# How could I have improved this shot?



## Inklingforsake (Feb 7, 2017)

I wanted to shoot while the sun was setting but the sun set too quickly before I could get a good shot. In such a scenario, how could I have made it better? 

It was windy, so a low shutter speed wouldn't have worked i guess ... what else to improve it?

Please critique honestly. I want to get better!


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## tirediron (Feb 7, 2017)

I think the most obvious improvement would be the addition of some fill light.  Dropping the background by a half-stop or so and adding fill light would have added some light to her eyes and hair and made her stand out.


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## Inklingforsake (Feb 7, 2017)

tirediron said:


> I think the most obvious improvement would be the addition of some fill light.  Dropping the background by a half-stop or so and adding fill light would have added some light to her eyes and hair and made her stand out.



Thank you for your feedback. I am a beginner so could you please tell me what you mean by fill light? (Flash? Or soft-box kind of something?)


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## Designer (Feb 7, 2017)

Inklingforsake said:


> tirediron said:
> 
> 
> > I think the most obvious improvement would be the addition of some fill light.  Dropping the background by a half-stop or so and adding fill light would have added some light to her eyes and hair and made her stand out.
> ...


Hey, welcome!

Yes, flash.  Awfully tough to control anything like a reflector or softbox out on the beach in the wind, so just a bit of flash would do wonders.  Also for this shot, (model standing) turn your camera to portrait orientation.


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## Inklingforsake (Feb 7, 2017)

Designer said:


> Inklingforsake said:
> 
> 
> > tirediron said:
> ...



Very useful! Thank you! 


Sent from my iPhone using ThePhotoForum.com mobile app


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## KmH (Feb 7, 2017)

Your journey is just starting.
There is a lot to learn, both artistic, and technical.

Using flash we get to control the ambient light exposure separately from the flash exposure, all with a single shutter release.
That lets us create a lighting ratio between the ambient (background) light and our subject.
Light direction and light quality are also paramount considerations.

Visual artists figured out over 1000 years ago that if the main subject(s) in an image are brighter than the background the subject 'pops', or is well separated in visual weight terms, from the background. The concept is codified in the axiom - Light advances, dark recedes.
Put another way, human eyes are drawn to the parts of an image that have dominate visual weight.
In some light situations a reflector or 2 may suffice to light the subject(s) and create a background/subject lighting ratio.

There are some situations that diminish, or even eliminate, the need for supplemental light.
If you can put a subject just inside some shade,have the subject well away from anything in the background, and then spot meter for the highlights in the subjects facial mask, light fall off will naturally make the background darker than the subject.

Balancing ambient light with flash, instead of having an ambient/flash lighting ratio is known as dragging the shutter.

Posing is an art form unto itself. But again visual artists have over a long period of time discovered which poses work the best.
Many books have been written that show the range of good poses.
Note too that there are masculine poses and feminine poses.

On-Camera Flash: Techniques for Digital Wedding and Portrait PhotographyOff-Camera Flash: Techniques for Digital Photographers
Direction &amp; Quality of Light: Your Key to Better Portrait Photography Anywhere

Strobist: Lighting 101

Post production is also critical to producing a quality final image.
To make sure you have the maximum amount of post production options you will want to make your original images as Raw files, not as JPEG files.
JPEG is a lossy, compressed, ready-to-print file type that was not designed to be subjected to any post production editing.
Photo Editing Tutorials
Learn Photography Concepts
Digital Photography Techniques
Tutorials on Color Management & Printing

The Digital Negative: Raw Image Processing in Lightroom, Camera Raw, and Photoshop (2nd Edition)
The Digital Print: Preparing Images in Lightroom and Photoshop for Printing


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## DanOstergren (Feb 7, 2017)

Fill light whether via flash or reflector is not always necessary, especially at the time just after sunset when the lighting is so soft and it's easy to get an even exposure. I like the lighting in this shot even without fill. The cheeks, forehead and chin all have shape, and in my opinion there is plenty of light in the eyes. What grabs my attention is the lack of detail in the hair, and I have a feeling that it wasn't caused by a lack of fill light, but instead may have been caused by your editing. Could we see what it looked like before you edited it?

Regardless of whether fill light is always necesary, it does have it's place and will improve the overall portrait in certain lighting circumstances. If you are a natural light shooter, I would highly recommend that you get a reflector (a 5-in-1 is usually less than $20 on amazon), and watch some youtube tutorials that show you how to use it.

 Pro tip: if you plan to use a reflector for a portrait shoot, try to get a friend to be your assistant and hold the reflector for you.


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## Derrel (Feb 7, 2017)

Turning thre camera to a tall orientation would have helped a lot; you cropped her off right through her bustline. Her hair seems a bit too dark in some spots, due to excessive contrast to the light, or to under-exposure in-camera, or maybe a bit of both. I really LIKE windy-beach type shots of women, and this would have conveyed that more if the bottom ends of her hair had been shown a bit more, in a tall framing of the subject; the "landscape" or horizontal camera has taken _a subject that is taller than it is wide_, and framed it in a mis-match of frame, and subject.


