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Picture info: ISO 100, 1/160, f/3.20, 50mm, Av

Some friends have asked me to do a photo shoot this Friday of them and their kids. I heard Friday is supposed to be sunny so I took Hay out back into the bright yard to try some lighting shots. I've been doing some reading over the past few weeks and tried to see what I could come up with.

Obviously, direct sunlight was a mess. Dark shadows in the eye sockets and under the nose. Squinting on her face. Not usable, really.

For this picture, she stood on a rock with her back to the sun. It was bright enough out to not need any auxiliary lighting, but now that I'm thinking about it, maybe a white/silver reflector to bounce some light back into her face a little.

Anyway, I liked the halo around her hair, though there are some strands that are tinted red right at her part that I didn't try to fix (don't know how!)

I also did some layer work in Photoshop Elements. She had some Thin Mints at lunch and there were remnants under her bottom lip. Plus she still had some sleep in her eyes (re: eye boogers). I applied a trick with desaturating the photo and running a high-pass filter over it (technique cribbed from the Strobist site). I also dodged (lightened) her eyes a little. Here's the before shot:

 

Maybe next time I'll get a hairstylist prior to shooting. :)