blown background

ivar · August 14, 2006

I have been to Italy for a few days, for some more work for the kids-camps company. I took with me my new camera, and tried to take some photos.

This is one of the participants of the camp. So the background is obviously blown. There was a glass wall behind her and i had no idea on how to prevent the blown part. I think i did okay on her face though, and i still like the photo.

Make: Canon
Model: Canon EOS 30D
Size: 3504x2336
Bytes: 2425896
Aperture: f/1.8
ISO: 100
Focal Length: 50mm (guess: 53mm in 35mm)
Exposure Time: 0.005s (1/200)
Flash: Flash did not fire, compulsory flash mode
Exposure Program: Aperture priority
Exposure Bias: 0
ExposureMode: 0

So, for my learning experience, what should i have done differently? what can i do to improve the photo? comments and critique very much appreciated.

Stustaff · August 14, 2006

in my opinion if you knew the background was going to be a problem then stand somewhere else! thats the best/easiest solution...not always possible of course but you know.

she is very pretty and you captured a good expression, the only thing is half her face is in shadow, again maybe if you had moved and she had shifted her face the lighting you had may of worked better.

maybe even a bitt of fill flash!

ivar · August 14, 2006

Stustaff wrote:

in my opinion if you knew the background was going to be a problem then stand somewhere else! thats the best/easiest solution...not always possible of course but you know.

she is very pretty and you captured a good expression, the only thing is half her face is in shadow, again maybe if you had moved and she had shifted her face the lighting you had may of worked better.

maybe even a bitt of fill flash!

Thanks for the reply Stu!

All the people shots i have ever done are candids, so is this one. So the moving part, allthough a good idea, wouldn't have worked. Also at that location it would not have worked thinking back to it.

I agree with the shadows, I'm kinda new to all this but i'm trying to read up on how to use fill-flash as you read this, thanks again!

wxwax · August 14, 2006

Ivar, I think it's excellent.

Nice color on her face, sweet smile, she looks very pretty. I really don't care about the blown background at all, it doesn't matter. It's not a distraction, so who cares? Her face is the key to the shot, and you've handled that very nicely.

pathfinder · August 14, 2006

Shooting portraits indoors, against large, uncovered windows, is guarenteed to cause difficulties trying to match exposures for indoors and out simulataneously as you are portraying in your image.

Fill flash shot with AV mode, can be a big help here, as it helps even out the lighting ratios between indoors and out as it exposes for the backgropund and uses flash for the forground.

Sometimes a blown background can be an excellent artistic choice, but you must be careful to avoid underexposure of the portrait at the same time. Point metering is better than averaging in this condition.

I think you did a pretty good job here.:):

Stustaff · August 14, 2006

ivar wrote:

All the people shots i have ever done are candids, so is this one. So the moving part, allthough a good idea, wouldn't have worked.

not sure i get that? she seems to know you are taking her picture? you must of got yourself stood/sat in that position before taking the pic?
Just next time when approaching start to be more conscious of the light and how it will affect your image.

remember 90% is in the planning.

ivar · August 14, 2006

wxwax wrote:

Ivar, I think it's excellent.

Nice color on her face, sweet smile, she looks very pretty. I really don't care about the blown background at all, it doesn't matter. It's not a distraction, so who cares? Her face is the key to the shot, and you've handled that very nicely.

Thanks, I must say, the blown bits are starting to bother me less and less. As you say, the photo is about her face, and i like that part of the photo.

Thanks!

ivar · August 14, 2006

pathfinder wrote:

Shooting portraits indoors, against large, uncovered windows, is guarenteed to cause difficulties trying to match exposures for indoors and out simulataneously as you are portraying in your image.

Fill flash shot with AV mode, can be a big help here, as it helps even out the lighting ratios between indoors and out as it exposes for the backgropund and uses flash for the forground.

Sometimes a blown background can be an excellent artistic choice, but you must be careful to avoid underexposure of the portrait at the same time. Point metering is better than averaging in this condition.

I think you did a pretty good job here.:):

This particular photo was actually shot outside, allthough there was a balcony over us.

I've actually read some articles about fill flash quickly, and it's starting to make some sense to me. Now i will have to experiment with it a bit.

Thanks

ivar · August 14, 2006

Stustaff wrote:

not sure i get that? she seems to know you are taking her picture? you must of got yourself stood/sat in that position before taking the pic?
Just next time when approaching start to be more conscious of the light and how it will affect your image.

remember 90% is in the planning.

No, she didn't really know i was taking her photo untill after i took some. We were sitting outside around a table in sort of a circle. I had my camera on my lap, and took a few shots every now and then when i thought there was an opportunity. That's why i couldn't change position, it would be noticed by them.

