I used just the one that comes on the camera (so it is good for something--lol) and it worked very well. What do you typically set your fill flash at? Do you rec me using my 580exII w/ fong cloud instead of the built in one? I still have no idea how to use the ex, luckily the cloud is pretty self explanatory, so i've got that one down, lol! Woudl a sill flash have blown the color out of the background?

Start experimenting with the Flash Exposure Compensation setting, which is a KEY element of controlling fill flash. Your XT has that in the camera menus (I used to have an XT) - find it, and know how to get to it quickly. Use it with both your onboard and external flash. If you leave the FEC at zero you'll get ok shots, but they'll look "flashed". For outdoor shots that need fill, I usually start with the FEC turned down at least 1 stop and usually more, often turned down as far as it will go - I hate the flash-y look, so I always err on the side of too little rather than too much - that may not be your choice, but it works for me.

This was taken in very similar conditions to your shot: we were under an arbor, with BRIGHT afternoon sun everywhere except the shade where we were standing. I think this was -2 stops using the FEC function on my camera, using an external 430ex on camera with a DIY Fong-like diffuser attachment.

Is the center-dot and recompose really that easy or is there another catch? I don't understand how it would work as he camera focuses on a point in one plane and then you are moving it-- I guess there is room for error b/c the dof is deep enough? I'm probably missing something! I'll play with that a little.

You have to "lock" the focus - I do it by half-depressing the shutter and holding it down until I finish taking the shot; you can also reprogram the * button on the XT to act as focus lock (instead of the default setting for it, which is exposure lock). It's not a perfect method and when I have TIME to reset the focus points it's more accurate, and preferred. But if you're shooting fast and there just isn't time to make lots of adjustments, I've found the center-recompose method to have a MUCH higher hit rate than either using all of the points, or fumbling around trying to switch at speed. YMMV.

PS Scott "Spray and pray" - LOVE IT! I think it describes my entire approach to photography at this point

Scott_Quier · June 3, 2009

divamum wrote:

PS Scott "Spray and pray" - LOVE IT! I think it describes my entire approach to photography at this point

That's just a colloquialism used in the "wedding photography world" to describe the approach some take to the task. They don't know what they want to get and have little idea of what will be the "important" shots, so they set the camera to the high FPS settings, bring the camera to their eye, and hold down the shutter button. OK, that's a little over-stated, but you get the drift.

But, with kids and pets that's usually the ONLY way to get a decent photo - 'cause they move so darn fast!

May people pics: favorites and dof stumpers

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