Overexposure!!!

I was lucky enough to do an 11 person family portrait over the last weekend. It is fall here in VT and it has been super rainy. We had hoped to do it by a picnic area locally but this is what it looked like after we got 4" of rain in one day:

From Flood!!!!

Yikes!! So we had to nix that idea. Luckily the backyard of the family has a nice tree line so we were able to utilize the space there and creatively so! The owner has a daycare so there are lots of fun play structures in her fenced in yard but we were able to work around them and also use them as "props" for a few pics!

The problem, and the reason for my post's title was that the sun came in and out that day. It was a gorgeous day don't get me wrong, but we did the session at noon and there were lots of little clouds going over the sun and then leaving. Direct sunlight at high noon even in the fall is a little hard to work around when taking photos of people. You want them to come out natural looking, not pasty ghosts!! I found that when the clouds would cover the sun they came out great, but then all the sudden I would be snapping away and BAM the sun would blaze down. Sadly some of my best poses (you know, the ones where everyone was actually looking at the camera!) happened during these times of brightness. My camera was set to handle the cloudiness so those came out washed out looking. How do I fix it? I can't afford the fancy photo editing software at this time so I am using Picasa for all my needs. Picasa doesn't have an obvious exposure fixer at this time. These are the options for "Effects" editing:

Lots of fun stuff, but how do I fix a photo like this:

I scratched my head and even wanted to cry for a minute. This family is rightfully expecting their photos to look professional. I am a perfectionist and I also am afflicted with clinical depression. One way I have found to deal with both these issues is to try things that perhaps no one else would try. Sometimes those are the things that work the best. I clicked on several of these effects to see what would happen. I am not afraid with Picasa because things are so easy to reverse and the program saves a backup of your originals automatically.

The last one I tried is the one in the bottom right hand corner called Graduated Tint. It's description says "Useful mainly for skies". Well, there are no skies in my photos but let's see what happens anyhow.

Voila! It worked!! I kind of like how Picasa doesn't hold your hand completely through everything (perhaps they don't know all of the program's capabilities in every instance anyhow...it IS a Google program and they like you, the user, to explore!) so that you can make these reaffirming discoveries on your own.

The trick to using Graduated Tint is not to touch the color palette at all. Simply click on the icon, then use the "Shade" slider moving to the right to darken the exposure until it looks halfway normal.

You will also notice a target in the center of your photo.

What I did with this was drag it all the way down to the bottom of the screen to give the entire picture an even exposure change. The purpose of the target really is for skies. If you have a horizon line like this:

You see how the way the camera metered the light was based more on the darker lower half of the screen where the land and trees are. The sky looks washed out. This will only work if you can see SOME color in your sky. If you have one of those completely whited out skies it will really not help at all. What you do is put your target just above the horizon line and then start sliding the shade lever over. You will see the colors in your sky look more and more natural. Make sure you don't over do it though or it will look freaky. Then use the other slider, the Feather slider, to blend the bottom so that it looks like you never did a thing ;)

(Note: I also used the Shadows tool to bring out the colors in the trees, and the straightening tool to turn it slightly which removed the telephone wire in the upper right corner! Told you I am a perfectionist lol)

I hope this was useful for someone out there! I know it saved my butt :)

Movement and Lighting Problems

Recently I have been trying to take lots of photos of moving people, trying to capture moment and mood. It can be very difficult as you have to have a fast shutter speed to "freeze" time. This is no big deal if you are outside, where light is plenty, but if you are indoors and the lighting is dim or yellowy then you may find your photos are coming out really dark or everyone looks jaundiced.

My main subject lately has been my daughter and her ballet class. I did not want to use a flash for the recitals as this can blind the dancers and also distract them. Plus its just plain RUDE!!! And besides that, even with the flash your pics are going to come out washed out and glaring. Really its hard to win. I don't have a lot of equipment to work with so I have to make the best of what I have.

First, I make sure my camera is set to Manual, put the ISO up to 800 or so, and test out a few shutter speeds. Open the Aperture as wide as you can (the lower the number, the wider it is) for the lens you are using to let in the maximum amount of light. Your photos may still come out dark but they are somewhat fixable. Try to use a shutter speed of 1/60 at the minimum. It depends entirely on the setting though. You may need to play with a few different speeds.

Next, after I have taken as many as I want, I will upload them to the free Picasa program that I know and love. In here I will take the ones that I want to fix, double click to enlarge the first one, and go to the Tuning tab.

Bring up Highlights about halfway, then Fill light a little bit, then Shadows a little.

This may fix the problem or it may seem to make your photo's coloring a little off. This is ok. Once you have adjusted the lighting, go to the Effects tab. Click on "Tint".

This will instantly turn your photo black and white. The more contrasted, the better.

Go to the "Color Preservation" slider bar and bring it up until it looks correct. Voila! That is usually it!!



If it looks too pasty to you still, you can either hit "Warmify" (which I find is a little too drastic) or go back to the Tuning tab and bring up the red value slightly which will enhance skin tones.

Sound complicated? Its really not once you have tried a few things. Don't be afraid to play with your photos. Everything can be undone!!

Tip: If you find that your photo is too grainy still after fixing the lighting and coloring, I suggest downloading Lightroom 3 in the 30 day trial (or buying it--its a great program and if you have a student in the house its only $99 which is a great deal) and using the Noise Reduction feature. In there you would bring up the Luminance bar which removes most of the problem. You may have to play with the Detail and Color bars directly under it but its very easy to navigate!