If this is your first visit, be sure to check out the FAQ by clicking the link above. You may have to register before you can post: click the register link above to proceed. To start viewing messages, select the forum that you want to visit from the selection below. |
|
|
|
Thread Tools | Display Modes |
#1
|
|||
|
|||
Group photos in sunlight
I seem to get roped into doing periodic group shots of our company staff,
about 30 people usually. The only suitable place to stand everyone is on the front steps to the building, which is south facing, but whenever it is sunny, like today, the pictures never seem to look very good, which shadows & blown highlights etc Are there any hints for getting better shots in sunshine, or is it best just to wait for a cloudy day, as the pictures look fine when there are some clouds. cheers adrian www.boliston.co.uk |
#2
|
|||
|
|||
Group photos in sunlight
On Jul 24, 8:12 am, "Adrian Boliston" wrote:
I seem to get roped into doing periodic group shots of our company staff, about 30 people usually. The only suitable place to stand everyone is on the front steps to the building, which is south facing, but whenever it is sunny, like today, the pictures never seem to look very good, which shadows & blown highlights etc Are there any hints for getting better shots in sunshine, or is it best just to wait for a cloudy day, as the pictures look fine when there are some clouds. cheers adrianwww.boliston.co.uk Your post leads a few things dangling. First off, you have sunny days in the UK? Really? Second off, why do you keep taking pictures of your staff? But anyway, you should do one (or more) of a couple of things: take the pictures in the morning when the isn't so strong. wait for a cloudy day. angle the people away from the sun so they are squinting, and use fill flash find a new location find a new country put up a diffuser to cut the light -- something like a large tent. do the pictures indoors. call in sick that day. |
#3
|
|||
|
|||
Group photos in sunlight
On 2007-07-24 05:12:49 -0700, "Adrian Boliston" said:
I seem to get roped into doing periodic group shots of our company staff, about 30 people usually. The only suitable place to stand everyone is on the front steps to the building, which is south facing, but whenever it is sunny, like today, the pictures never seem to look very good, which shadows & blown highlights etc Are there any hints for getting better shots in sunshine, or is it best just to wait for a cloudy day, as the pictures look fine when there are some clouds. cheers adrian www.boliston.co.uk People do not look good in hard lighting like direct sunlight. The shadows are too dark and too hard edged. If you cannot avoid taking pictures in conditions like that, hanging a sheet up to reflect light into the shadowy areas or to provide some shade might be the best solution. -- Waddling Eagle World Famous Flight Instructor |
#4
|
|||
|
|||
Group photos in sunlight
Adrian Boliston wrote:
I seem to get roped into doing periodic group shots of our company staff, about 30 people usually. The only suitable place to stand everyone is on the front steps to the building, which is south facing, but whenever it is sunny, like today, the pictures never seem to look very good, which shadows & blown highlights etc Are there any hints for getting better shots in sunshine, or is it best just to wait for a cloudy day, as the pictures look fine when there are some clouds. Photoshop to the rescue: shoot in raw & reduce contrast, burn & dodge around the faces, etc. http://www.edgehill.net/1/?SC=go.php&DIR=2_human-world/4-People/more/groups&PG=3 -- Paul Furman Photography http://www.edgehill.net/1 Bay Natives Nursery http://www.baynatives.com |
#5
|
|||
|
|||
Group photos in sunlight
Paul Furman wrote:
Adrian Boliston wrote: I seem to get roped into doing periodic group shots of our company staff, about 30 people usually. The only suitable place to stand everyone is on the front steps to the building, which is south facing, but whenever it is sunny, like today, the pictures never seem to look very good, which shadows & blown highlights etc Are there any hints for getting better shots in sunshine, or is it best just to wait for a cloudy day, as the pictures look fine when there are some clouds. Photoshop to the rescue: shoot in raw & reduce contrast, burn & dodge around the faces, etc. http://www.edgehill.net/1/?SC=go.php&DIR=2_human-world/4-People/more/groups&PG=3 Nice. Could you post the before pic as well? Do you use Lightroom? The fill light on the RAW file is pretty good, but of course it's not localized. -- John McWilliams |
#6
|
|||
|
|||
Group photos in sunlight
John McWilliams wrote:
