Break Time

Another from the weekend for your review.

Cheers.

Mark.

It would be a lot better if it were closer to the subject.

Hi Rachell. Welcome to the "Corner" I hope you like it here.

Good point, I could always crop it in fairly tight. I think I make the mistake of leaving too much room around my subjects, too often.

In this shot, I liked the scene of this person being in her own little world, reading the paper and not aware of anything else. In hindsite, the wider shot may have worked if there was something/anything going on around her, in this case it is just dead space.

Thanks for your comment.

Cheers.

Mark.

Cropped tighter.

I make the mistake of leaving too much room around my subjects, too often.



Which is not necessarily a bad thing to do in camera just in case you decide to enlarge the picture at some point. I am the opposite and usually try to fill my frame, then I can't enlarge it past a 5x7

I thought your original shot was much too dark, so I played with it a little bit in Photoshop. I have noticed on a few of your images that they seemed undexposed and this is something you need to consider. Perhaps your meter is off slightly or you're just not metering the scene properly or just need to apply compensation.

For those interested, I made a copy of the picture (cntl J) and changed the blending mode to screen, then made a second copy (also screen). The second time was too light, so I reduced the opacity and masked some areas.

I also applied a bit of sharpening, but after uploading it, it appears a bit too sharp....oops :)

Thanks for the comments.

I will play around with the metering this weekend. Which is better, set the camera to overexpose by 1/2 stop, or bracket the picture.

Yeah the last one works best, Carl is it? The first one was a tad too dark. I didn't like the tighter crop in the second shot either. Leaving her all alone in her surroundings really sets the mood for the picture. Just like you said Mark she is totally unaware of her surroundings in her own little world. It's a very nice capture!
jules. :D

What camera do you use? It's always best to nail your exposure, but knowing how to get that correct exposure is not always intuitive. I would strongly recommend reading "Understanding Exposure" by Bryan Peterson (an inexpensive, yet wonderfully insightfull book). Bracketing is one way to ensure a good shot, but it does waste film. My suggestion is to learn how your camera's meter responds. Use gray cards to determine exposure until you feel comfortable with your meter. Make sure you know what metering mode your camera is using and use exposure compensation as the scenes dictate. You can't just say overexpose everything by 1/2 stop and all will be well.

Film typically can handle overexposure better than underexposure. Slide and digital react the opposite.

Thanks again everyone.

Carl, thanks for the info on the book, I will take a peak at it. And again, as always thanks for your input. I addressed your question in the other post.

In the past I always used the "meter for shawdow, print for highlight" mantra in shots like this. However it is apparent I have some work to do, to better understand how my camera is reading the scene.

I really appreciate the advice and comments from all of you.

Thanks.

Use gray cards to determine exposure until you feel comfortable with your meter.

Carl:
Is that something that is explained in the book "Understanding Exposure"?? I ordered it and I'm still waiting for it, and I definetly want to learn how to better use the camera's meter.
If is not there, can you suggest where I can look for information regarding this?

thanks

Loco

Yes, the use of a gray card is discussed in that book, as well as using an incident meter and using your reflective meter in varying modes.