Hi Jay,
Kreapen wrote:Should i have set the main focal point to the blown out hair to allow for the natural light?
Probably not. The issue is that you need to learn and understand how all of the different parts and features of your camera work.
There's a number of points that need to be considered here, and a large part of that is only gained through making some fundamental errors, and learning from them.
For instance, you are working within the premise that your focal point also sets your exposure, and this is usually, and typically, the case. I this instance, had you set the focal point in this image to the hair, your outcome might have been that the exposure (on the hair) might have been more appropriate ( for the whole image - I don't think so, and I'll explain why below) but your point of focus might also have been the hair, resulting in the face and eyes of your subject being out of focus.
I'm not convinced that this would have been a better outcome.
Rather, let's look at a couple of things about this image, and photographic techniques in general, and see where that discussion takes you in your learning process.
What we have, obviously, is a brightly lit area on this lady's hair. Perhaps it may have been possible to hold something, above the lady, but out of the camera's view, that might have provided some shade? A simple white round reflector, or perhaps something as simple as a sheet, might have been able to provide you with this "service". That might have presented you with much more even light over your subject, thus making the metering of the exposure a less difficult task for the camera to complete.
Similarly, and given time and experience, you will learn to see this situation, and identify it through your viewfinder. Once you know of this and can identify it, then you'll be able to read your camera's suggested exposure (that's what you should generally regard it as) values, and make whatever adjustments that you deem to be appropriate for the image that you're taking.
A third option might have been to use fill flash. This helps by adding light to your subject, and hopefully balancing the extreme contrast range that you've experienced.
As I noted above, moving your exposure point probably wouldn't have helped all that much. This is an area where RTFM applies, but your camera will have a number of different metering
modes - perhaps matrix, perhaps centre-weighted, perhaps matrix. Do you know which was in use for this image? Regardless, the underlying goal of your camera's meter is to present you with an image that is grey.
As an average of all of the tones etc embodied within the image.
Where an image contains a large bright area, then the camera's meter can and usually tries to compensate for that, and will make its exposure darker as a result. That's NOT what's happened in this case, but it's what might have happened had you changed your focus/exposure point.
What has happened is actually the opposite of what I've just described. Your
model's face was in shadow, and the camera has tried to compensate the other way, opening the exposure and thus making the image too light. With the bright area in the image already too bright and on the edge of the contrast range that your camera can deal with ... opening up the exposure even more only helps to exacerbate the problem.
If that's not making sense to you, then please say so: we do want to help, and this is an important part of learning how to use your camera.
The background in the first image i didn't take into consideration the vertical lines in the background and like you said does come down to inexperience
Exactly. It's a fundamental error, and one that I, too, still commit way too often.
The 2nd photo i had aperture on about f2.4 from memory and tucked into wall.
f/2.4? What lens? Your EXIF should have this detail; no need to rely upon memory.
LCD showed the front of wall in focus but apparently not.
Also, what camera, and were you perhaps shooting in live view
mode?
Would this have worked better to increase the focal distance and include more to the right hand side or is this shot just a waste of memory on my computer?
Disk space is cheap, so, no, it's not a waste of storage. Play with the crops as suggested, and yes, had you included more from the rh side, and less from the lh, I suspect that would have been a better image. With the suggested crops, the intent is to come in very close and tight on the face. As it stands now, you have "crowded" the subject (by not leaving any space on the right as we view the image) but have not provided us with anything to compensate for that.
Posted: Sun Dec 07, 2008 11:07 pm
