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Post by Saknika on Mar 31, 2010 6:44:14 GMT -5
I still really like him in this shot though, he's adorable. A bit bright, but totally adorable. If you did post work on this, I'd just bring the light down a bit so that you get a little detail back in those bright areas. I loved the other too, so no worries, it was just that foot. LOL You really do make a great connection with people.
And wow, it's odd that you'd get blur... unless it's because of the shutter speed? I'm not entirely sure but hey, I have some ISO issues with my camera as well so I know that anything is possible.
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Post by Lauren MKS on Mar 31, 2010 12:03:19 GMT -5
Yeah, I edited it on my new laptop, which I haven't calibrated yet since my software apparently isn't compatible with windows 7. Lovely. I'll be working to find a solution to that. Maybe I'll look at the pic tonight on my husband's computer and try to fix the light.
The blur comes when the shutter speed is slow. Exactly as it should. It just seems to happen more with me than others. Not sure why. It's not camera blur, b/c the body will be perfect, but the face will be blurry (for instance). I started bumping the ISO when I lost patience with the blurry pics so that I could get a higher shutter speed. Of course, so many of the newer cameras have such advanced ISO that I would get a lot less noise at 800 than I do with my camera. Eh...something to experiment with on my next camera.
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Post by ScottWood on Mar 31, 2010 14:02:58 GMT -5
I don't know what camera or lighting equipment you are using, but why not just increase the flash output so that you can shoot at a lower ISO? I also notice that you were shooting at f:4 which will give a shallower DOF than something like 5.6 or 8. I am not a portrait shooter, but I believe that many shoot around f:8. Your comment about the body being good and the face not being sharp would lead me down the DOF path.
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Post by Lauren MKS on Mar 31, 2010 22:36:50 GMT -5
Here's the newest version. I burned the singing pot and his feet/legs to tone the light so that the eye is drawn to it less. (Although it still draws more attention than his face...oh well.) Scott - This was taken with natural light from a window. The only lights I have are steady lights, so I can't increase the value...and babies do so much better without a flash. I may not be right in my assessment of the problem, but I have tried every solution I can think of. I don't think dof is the issue...it looks to be a motion blur issue, not just out of focus. I was at f/4 for this one in order to let as much light in as possible to get the shutter speed up to prevent motion blur. I took some shots this weekend at 1.8 with my new prime lens and they look great. I think the f stop for portraiture just depends on the look you're going for. From the reading I've done, you want the background pretty well out of focus to keep the focus on the person. But there are plenty of beautiful portraits against walls (or in chairs as my original submission was) that f/8 or f/11 would be the right choice. Here's an example of the issue I'm talking about. Everything is in focus except his face which is very blurry. You may need to zoom in to see it since from far away it looks acceptable. (Sorry if the coloring is off. Found out last night that Spyder2 isn't compatible with Windows 7. Seriously?!) (f/4, ISO-800, 1/40) Would love to have some feedback on this. I can move it to another forum if I need to.
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Post by Bambers on Apr 1, 2010 5:56:24 GMT -5
I played with shadows and highlights in PS and tweaked your pic (hope you don't mind). It brings some more of his hair back and more of his features, hopefully without losing the glow. Then used the history brush to bring back the original eyes. Which version of Windows 7 have you got? Windows 7 Professional and above have an XP emulator feature that allow you to use older programmes which is what I went for.
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Post by Lauren MKS on Apr 1, 2010 8:09:15 GMT -5
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Post by ScottWood on Apr 1, 2010 10:24:29 GMT -5
I'm curious about something. Can you tape a piece of newspaper to a wall and take a picture of it so that the whole frame is filled with text, and the camera is on a tripod and parallel as possible to the paper?
I wonder if you are having edge softness issues with the lens you are using. I would love to see the results of that test shot.
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Post by Lauren MKS on Apr 2, 2010 7:37:07 GMT -5
I'm up for trying anything. I might not have time to do it until next week, but I'll take a swing at it and post it in a different forum. Thanks for the suggestion
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