Working on using the flash…
Last night we went to the park down the street and had a picnic dinner. After we ate, I followed the boys around with my camera for a while trying to get some good Momshots. I have to say that they are getting better at being photographed. They are starting to strike little poses. I don’t know if posing is good or not, but they are beginning to understand that if they are moving when I take the picture it will be blurry.
Anyway, there was a little section that was shaded by a large tree. Magnus was crawling around in that area and he was just adorable so I decided to try out the trick with using the flash to eliminate shadows.
This idea is something that I have been thinking about a lot lately. My Uncle Eric (who is a fabulous photographer) posted this tip here. He said:
…the photo of the grape juice, try using the flash to fill in the shadows.
So I thought I’d give it a try. My results were less than perfect but I’m OK with that because this is all a learning process for me. This first one is overexposed but I can see that if I had used different settings it might have been a great Momshot. The EXIF data on the picture says that I used an aperture of f/3.3 and a shutter speed of 1/180 of a second. I probably should have sped up the shutter a little bit. Maybe 1/200 would have been enough to get more definition around his jaw line. He’s pretty cute though, isn’t he?
This second one isn’t perfect either but I think it is closer to the desired effect. He isn’t engulfed in shadow but he’s not totally blown out either. Different settings made a big difference. I used an aperture of f/5.6 and a shutter speed of 1/180. So the smaller aperture made quite a difference.
It looks like I was playing with adjusting the aperture. I usually play with the shutter speed and leave the aperture alone pretty much alone.
I read the other day that one of the differences between an amateur photographer and pro is that the pros don’t ever show anyone their bad photos. Well, since this is a site dedicated to learning photography, I am going to be showing a lot of my not so great shots. Maybe one day that will change. I keep hoping that I’ll download my camera and it will be filled with awesome Momshots. One day…
So I guess the moral of the story is to practice, practice, practice. I am going to keep at this until I get some good consistent results. That’s what this is all about.
May 31st, 2008 at 8:18 am
Jessica, on the overexposed photo, take it into photoshop, duplicate the layer (ctrl+J) then set the blend mode of the layer to multiply. now duplicate the layer 2 more times and on the top layer set the opacity to about 50%, this will bring back a bunch of the details washed out in the phote. play around with the number of times you duplicate the multiply layer and setting different opacities. You can also play with over darkening the background by using selections…. It is tips like these that can often times rescue otherwise lost good pictures!
Take Care!
June 1st, 2008 at 12:15 pm
Also, forgot to mention that if you are taking pictures in camera RAW mode you can adjust the RAW settings in Photoshop, to rescue photos too. There are times when situation doesn’t allow for the perfect photo, that is when I use my rescue back up in the computer! Have a great DAY!
June 12th, 2008 at 12:50 am
Thanks Tye!!! What a great tip. I tried my hand at your instructions and it really made a huge difference. I was really surprised by how much detail was brought back.
Thanks again!