Posted: Mon Jun 09, 2014 9:23 am Post subject: What would a real photographer do to this
Hi All,
Im far from any kind of photographer, but with my daughter having our first grandson, i find the need to be more and more a "good" photographer. Anyways, i notice friends and family who hire freelance photographers, obviously dont just take a picture and then email it to you, they do some amount of post processing of the jpeg file. I attached a picture to this and am looking for advice to what, or how in photoshop a real business photographer would make a picture like this "photographer" quality.
Joined: 27 Nov 2012
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Posted: Mon Jun 09, 2014 10:44 am Post subject:
In my opinion, the difference between a photographer and a "good" photographer is that the pictures shot capture (motion / emotion / moment) instead of register. In laymen's terms, getting that one shot out of 10 that just does look better. If one realises this and starts to see the difference, one will almost immediately start taking better photos.
It's one of the issues people photographing children, grandchildren or anyone other close to them, run into as it is harder to keep an objective look.
Having said that, the less there has to be done in post (Photoshop) the better. Any practical tips are easily to be found around. (I recommend reading some tips / tricks magazines. A website like ISSUU will have those available for you free of charge etc. as here).
As for this picture, I do like the smile you captured, too bad he isn't looking up / towards the camera but I do realise this is not an easy thing to realise with small children.
One big point that could have been done better taking this picture is the lightning, which is not an easy thing to do at first, but as you might see now, his full face and body are in shadow, drawing attention more to the background. Realise that bigger lighting problems like this cannot be fixed in post.
Another thing is the background, there's one line (driveway) tilting to the right and one line (house) tilting to the left adding a somewhat awkward feel to the background.
I assume your grandson is playing with the water beam as it seems like a sunny day, but the water beam on it's own feels a bit off to be and I would have preferred including more of it, or leaving it out entirely. _________________ Bart J.A.H. de Brouwer
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Posted: Mon Jun 09, 2014 11:38 am Post subject:
Good photographers start by taking photos during a different time of day for better lighting, usually early morning, late in the day, or on cloudy days. But not in direct mid-day sun. If they have to shoot during full sun they look for open shade areas, or use flash to fill in the harsh shadows. Also they look carefully at the background. In this case the houses and car detract. If a suitable background isn't available they would blur it by using the proper lens and f-stop combination. And the list goes on.
What they don't do is try to fix all of that in post processing.
I took this picture at 11 am on a very sunny cloudless day, which equals very bad lighting. I opted instead to shoot in full shade.
Thank you for your suggestions. The part of the photographer that I am not, it learning to compose the picture to get a great shot. To me, that is an instinct and not something you can just learn, in fact for about every 25 pisture i take, i find one that i think is special.
Anyways, i was just looking to see if a professional photographer would do anything to the colors or lighting or anything like that after the fact.
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