Archive 2013 · This A Common Result?

travis_smith
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p.1 #1 · p.1 #1 · This A Common Result?

Today, I went over to a co-workers house and just took some basic pictures for him. While I was there, his sister-in-law had her little boy there and I was asked to take a few pictures of him. My first shot out of the camera and flash, which was a Nikon D7000 and SB28 with a 18-55 kit lens was, to me, way too bright for my taste, so I dialed it down some. I was shooting the flash straight up off the ceiling as it was the only white anywhere in the purple room. Below are two images...The first one is straight out of the camera, while the second one is the result I ended up with after deciding to play around with a curves adjustment layer and dodge tool.

My question is this....Will a bright, overexposed image allow a person to bring it down to what I have here every time or did I just get lucky on this one? I like the looks of the finished image, and had actually been about ready to chuck it in the throw away file, then I thought I would mess around with it a bit. C&C is welcomed on the finished image for anyone who wants to chime in.

Straight Out Of The Camera
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v166/GASRAT/Jace01_zps3b787db0.jpg

Finished B&W Image
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v166/GASRAT/Jace01BampW_zpse1fd7cad.jpg

May 25, 2013 at 02:35 AM

Josh Evilsizor
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p.1 #2 · p.1 #2 · This A Common Result?

pretty normal as long as you don't expose to the right to much... what you did is called ETTR

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Exposing_to_the_right

May 25, 2013 at 05:53 AM

Guari
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p.1 #3 · p.1 #3 · This A Common Result?

Better to expose to the right as you did than underexpose for sure, if and only if you do not blow the highlights (blinkies in your camera lcd) in areas of importance.

May 25, 2013 at 06:03 AM

DaveOls
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p.1 #4 · p.1 #4 · This A Common Result?

There is a button next to the flash pop up button that has a +/- on it and it is to adjust the flash exposure. If you push it and adjust, I think, the front wheel you can adjust the flash exposure up and down. I"m not familiar with your camera, but my D 80 and D 300s both have this, so I assume yours does too. Play around with it so you know what it does.

May 25, 2013 at 06:10 AM

Steve Wylie
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p.1 #5 · p.1 #5 · This A Common Result?

Honestly, I'm not sure your curves adjustment layer(s) produced the best this file could deliver. To my eyes, it's a bit too contrasty. I think a simple levels adjustment, or highlight recovery in Lightroom or Camera Raw would bring down the brightness to an acceptable range, but keep the softness of the baby intact.

May 25, 2013 at 10:24 AM

jfinite
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p.1 #6 · p.1 #6 · This A Common Result?

I love your result, but then I gravitate towards contrasty BW. The guys above are right, if you don't overexpose too much, you can do a lot to salvage images.

May 25, 2013 at 10:31 AM

Langran
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p.1 #7 · p.1 #7 · This A Common Result?

If I know I'm shooting for black and white I personally prefer an image to be over exposed compared to the same colour image. You have to just be careful to not clip the highlights as people have already mentioned

May 25, 2013 at 03:59 PM

travis_smith
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p.1 #8 · p.1 #8 · This A Common Result?

Steve Wylie wrote:
Honestly, I'm not sure your curves adjustment layer(s) produced the best this file could deliver. To my eyes, it's a bit too contrasty. I think a simple levels adjustment, or highlight recovery in Lightroom or Camera Raw would bring down the brightness to an acceptable range, but keep the softness of the baby intact.

I'm processing with PS 7.0 and I shot this in JPEG Fine. Don't have lightroom and PS 7.0 does not open RAW files. I assume I could have used a levels adjustment with PS 7.0 couldn't I?

jfinite wrote:
I love your result, but then I gravitate towards contrasty BW. The guys above are right, if you don't overexpose too much, you can do a lot to salvage images.

Like you, I'm partial to the contasty BW images as well.

Thanks for everyone's helpful information. I'm going to try and start producing these types of B&W on purpose instead of on accident and see how people take to them. The parent who seen this picture said she really liked it a lot, so I'm going to see if there is any more people out there who favor this as well. Thanks again for all the replies...I appreciate it.

May 25, 2013 at 07:10 PM


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