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## chuasam (Feb 8, 2017)

Generally a good shot. 
I don't like the tightness of her lips.
The image has a bit of a blue cast.


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## photo1x1.com (Feb 8, 2017)

Hi there! I used to be a graphic designer, so I´m not so much with the others in regard to portrait orientation of the camera. Opens space is something I really love in an image and since your model is facing that open space, it works well for my taste. Graphic people like this kind of shot - you can easily write something into it, or simply leave it as is.

In regard to lighting. It seems you (or the camera/software) made quite some adjustments brightening your model - hence the halo around her hair and neck. For my taste that´s a little much and I would have rather brightened the whole image and live with the brighter background.
For the most important aspect in my opinion: I´m with chuasm on the expression. Some people don´t like to show their teeth for whatever reason and press their lips together (in your case that even affects the cheeks). For me it is one of the most important qualities of a people photographer to get the most flattering expression. So this is where I think you could improve most.


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## Inklingforsake (Feb 8, 2017)

Thank you all so much for the great suggestions! So much to learn, so much to do - I am inspired and excited! 

A few confessions of a beginner (me). 

First: This picture was shot in jpeg and transferred to my phone via Bluetooth (2mb size) for a quick edit on my phone using a free app. I know what I did was very very amateur - but only because I thought this picture was kind of average to begin with and I didn't want to waste time doing a proper edit on Photoshop... 

Second: I was on Manual mode on my Nikon D3400 and I used Nikkor 70-300mm DX NON-VR lens - without a tripod!! I was mostly zoomed in fully on the model.

Third: I was scared of being judged by the model for taking too much time on fiddling with settings, that I quickly shot a bunch of pictures - only to realize after I got home that the lighting on all the pictures was bad.... 

Now, after seeing all your suggestions, I am tempted to buy external flash because when I used the inbuilt flash, the light was very harsh.... 

Now, for the before picture: i am open to assaults now...


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## photo1x1.com (Feb 8, 2017)

Don´t let us discourage you . 
Shooting in manual mode is great, now you need to get an idea how you can control your output. A good way to start is the histogram. Do some reading about what it tells you and you´ll immediately be able to better judge your images in camera.
Another good idea is to shoot in RAW mode - that will give you better options to get the best out of your images - even though they might not be correctly exposed.
Your fear of taking too much time of your model is something that we all went through. Look for people that like to be photographed - there are many out there - if you are on facebook, you could publicly ask if somebody is willing to help you get better in photography by modelling for you. Maybe somebody reads it and is more than happy to spend an hour or more with you and get some pictures. Or just ask your family or friends.
In regard to the original image - there is still that halo to the left of her hair and above her head - so there must have been some in camera processing that is pretty bad to be honest. Check your settings and consider deactivating some functions that brighten the shadows.


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## KmH (Feb 8, 2017)

Inklingforsake said:


> I am tempted to buy external flash because when I used the inbuilt flash, the light was very harsh....


The power output level of the built-in flash is adjustable.
Plus there are simple ways you can diffuse the light.

I made this photo in my kitchen using just 1/20th of full power for the built-in flash unit:


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## Designer (Feb 8, 2017)

Inklingforsake said:


> .. when I used the inbuilt flash, the light was very harsh....


Making precise adjustments to the power of the built-in flash requires either a flash meter or beaucoup experience (which is how Keith knows how much light).  Does your camera offer a "fill" setting?  That takes a lot of the guesswork out of it, and of course you can still make further adjustments for subsequent shots.


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## Inklingforsake (Feb 8, 2017)

Thank you all again for useful suggestions! I appreciate it.

Yes, my camera does have adjustable built-in flash but I was using a 300mm zoom lens so I didn't think to use it. I had just used it once before this and was terrified of how harsh the light was .... I will play around with the adjustments to learn more. Thank you!

Photo1x1: Thank you for pointing out histogram reading! I looked up a bunch of tutorials. I wish I'd known this while taking this picture!! Like one of the tutorials said, on my camera (because the monitor brightness was high), it seemed fine. I will definitely incorporate this while shooting pictures in the future!


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## photo1x1.com (Feb 9, 2017)

In regard to flash: especially when it gets darker - keep in mind that objects that are closer to the flash are going to be *much* brighter than those further away.
To get a natural look, it is best to have the exposure only slightly darker (if at all) than you would when you wouldn´t use flash - and then use the flash only to fill in just some light for the foreground. Sometimes that means ramping up the ISO. But you can always take two shots to compare what you like better.


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## Trever1t (Feb 9, 2017)

Inklingforsake said:


> I wanted to shoot while the sun was setting but the sun set too quickly before I could get a good shot. In such a scenario, how could I have made it better?
> 
> It was windy, so a low shutter speed wouldn't have worked i guess ... what else to improve it?
> 
> Please critique honestly. I want to get better! View attachment 134674



A better exposure. Your shot is under-exposed. Fill light, whether reflected or artificial. Framed differently. A horizontal frame is ok if there's some story in the background, otherwise "portrait" orientation should be used. If you wanted to include the background then perhaps a wider perspective with the subject placed a bit further to left of frame. This crop feels very uncomfortable to me.