Paul Furman wrote: Adrian Boliston wrote: I seem to get roped into doing periodic group shots of our company staff, about 30 people usually. The only suitable place to stand everyone is on the front steps to the building, which is south facing, but whenever it is sunny, like today, the pictures never seem to look very good, which shadows & blown highlights etc Are there any hints for getting better shots in sunshine, or is it best just to wait for a cloudy day, as the pictures look fine when there are some clouds. Photoshop to the rescue: shoot in raw & reduce contrast, burn & dodge around the faces, etc. http://www.edgehill.net/1/?SC=go.php&DIR=2_human-world/4-People/more/groups&PG=3 Nice. Could you post the before pic as well? http://www.edgehill.net/1/?SC=go.php&DIR=California/Bay-Area/Peninsula/sweeney-ridge/2007-03-04/orig That's just a quick crop, reduce & sharpen in irfanview, not even changing the AdobeRGB color space to sRGB. Do you use Lightroom? The fill light on the RAW file is pretty good, but of course it's not localized. As you can see, I underexposed by 2/3 stop to maintain the white teeshirts & it looks like I only did minimal brightening in some of the faces with wide brimmed hats, mostly I think it was just raising the brightness & reducing contrast & shadows in CS1 ACR. There is no 'fill light' in CS1 ACR, just brightness, shadows & contrast. I rarely adjust EC. Here's one that was really challenging & still doesn't look great but it would have been awful with default P&S settings, even my in-camera jpeg was set at lowest contrast and is wildly under/overexposed: http://www.edgehill.net/1/?SC=go.php&DIR=California/Bay-Area/Peninsula/2007-03-18-los-trancos/group/orig You can see some weird glows around some faces where I burned & dodged, plus it was 2 shots merged to get the best smiles on everyone. My idea of burning & dodging is usually a curves adjustment layer masked out with a broad soft edged eraser. Conditions like this, you just can't get useable results straight out of the camera. -- Paul Furman Photography http://www.edgehill.net/1 Bay Natives Nursery http://www.baynatives.com |
#7
|
|||
|
|||
Group photos in sunlight
Paul Furman wrote:
John McWilliams wrote: Paul Furman wrote: Nice. Could you post the before pic as well? http://www.edgehill.net/1/?SC=go.php&DIR=California/Bay-Area/Peninsula/sweeney-ridge/2007-03-04/orig That's just a quick crop, reduce & sharpen in irfanview, not even changing the AdobeRGB color space to sRGB. Do you use Lightroom? The fill light on the RAW file is pretty good, but of course it's not localized. As you can see, I underexposed by 2/3 stop to maintain the white teeshirts & it looks like I only did minimal brightening in some of the faces with wide brimmed hats, mostly I think it was just raising the brightness & reducing contrast & shadows in CS1 ACR. There is no 'fill light' in CS1 ACR, just brightness, shadows & contrast. I rarely adjust EC. Here's one that was really challenging & still doesn't look great but it would have been awful with default P&S settings, even my in-camera jpeg was set at lowest contrast and is wildly under/overexposed: http://www.edgehill.net/1/?SC=go.php&DIR=California/Bay-Area/Peninsula/2007-03-18-los-trancos/group/orig You can see some weird glows around some faces where I burned & dodged, plus it was 2 shots merged to get the best smiles on everyone. My idea of burning & dodging is usually a curves adjustment layer masked out with a broad soft edged eraser. Conditions like this, you just can't get useable results straight out of the camera. Thanks for the original, on both shots. That last one is a bear. Esp. the guy on the left who's overexposed to begin with. I'd be happy to see what I could do with the RAW image in CS3 or LR. -- john mcwilliams |
#8
|
|||
|
|||
Group photos in sunlight
John McWilliams wrote:
Paul Furman wrote: Here's one that was really challenging & still doesn't look great but it would have been awful with default P&S settings, even my in-camera jpeg was set at lowest contrast and is wildly under/overexposed: http://www.edgehill.net/1/?SC=go.php&DIR=California/Bay-Area/Peninsula/2007-03-18-los-trancos/group/orig You can see some weird glows around some faces where I burned & dodged, plus it was 2 shots merged to get the best smiles on everyone. My idea of burning & dodging is usually a curves adjustment layer masked out with a broad soft edged eraser. Conditions like this, you just can't get useable results straight out of the camera. Thanks for the original, on both shots. That last one is a bear. Esp. the guy on the left who's overexposed to begin with. I'd be happy to see what I could do with the RAW image in CS3 or LR. OK I sent you the raw file. Actually it looks like I didn't even use the raw file on that one because there's no XMP files in my archive so that was just photoshop curves on a jpeg. The first one looks like it was done from raw in CS3 beta when I was testing that. -- Paul Furman Photography http://www.edgehill.net/1 Bay Natives Nursery http://www.baynatives.com |
#9
|
|||
|
|||
Group photos in sunlight
Paul Furman writes:
Photoshop to the rescue: Huh. Photoshop fixes people squinting and grimacing in full sun now? |
#10
|
|||
|
|||
Group photos in sunlight
Richard J Kinch wrote:
Paul Furman writes: Photoshop to the rescue: Huh. Photoshop fixes people squinting and grimacing in full sun now? Yes, Image- Adjustments - Time control- Shift time back 6 hours. -- lsmft |
|
Thread Tools | |
Display Modes | |
|
|
Similar Threads | ||||
Thread | Thread Starter | Forum | Replies | Last Post |
Best website for sharing photos within a group? | Mirsky | Digital Photography | 3 | September 26th 06 01:06 AM |
New To The Group | digitalexec | In The Darkroom | 3 | May 29th 06 07:50 AM |
New to this group. | N8urePix | Photographing Nature | 4 | December 7th 04 03:33 AM |
Goa Photos, Belur Photos, Halebid Photos, Mangalore Photos, Hampi Photos | Venkatesh | Digital Photography | 5 | November 8th 04 01:44 AM |
This group | Big Red Helmut | Digital Photography | 5 | August 10th 04 08:22 PM |