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Hi all,

I'm having problems trying to get the balance right in the first photo (obviously I shouldn't have had the bright background )

I used a bit of flash on the later ones which helped, but the expression in the first is good so I'm trying to save it.

Any tips would be greatly appreciated

Cute kid but the set up has some issues.

I think its going to be hard to fix exposure in #1. With shooting natural light and the back lit subject and no fill flash, it might have been better to spot meter the face and blow out the background (I think the background is the other distracting element because there are too many conflicting uprights).

A pp suggestion you might consider to reduce DOF would be to use a heavy gausian blur on the background and apply a layer mask to try and retain the detail on the subject and the foreground.

Willy wombat wrote:Cute kid but the set up has some issues.

I think its going to be hard to fix exposure in #1. With shooting natural light and the back lit subject and no fill flash, it might have been better to spot meter the face and blow out the background (I think the background is the other distracting element because there are too many conflicting uprights).

A pp suggestion you might consider to reduce DOF would be to use a heavy gausian blur on the background and apply a layer mask to try and retain the detail on the subject and the foreground.

Thanks for the comments - and for the suggestions - I'll give the blur idea a try tonight.

It wasn't really a "setup" as such (probably should have been )- more some happy snaps that came out fairly well.

David,

I wouild like to see your attempt at blurring the background. It is difficult to pull off convincingly.

Could I ask how you used your flash for the bottom two? Bounce or direct? I find that bounce with +1 EC is fairly good in this sort of situtation.

surenj wrote:David,

I wouild like to see your attempt at blurring the background. It is difficult to pull off convincingly.

Could I ask how you used your flash for the bottom two? Bounce or direct? I find that bounce with +1 EC is fairly good in this sort of situtation.

Hi Surenj,

I didn't have an external flash with me at the time so it was on-board direct flash. I agree with you re the bounce - although I usually use -2/3

Hi Dave here's an attempt by me...I used the middle slide in levels [i.70]..and unsharp mask..

David,

I would use more flash especially if you are bouncing from a 45 degree angle + with backlight like this. [depends on your metering I suppose]

Not sure whether you like this look. I had to crop it, add catch lights in addition to desaturation, curves etc... BTW your WB may be oiff...

......... this plug in can fix the background

http://www.alienskin.com/bokeh/examples.aspx

Thanks for all the suggestions! - That's a very cool bit of PP Surenj

I played around quite a bit and came up with this:

Did a closer crop and converted to b&w, increased the contrast and applied a USM

Nicely done David, Maybe back off a little on the skin smoothing.

I like the B&W Piro, thanks!

surenj wrote:Nicely done David, Maybe back off a little on the skin smoothing.

Fair enough I thought I'd might have gone too far but it was getting late

dviv wrote:Fair enough I thought I'd might have gone too far but it was getting late

Dude, Edit-fade ...