If I were you, I'd not worry about using flash or reflector at this point in your photography. I'd focus (see what I did there?) on understanding your cameras focus modes and exposure modes. Try to expose for the subject and forget the rest. Get your subject perfect and once you've mastered that you can worry about the secondary exposure of the backgrounds.....this will make sense later, I promise


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## KmH (Feb 9, 2017)

Inklingforsake said:


> Yes, my camera does have adjustable built-in flash but I was using a 300mm zoom lens so I didn't think to use it.


In lieu of a flash meter, as Designer mentioned, one can make test shots and look at the shot's histogram on the camera's rear LCD to judge how much flash power one wants to use.
One of the links I posted earlier has info about how to use/evaluate the histogram of an image to judge exposure, contrast, color & tone.

Depending on what 300 mm lens you have the built in flash may cause an undesirable shadow at the bottom of the image frame because the lens sticks out into the light path.

Manual hot shoe flash units can be had for reasonable cost.
I have 3 of these:
Yongnuo Professional Flash Speedlight Flashlight Yongnuo YN 560 III


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## TerrificShotPhoto (Feb 9, 2017)

The lighting is not as bad as people explained.  It can be fixed under photoshop by doing some skin brushing. 

The pose and the face expression could have been better assuming that you asked the subject to pose ?! 

Colors in this photos are not present.  I would suggest you convert the photo in black and white .


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## Dave442 (Feb 9, 2017)

With that lens it often helps to set it to 200mm ahead of time and shoot there as opposed to 300mm. The hair is definitely dark, took a while before I even noticed the sunglasses propped on the head.


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## smoke665 (Feb 9, 2017)

Inklingforsake said:


> It was windy, so a low shutter speed wouldn't have worked i guess ... what else to improve it?



Not necessarily if you supplement with a flash. Something the others didn't mention is the ability of the flash to freeze action.


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## photo1x1.com (Feb 10, 2017)

smoke665 said:


> Inklingforsake said:
> 
> 
> > It was windy, so a low shutter speed wouldn't have worked i guess ... what else to improve it?
> ...


Hi there,
well - not entirely. Flash can totally freeze an action in a dark studio environment. AND some flashes can freeze action outdoors. But most of them don´t. If there is enough light like in this shot, the flash would have only partly frozen the hair, because they would have still moved while the shutter was open, leaving some "fumelike" blur around the frozen parts. You could have used a technique called "dragging the shutter", but I guess it wouldn´t have worked too well with hair in the wind.


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## smoke665 (Feb 10, 2017)

photo1x1.com said:


> well - not entirely. Flash can totally freeze an action in a dark studio environment. AND some flashes can freeze action outdoors. But most of them don´t. If



While there are limiting factors such as the amount of ambient light and output of the speedlight, it can be used stop action in many settings. I've seen photos of the wings on a hummingbird stopped in flight, obviously not in studio. Consider that typical speed lights have an effective "flash shutter" speed close to 1/1000, at full power, and  double that at 1/4 power. The OP stated the sun had already set, so balancing a speedlight to ambient (camera shutter speed) should have been possible. Especially if it was off camera where either the power output or distance to the subject could be changed.


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## Inklingforsake (Feb 10, 2017)

What great discussion on this thread. I wrote down all the points on paper. Thank you all very much, once again!

Looking forward to this weekend's Ice festival at Central Park, New York! Hope to get good pictures!


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## photo1x1.com (Feb 10, 2017)

smoke665 said:


> photo1x1.com said:
> 
> 
> > well - not entirely. Flash can totally freeze an action in a dark studio environment. AND some flashes can freeze action outdoors. But most of them don´t. If
> ...


I´m not quite sure, but we might be talking about the same thing. Just to be clear: There are basically two scenarios where you can stop motion with flash light, or add flash light to an image that would be frozen without flash too: 

in a studio environment or dark outdoors, where flash is your only or at least main source of light. If you would shoot the same image with the same settings without flash, it would be close to dark. Then the flash freezes the motion due to its (hopefully) very short flash duration.
 in a very bright setting where you set the sutter speed very high (or work with high ISO to achieve high shutter speed), and your flash has High Speed Synch or Hyper Synch or whatever capabilities. The image is actually frozen by the short shutter speed, and the flash is just adding some light to fill the shadows or for artistic purpose.
Pretty everything else won´t really work well.


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## smoke665 (Feb 10, 2017)

photo1x1.com said:


> but we might be talking about the same thing



I think you're correct, I think you read my response to mean that it could always be used, and I read yours that it could never be. The OP stated that it was failing light. Not sure what she actually used for settings, but in this scenario she could have waited for the light to go even more if need be.  Setting the exposure for the subject illuminated by the speedlight would have underexposed the ambient light. As such even with a 1/160 synch speed I would think any blurring of the hair caused by ambient light would be minimal. In the OP's situation, I feel it could have been used to her advantage.


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