A Story About CTO Gels for Portraits

[speedneeder]

Ahhh OK. No I have not tried this. Have you? If it had any impact I would think it due to a decreased exposure. Wouldn't it?
PS, I took some ping pong pictures yesterday

[speedneeder]

I learned some new tricks today for editing with GIMP. What do you think of this version?

[Colin Southern]

Colin,
I was thinking since your post about exposure that I need to have another look at some of these. I reprocessed this one, while I do like it better, there are some issues with grain/exposure on my daughter, though this is because I didn't get the exposure right in the first place! I think I know better how to do this next time.

Hi Brian,

Difficult for me to say - you have a truckload of flare in there which takes it into an area that I'm not really qualified to comment on. Personally, I only shoot into the sun when it's behind the subject to provide rim lighting.

[Colin Southern]

I learned some new tricks today for editing with GIMP. What do you think of this version?

Sorry Brian, but it really doesn't work for me - we really want to light the eyes, not the nose, and they sky just doesn't look right.

[speedneeder]

Hi Colin, I think the flare shot is a bust so we can agree on that one. It could have worked if the flares were at a different angle and my daughter was better exposed, but it doesn't work as is.
On the other photo, I agree there is way too much light on the nose, but I still like it
As far as the processing goes, the 'halo' as my wife calls is overkill, but I do like the treatment of colors and my way cool border graphics . I realize the colors aren't 'correct', but they do add something that I like.
Thank you for your comments, they are always appreciated!

[wilgk]

Hi Brian
I had a wee practice session myself with this not so long ago..

I left it till later in the afternoon & changed the white balance to tungsten to try to make the background more blue....I didnt have gels so used cellophane instead over the flash..... the 1/2, 1/4 was very scientific & was how many times I folded the layers of cello

I was watching something else on a similar topic on Kelby Training (thanks again Colin) & a wee pearl that I picked up, was go out without the flash on at all, just get your ambient/background to where you want it, underexposing with the exp time.... reviewing as a 'imagined separate shot' then bring in the model & the flash and work out how much exposure with f/stop flash power for them...

this version is obviously way too bright on her and the background is not what I'd use on a real portrait etc
& taken before I read that wee pearl of wisdom - more to show you, you're still amongst friends on this learning curve

[speedneeder]

Hi Kay, thanks for your input!
Things were just changing fast and I wasn't paying attention to the right or enough things to keep up.
The clouds were moving fast making the ambient light very hard to keep up with - for me at least. Added to the patience of my children . I was trying to make this as quick and painless on my kids as possible so they would be more agreeable the next time I asked them to play photography with me.
I did learn a few things in my efforts and I look forward to trying this again soon.
I hope someone else learned a thing or two from this post - that was my goal
Oh, and my wife and daughter do like a couple of the photos

[Nicola]

Ahhh OK. No I have not tried this. Have you? If it had any impact I would think it due to a decreased exposure. Wouldn't it?
PS, I took some ping pong pictures yesterday

I will try soon (I wish)
it keeps out of the sensor the reflected light coming from sky (reflected by water vapor in the air...) and usually it leads to a decreased exposure of the sky only, turning the blue deeper...

I didn't know that tennis table is called ping pong also in english!

[speedneeder]

Haha, yes, table tennis

[tad2358]

Hi, maybe you've heard about this site http://neilvn.com/tangents/, according to the theme - http://neilvn.com/tangents/2011/12/0...isa/#more-9604 or http://neilvn.com/tangents/2011/11/2...ght/#more-9540 may be helpful. Anyway all this tangents are worth to read. There you can find exact way for archieving two separate exposures, one for the flash and other for the ambient independently. This is solution in your case, forget if it isn't.
Tad

[speedneeder]

Hi Tad,
I think I know how to get the look I want, just didn't execute well my first time
I will get better with time.