Girl with a Doll

[jordand]

[Digital]

Jordan, this is a nice composition; however you have blown the highlights.


Bruce

[DEAN01]

Nicely captured high key portrait, Jordan.

[Manfred M]

Interesting concept, Jordan, but the shot is so overexposed, I don't think it really does much for me. There is a black point in this image, but it's not where it should be, as the left side of the histogram. I suspect you are looking to produce a high key look, but even in a high key shot, the exposure needs to be correct.

I had a quick look and I don't see any blown out highlights; when I took a screen capture and brought it into Photoshop, the highest value I see is around 248

[Shadowman]

Nicely done, has an illustration look to it.

[jordand]

Obviously I'm going to need some more help with this one.
Bruce, I specifically checked for blown out areas and found none, as stated by Manfred.
What I can not understand, Manfred, is how can a high key picture be overexposed when it is not blown out?
Please everyone, feel free to edit the photo to your liking.

[Manfred M]

Manfred, is how can a high key picture be overexposed when it is not blown out?
Please , feel free to edit the photo to your liking.

A picture can be underexposed without loss of shadow detail and can be overexposed without having highlights blown out. That has more to do with the camera's dynamic range and / or the degree of over and underexposure. While you have nailed the upper limit (white point) you have not done so on the lower limit (black point).

When I run the eyedropper tool over areas in the image that should be close to pure black (say values in the 1 - 15 range) and I get readings of 40 - 50, that tells me that your black point is set too high and the exposure is off. If I bring the black point to just before it looses detail (about 40 points), you retain the high key image, but the blacks look black, not gray and the image is less foggy. You should be able to see where I dropped my sample points on the this screen shot and what the readings were at those points before and after I adjusted the black point.




I made my comments when I looked at your shot on my laptop. It looks better on my good screen, but I find that getting the black point set closer to black helps even more.

[Digital]

I stand corrected.



Bruce

[jordand]

you have not done so on the lower limit (black point).

When I run the eyedropper tool over areas in the image that should be close to pure black (say values in the 1 - 15 range) and I get readings of 40 - 50, that tells me that your black point is set too high and the exposure is off. If I bring the black point to just before it looses detail (about 40 points), you retain the high key image, but the blacks look black, not gray and the image is less foggy.

I see! Thanks alot.

[bnnrcn]

Hi Jordan Your original seems more like a high key image to me. I find the dark parts in the BG distracting and I would brighten them too in order to get a better high key look.

[Geoff F]

I think that if you are going for a high key effect you will need to crop slightly tighter at the top. Then either lose a similar amount from the right side or have a different size ratio.

[FootLoose]

I don't know what technically constitutes a High Key image, I will trust Manfred's expertise on that. But I do like the treatment you have given this image. I think it suits the subject well.

[jcuknz]

To me on my un-calibrated monitor which generally makes good things good the original is washed out despite advice to the contrary and high key to me is often done as a vignetted picture .... in terms discussed I think I brought the 'black point' towards the right ... [ I do not have black and white spot control that I know of and use a curves adjustment layer which incorporates a sort of histogram ] But to get a pleasing image [to me ] I then had to drag the centre of the curve down and to the right which increased contrast while maintaining black were I wanted it [ eyes etc ]
Perhaps I am old fashioned in my attitude on this subject ?



Thank you Manfred for your description as it made sense to me of all this talk about 'black spot' which I have read about but not followed as far as interpreting it for my editor [PSP].