Hi All,
I took this photo of my cousin and I see now that the harsh light exposed details I didn't want. I can see heat bumps!! Can you tell me what I can do to avoid that in the future?:scratch
Harsh Light from the side will show flaws in the best of complexions. Try standing the subject in the shade, and using fill in flash at low power to brink out detail
Here are some additional comments that may help you avoid the problems you reported "in camera", reducing the amount of post-processing that may be necessary.
Shooting outdoors at mid day exposes the subject to strong overhead light, causing deep, harsh shadows in the face (especially under the eyes and nose). Shooting before 10AM, and after 2PM, will instead expose your subject to light coming from a lower angle, reducing the harshness of shadows. Shooting at these times, try to avoid strong back lighting, as your camera will not be able to properly meter the entire scene (for example, auto-exposure will target relatively middle luminance pixels to 50% gray, with high/low end clipping causing the background to lose detail in specular glare and the subject to be sillouette also lacking in detail). Also, try to avoid strong front lighting too, as your own shadow may interfere with the composition. Aim for moderate front lighting, or moderate side lighting; these arrangements minimize harsh shadows, without leading to back lighting's inherent exposure problems.
The blue cast you experienced is due to nitrogen in the atmosphere absorbing relatively more red/green rays from the sun, leaving an excess of blue ambiant light (this is why the sky looks blue). Early morning often has a gold cast, and early evening often has a magenta or red cast (the color casts differ from that of mid day at these times due to the loss of high frequency light, i.e. blue/violet spectrum, as it tries and partially fails to traverse the earth's curvature at an acute angle). The bottom line is that you will experience some kind of color cast any time of the day. A great solution is the ExpoDisc (http://www.expodisc.com/products/product_detail.php?prodid=2&productname=ExpoDisc_Digital_White_Balance_Filter_-_Neutral). This is a simple device you place on the front of your lens that permits your camera's "one touch" white balance feature to measure ambiant color cast and adjust your images in camera (by subtracting the incident color cast out). I use it for every shoot and I think it's an incredible product.
Comments
heres my attempt at fixing the skin a little bit. hope you dont mind.
i also whitened the teeth and eyes a little bit
this is the tutorial i learned from.
on top of that, i also used the blur tool at about 25% to remove the bumps from her neck
I see a blue color cast, and made a quick change to your image. Hope you don't mind.
Sam
Here are some additional comments that may help you avoid the problems you reported "in camera", reducing the amount of post-processing that may be necessary.
Shooting outdoors at mid day exposes the subject to strong overhead light, causing deep, harsh shadows in the face (especially under the eyes and nose). Shooting before 10AM, and after 2PM, will instead expose your subject to light coming from a lower angle, reducing the harshness of shadows. Shooting at these times, try to avoid strong back lighting, as your camera will not be able to properly meter the entire scene (for example, auto-exposure will target relatively middle luminance pixels to 50% gray, with high/low end clipping causing the background to lose detail in specular glare and the subject to be sillouette also lacking in detail). Also, try to avoid strong front lighting too, as your own shadow may interfere with the composition. Aim for moderate front lighting, or moderate side lighting; these arrangements minimize harsh shadows, without leading to back lighting's inherent exposure problems.
The blue cast you experienced is due to nitrogen in the atmosphere absorbing relatively more red/green rays from the sun, leaving an excess of blue ambiant light (this is why the sky looks blue). Early morning often has a gold cast, and early evening often has a magenta or red cast (the color casts differ from that of mid day at these times due to the loss of high frequency light, i.e. blue/violet spectrum, as it tries and partially fails to traverse the earth's curvature at an acute angle). The bottom line is that you will experience some kind of color cast any time of the day. A great solution is the ExpoDisc (http://www.expodisc.com/products/product_detail.php?prodid=2&productname=ExpoDisc_Digital_White_Balance_Filter_-_Neutral). This is a simple device you place on the front of your lens that permits your camera's "one touch" white balance feature to measure ambiant color cast and adjust your images in camera (by subtracting the incident color cast out). I use it for every shoot and I think it's an incredible product.
Hope this helped, Stu