Thanks

Stustaff · August 14, 2006

ivar wrote:

No, she didn't really know i was taking her photo untill after i took some. We were sitting outside around a table in sort of a circle. I had my camera on my lap, and took a few shots every now and then when i thought there was an opportunity. That's why i couldn't change position, it would be noticed by them.

Thanks

Ahhh got ya now.

Scott_Quier · August 14, 2006

I, also, don't think the blown background is an issue. You were shooting at f/1.8 (thanks for the exif) which allowed you to put all the backgound OOF. The really tricky part at that aperature is getting enough DOF to get both of the subject's eyes in focus. I think you did a splendid job of this. The near eye looks to be tack sharp and the far eye is only slightly OOF. It looks very natural.

Some comment was made about the shadow on the left side of her face. IMHO, so what! There is light enough to see her entire face. The light is NOT flat and is, actually, very sweet.

The only thing I might do to the photo is to crop the column/wall from the left side. I find that to be somewhat distracting.

ivar · August 14, 2006

Scott_Quier wrote:

I, also, don't think the blown background is an issue. You were shooting at f/1.8 (thanks for the exif) which allowed you to put all the backgound OOF. The really tricky part at that aperature is getting enough DOF to get both of the subject's eyes in focus. I think you did a splendid job of this. The near eye looks to be tack sharp and the far eye is only slightly OOF. It looks very natural.

Some comment was made about the shadow on the left side of her face. IMHO, so what! There is light enough to see her entire face. The light is NOT flat and is, actually, very sweet.

The only thing I might do to the photo is to crop the column/wall from the left side. I find that to be somewhat distracting.

Thanks for the kind words, Scott.

I will experiment with the crop, and will post it here when i get one i like

:

Frog Lady · August 14, 2006

I like it too

She's got a nice, relaxed expression, the light looks good and, as Scott said, even though the left side of her face is in shadow, it's not a deep shadow and it works. It also has the added benefit of slightly masking the slight OOF of her left eye (my brain wanted to think it was the shadow and not the photographer

). My main nit is the shiny spot on the left side of her nose. I assume it's a nose stud, but it's small enough to not have sufficient detail and bright enough to be a distraction...

cheers,

C.

dragon300zx · August 14, 2006

Hmm this totally reminds me of the thread that posted an article about online crits of famous peices of work.

Lets face it guys alot of us forget the most important thing about photography.

It is an art, not a science.

Sometimes technical imperfections are a good thing.

This photo works for me, don't see any reason to change it.

ivar · August 14, 2006

Frog Lady wrote:

I like it too She's got a nice, relaxed expression, the light looks good and, as Scott said, even though the left side of her face is in shadow, it's not a deep shadow and it works. It also has the added benefit of slightly masking the slight OOF of her left eye (my brain wanted to think it was the shadow and not the photographer ). My main nit is the shiny spot on the left side of her nose. I assume it's a nose stud, but it's small enough to not have sufficient detail and bright enough to be a distraction...

cheers,

C.

Thanks you C,

It is a nose stud. I don't see it as being a distraction to be honest. Maybe because i have seen her in real life with it. Also, my photoshop skills are not good enough to take it out

Cheers,

ivar · August 14, 2006

dragon300zx wrote:

Hmm this totally reminds me of the thread that posted an article about online crits of famous peices of work.

Lets face it guys alot of us forget the most important thing about photography.

It is an art, not a science.

Sometimes technical imperfections are a good thing.

This photo works for me, don't see any reason to change it.

Thanks dragon,

It's not so much that i want to change this picture, because i am pretty happy with it. But since i am very new to dSLR, i do want to get information about how to do things better next time. One can always learn more photography, me for sure.

BenA2 · August 14, 2006

Excellent shot

ivar wrote:

This particular photo was actually shot outside, allthough there was a balcony over us.

I've actually read some articles about fill flash quickly, and it's starting to make some sense to me. Now i will have to experiment with it a bit.

Thanks

First of all, I think it's a great shot. In this case, the blown background does not bother me at all. The exposure of your subject is near perfect and I love the depth the slight shadow on the left side of her face gives it. One poster pointed this out as a problem. To me it's a plus.

As for fill flash... Yes, that would have helped balance the foreground and background exposure here. BUT, I think an on-camera fill flash would have actually hurt this image. An on-camera fill would have flattened the light on her face and taken away from the depth you've captured so well. An off-camera fill might have done the job, but, come on. These are candids. You don't want to be halling around a bunch of extra equipment.

If I had to be picky, I'd say I bet the bright part of her face is a tad overexposed. I haven't confirmed this, but I bet it's blown in the red channel on the facial highlights. But, this is not a big issue.

Great job

blown background

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