Thread: Portrait help
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Old 11-02-07, 09:14
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Quote:
Originally Posted by finlaw View Post
Ok Here is one of the shots I got. Turns out my neice is a natural in front of the camera.
You're right about her being a natural.

I'm not sure what your lighting set up was here - natural light through a window or flash, but you need to watch your exposure to avoid burning out the highlights. When taking portraits, I always use manual exposure to give me the control I need. If that means reducing the exposure for the highlights to the extent that the face is in too much shaddow, try using either a reflector to bounce the light back, or fill in flash. In the case of the later I would suggest that it helps to bounce if off something to avoid sharp shadows.

To judge your overall exposure, try buying an 18% grey card from you local photographic shop (it shouldn't be too expensive - I got one from Jessops for £5.99). Take a test shot just of the card and look at the histogram. If the exposure is correct, you should have a spike right in the middle

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