What could I have done better?

[Sydney Rester]

I was shooting at a difficult time of day, I realize. Did not use fill flash. I rather like the bokeh, but the picture is just not a winner. What happened?

Pike and Daddy​

Camera: Canon EOS 7D
Exposure: 1/4000 sec
Aperture: f/3.2
Focal Length: 135 mm
ISO Speed: 640
Exposure Bias: 0 EV
Flash: Off, Did not fire

 

[Asher Kelman]

I was shooting at a difficult time of day, I realize. Did not use fill flash. I rather like the bokeh, but the picture is just not a winner. What happened?

Pike and Daddy​

Camera: Canon EOS 7D
Exposure: 1/4000 sec
Aperture: f/3.2
Focal Length: 135 mm
ISO Speed: 640
Exposure Bias: 0 EV
Flash: Off, Did not fire

Sydney,

You can't do better if you love them both as much as I guess you do! As time goes on you'll realize that you were so wrong. This is indeed a winner and by a league. This picture is a perfect example of a family memento and is one ofthe best uses of photography, an attempt to hold back time by allowing us to better remember these lovely moments and the friends that have meaning for us. This is another area where I could care less about the exact photometrics, gamma and use of flash. None of these are important. If you want, you can get a retoucher to correct it. However "as it is" it does it's job and well.

This is not about art, it's about the heart!

Asher

 

[Deleted member 55]

Hi Sydney!

Next time try putting both subjects in the shade or use your own shade such as s popup diffuser or even a large pice of cardboard to prevent the harsh effect of the direct sun on your subjects.

Or you might use a reflector to even out the subject lighting thus preventing the over exposure on the face.

 

[Asher Kelman]

Hi Sydney!

Next time try putting both subjects in the shade or use your own shade such as s popup diffuser or even a large pice of cardboard to prevent the harsh effect of the direct sun on your subjects.

Or you might use a reflector to even out the subject lighting thus preventing the over exposure on the face.

Sydney,


As Will implies, you don't want the harsh extremes of light of the direct bright sun, especially when it's high in the sky. You could simply overpower the sun with a strong large close light, get them in the shade or try fill in flash. The latter is unlikely to be of much use in such extreme lighting with light and dark areas of the face. In Photoshop, CS2 and above, you could tame the over-bright areas using the shadow-highlight tool. IOW you will decrease the apparent exposure of the bright areas. The darker areas in the harsh shadow could be recovered by the shadow slider.

Dd you shoot it as a RAW file? If so, developing this from RAW will allow you to do this in a cleaner way.

Asher

 

[Sydney Rester]

Thank you both for the suggestions. I did shoot raw and PP in Lightroom. I'm not very good with photoshop yet, but I'll give it a shot. I'm not sure the focus on this pic is good enough to go to heroic efforts to save it, but as you said, I really do love the moment it captured plus the background just looks so cool! It's also one of the rare pictures where I have a really natural smile from my husband. I like that about it a lot.