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Fede Photo's picture

Alessia

Shooting with natural light

I tried some Dodge and Burn, im still a beginner, then i added some contrast on eyes, i putted some orange to warm the image, hope is not too much

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7 Comments

I like the colors, with the orange and blue shades. The pose...not sure, looks like she is practice posing for a nude shoot. The eyes don't appear overdone. The red rubber band or whatever on her wrist is slightly distracting, but that might just be nitpicking. Nice shot.

Thanks for ur feedback, happy you like the pictures

Yeah, im not expert on posing and details like the wristlace :(

As you note, you are a beginner, as in deed were we all at some time. So some timely advice to make big improvements, easily. Once you have cracked them we can no doubt provide further guidance.

1, your key light ( the sun ) is shining almost vertically down onto your subject. This is responsible for the hard light effect on her face. The light is not being diffused by cloud so is very hard, producing deep shadows and bright highlights, on her nose and hands for instance, and crisp edges between the areas of light and shade. This is rarely a good look. So we have one problem right away, intense, hard vertical light. Solution, shoot earlier in the day, very early in the summer time, or late in the day. At these times the sun is warmer, softer and nearer to horizontal than to verical. This time after sunrise or before sunset is often called magic hour. It is brief, it is beautiful and there is no better light, hence the name. The shadows it produces are less deep, they are more elongated (more attractive), not vertical, and the highlights are soft and glow. Mid-day is utterly bereft of these advantages. Magic hour does have other advantages, often there are fewer people cluttering up the scene you are shooting, they are still in bed or having drinks and dinner.

2 The bridge is almost 90 degrees to your line of sight, which cuts the scene in two and flattens the image. Photographs are 2D but look better if they give the impression of the 3D realworld, so having the bridge at an angle, one end near and the other much further away, creates a 3D effect and can also draw the eye to something of interest in the distance, as a bonus, sometimes.

Finally, pay attention to white balance. Here we have a green cast to the scene, which if done for artistic effect is one thing, assuming it works of course,. But I guess that as a beginner it is an oversight/mistake, we have all made. Don't trust auto white balancing systems, if you have the choice. This is a big subject but as a general rule of thumb, set the camera to some where between 5500 degrees kelvin and 6000 degrees for daylight shoots. The higher the degrees you select the more warmth your picture will have. In atificial light situations it is more difficult to know what to suggest as artificial light varies so very much. Here your auto white balance might well work fine. But for your control learn how to do a manual white balance or dial in a temperature like 3000 degrees, which is in the right range for most of the tungsten lights of old, and works reasonably with many other light sources. Ideally you should learn how to take a manual white balance set up with your camera, for these situations. Remember artificaila light can look better if not totally corrected. Old fashioned tungsten light; in a bar, restaurant or house interior can look better if it looks a bit orangy. So experiment and think about, do I want acuracy or beauty and how do I see my final image with a nutral look or warmth, for instance. Some streetlights are very very redorange, sodium, and others are very green cyal, mercury vapour, etc. Often they look good uncorrected, having been shot at a normal tungsten colour temperature, 3000 degrees or there abouts, this creates a photogrphic reproduction that looks simlar to how the actual lights appear to our eyes. Orange or green/cyan for example.

Best of luck.

First of all thanks of your feedback

1) Yeah, that seem a smart solution..How can be to have the sun behind the model? can be a solution?
2) Set up the camera or correct the white balancing in photoshop? Ok ill do it, thanks for the suggestion. For the Bridge i was not able to change the direction of the model because that is the only place where is possible to shoot pictures and there is no opportunity to have different angles

thanks a lot :D

Sun behind model is often a great approach. However, in the middle of the day especially in the summer the sun will be overhead, so can't be behind your subject or in front of them either. It will just be more or less over-head, depending on your latitude. The nearer the equator the more over head it will be. It is a shame the bridge can only be seen from this one vantage point, seems unlikely but so be it. Try shooting without the bridge, then is my suggestion.

White balance in the camera may need fine tuning in the edit to create the effect you desire but getting it very close in the camera is good practice as it mazimises quality. Think about the days of film, when we had just two choices, daylight film or tungsten film. 99% of pictures were taken on daylight balanced film. Yes, we serious photogrphers used correction filters occassionally in particularlly challenging situations and printers might add correction but often not. Shoot with your camera set to 5000k to 6000k, it is an artistic choice. At 5000k you will have a slightly cool (blue) cast and at 6000k a slightly warm (orange) cast. 5600 is optimal for neutrality. You can of course make bigger adjustments for aesthetic reasons but working as above is a good starting point for your early stage training.

All the best.

I will do like u suggested :D

i usually put auto wB and then i add some blu and cyan lights in photoshop :D i think that 5000/5500 k ar better

5600 k is industry standard daylight. Variations around this number are for effects or to correct for mixed lighting or for non daylight situations. If you like your daylight shots warmer, nice in the summer, or to give a spring/autumn shot a more summer feel then shoot at 6000 - 7000k, say 6500k for instance. But neutral is 5600k. You will not go far wrong in outdoor or indoors in near window situations at such a temperature.

AWB, is a confusing term. It can mean that the camera decides for you every time you take a picture. This is not good but can be usefull in mixed light shoots , where lack of knowledge or lack of time is an issue. It will work well but can not provide consistant results from one to the next shot taken in the same place and at the same time, so sequences or sessions become uncohessive and require much editing work. The other meaning of auto white balance, is that you use the camera to assess the white balance after taking a test shot, the method varies from make to make and model to model, and once the camera has shot a white or grey subject, ideally a known grey card or white balance card, you get the camera to adjust the white balance for all subsuuent shots. This done properly works very well and is a professional working method, but the results will vary depending on how much direct sunlight or blue sky light is on the card. Cloudy days will be more easily managed with a card. On sunny days shooting a card in full direct sun will cause the shadow areas to be very blue, unnaturally effecting the picture and even the rest of the picture will be so neutral it will seem cool. Convesely shooting the card in a shadow, lit by the light of the blue sky, will make the pictures extremely warm and just as unnatural. I tend to work with dialled in temperatures, 5600 or whatever I want. This is consitant, reliable and just works without giving rise to the worry about all the variables and having to keep my card clean and not faded. Try it, shoot a few daylight snaps at 5600k, shoot others at 6300 and other s at 4300 for instance. There is no magic to the alternative numbers just a bit higher and a bit lowert han 5600. You will see what I am talking about and just get it. Then you'll have the skills and confidence to experiment using other numbers around 5600k. You will never go back to letting the camera decide for you, shot to shot, the worst way to setting white balance.

If you set 5600K, for outside shots, leave it set throughout the day, until after the sun has set. Only then make adjustments for the night/artificial light situation. Shoot sunrises and sunsets at 5600k you will get the warmth you expect. These are guidlines that work very very very well 99.x % of the time and in a non professional situation, such as yours 100% of the time.