For the Economy theme this week ;P
PS: I know the white T-shirt over exposed and is a bit distracting. But it was really mid-day and the sun was shining real hard --didn't know what to do. I got the jumper cables exposed fine though. Maybe HDR will fix it (if only I know how). Any other ideas? :)
Lee-Anne Ragan, RPS Inc, briancroxall, and 2 other people added this photo to their favorites.
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Al Ibrahim
FailedImitator
Member since 2008
Photo license:
Some rights reserved
dame ags 54 months ago | reply
I like the treatment here, with not much color except a little on the jumper cables...very nice!!!
Riyazi 54 months ago | reply
Nice one - really do like the focus, and treatment here. Maybe a bit of the burn/dodge tool on the shirt might help
Andrew Kufahl 54 months ago | reply
Nice photo. It has a very cinematic look/feel to it (which is why I like many of your photos).
Before the shot fixes:
1) Change shirts. Grey or black maybe? Might sound corny, but I've been doing more of that type of thing with my self-portraits lately, and it saves me time and frustration. It just isn't always very easy thinking about this option when you are just trying to take a "simple" photo.
2) If you have someone available, have them hold something (cardboard or something... diffusion panel would possibly be ideal) that puts you in shade. The diffusion panel would probably be nicest because you could probably diffuse the light to the point that you wouldn't blow the shirt out, yet it would/could still look like you were in direct sunlight. Not always feasible though if you don't have someone to assist, or light stands/booms/diffusion panels.
3) I'll assume this is all natural light? If you had used artificial light to light the cables in the foreground, you could have probably dialed-down (under-exposed) the background. However, you already have some pretty dark shadows back there, which would just get worse unless you strategically placed another light in the background to control the shadows. I know it's tough beating the harsh sunlight unless you have some powerful lights, but the fact is that you probably could put even a small flash really close to your foreground subject (because of how you framed it) and probably pretty easily beat-down the sun... I think. I know I would probably give that a try. You would more than likely lose some of your DOF, but, well, maybe it wouldn't be that bad.
4) This is a little out-there, but I think it would work... If you could have used a reflector to direct that harsh sunlight at your foreground, you might have been able to bring down the entire exposure more (which would have brought your shirt down as well). And, if you are really able to direct/reflect a lot of light at the foreground, it ends up doing almost the same type of thing I mentioned in #3. I use this technique quite a bit when I'm doing nature-shots in harsh sunlight conditions and it works pretty well.
After the shot fixes... I'm not real good at post-processing techniques, so I'll leave this one for people that know more about that kind of stuff :)
Sorry if these aren't the kind of ideas you were asking for...
Cath S (sn000py) 54 months ago | reply
well I was going to say dodge and burn too...
but AndrewKufahl is right - getting it right SOOC is far easier than PP work.
Maggie Deegan 54 months ago | reply
some great suggestions -- could you have changed the guy's shirt or was this a street shot? i like the photo concept and the focus on the jumper cables
cbliefer 54 months ago | reply
Well, I'm the odd one out here. Just learning I guess but I like the overexposed shirt. I don't find it distracting and I think it places some needed emphasis on the work involved in the scene here. On the other hand, wish I knew a fraction of what your friend Andrew knows about lighting. Lighting is tough, that's why I like overcast days, dusk and early morning.
-hedgey- 54 months ago | reply
i like it Al, looks artistic
FailedImitator 54 months ago | reply
Thank you everyone, and yes, it wasn't a posed shot. Our battery really died. We had to call a friend to jump-start it for us. So I couldn't have possibly asked Gaj to change his shirt.
Andrew - You're right, I should've used the Flash on the cables, at least that way, I can underexpose the backgroud *slaps own head* [Why didn't I think of that?!] And no, even though that wasn't what I was initially asking for, your information will be helpful in future. Thank you very much :)
Cath - I really like coloring pictures, but I'm very lazy when it comes to any serious editing work, so I like my pictures to look as good as possible SOOC :)
Tj6106 54 months ago | reply
Love the tones in this shot and its nicely composed. Every shot is a learning curve and if you learn from it all the better
FailedImitator 54 months ago | reply
Hopefully, I will. Thanks Craig :)
fma3110 18 months ago | reply
Hi,
thanks for sharing this image under Creative Commons License; I used (and credited) it in this multimedia short novel, a story where text, images and music are part of the experience, which is released in turn under Creative Commons License.
Your image was exactly what I needed for the "dead battery" scene.
Thanks again and best regards.
FailedImitator 18 months ago | reply
You're welcome. This is exactly why I do this, to promote the creation of more art. I'm really happy you found it useful :)