Critique Welcomed The Girls in the Garden

[Rob MacKillop]

Rhona and Susan in the botanics gardens...How would you improve this shot? The sun is behind them, so Susan's face especially is in shade.


Girls1 by RobMacKillop, on Flickr

 

[Darren Turner]

Another great shot of the Girls........ I like the lower down / on their level angle of the shot, the girls faces are not overly lit but i can cope with that, i think the OOF grass in the foreground is a little distracting so i would remove that.

Daz

 

[Pete Askew]

A good example of how well even a simple reflector can work (and be much more natural than fill-flash). Note how much better the lighting is on Rhona's face that on Susan's due to the light reflected by the paper. Maybe increasing exposure in shadows will help a bit I (or overall and then masking the other areas). I think Darren's comment about the foreground is correct though but overall I like the image Rob.

 

[Rob MacKillop]

Thanks, Daz and Pete. It is indeed interesting how the paper is reflecting the light onto Rhona's face. I never thought of that.

I'm worried cutting out the grass will lose some scale in the comp. But we'll see...

 

[Ralph Thornton]

An assistant holding a big reflector to add indirect light to their faces would be a help. It's a nice scene and it tells a story.

 

[Rob MacKillop]

Thanks, Ralph. It's difficult enough getting Susan to consent to a portrait...can't imagine her looking kindly on someone else holding a big reflector. But, point taken. I was just hoping there was a quick fix in photoshop.

 

[Hamish Gill]

As Pete says a tweak up on the shadows in LR would do somthing
you could try upping the exposure, dropping the contrast and adding a split tone to make it a little more whimsical ...?

 

[Aleks Isachenko]

Rob, as it was already said, the reflector rules. I also use an off-camera flash with receiver and transmitter on a light stand to reveal the shadows. Of course, it's necessary to carry this stuff with you and it is not possible all the time.
If you have this picture in RAW you may try the following settings.
Also I used brush tool to increase exposure and reduce noise (the brush was applied only on faces)

 

[Rob MacKillop]

Many thanks, Aleks, for taking the time to do that. I can see it is possible to improve the image. I've been too busy to give any time to it these last few days, but will make an effort this week.

I appreciate all the comments.

 

[Chris Dodkin]

Good advice from the forum - reflector is ideal to 'get it right in camera'

If it's already in the can, you can use PP to provide fill lighting in most PP packages

Back-lit subjects are tough, as the camera cannot get the subject and background exposures in one image easily.