It’s Fix-It Friday at I ♥ Faces again!  It’s been awhile since I’ve participated, so I felt a bit rusty.  But this shot of Little Miss Cutie-Pie sure was fun to play with.  I mean really, who can resist that much cuteness?!  Certainly not her mom, who submitted the photo.  Great catch, mom!!

This shot has a lot going for it.  Super cute kiddo with an adorable smile…check.  Natural light pouring in from a window and providing soft shadows and wonderful catch-lights in the eyes…check.  Focus on the face and the background blurred to reduce distraction from said face…check.  And there ya go!  Three of the best ingredients for a wonderful portrait. 

The one distracting element, for me anyway, is the white shelf on the right.  So, I immediately decided upon a square crop.  I felt this photo lent itself to this crop very well, as her slight head tilt put the right eye directly on intersecting rule-of -thirds lines.  In other words…I liked it square. 

I also decided to do as much as possible in Lightroom, and I felt like the light in the photo would work well with a contrasty treatment, both in color and black and white.  I always begin by adjusting white balance if necessary, and with one click of the dropper tool on the edge of the white shelf, it warmed up the shot nicely.  Then I tweaked the following tools to get a good base to work from:  exposure, recovery, blacks, clarity, vibrance, tone curve.  I played with the crop tool and made a virtual copy of what I had done so far.  This is a wonderful tool in Lightroom that allows you to make as many virtual copies of your photos as you like, without clogging up your computer or sacrificing performance, so you can make as many different edits as you like, and then compare them to choose your favorite.  Veeeery nice!

Then I began playing with presets, and I landed on a free one called A-Game 2.  Sometimes presets give you just what you want with one click, but sometimes, as with action layers in Photoshop, they need to be tweaked as well.  So, I played with exposure, recovery, blacks, clarity and tone curve again.  I also used the adjustment brush tool to bring up the exposure a bit, just on her hair that was deep in shadow.  The whites of her eyes were quite blue at this point, so I used the adjustment brush set to desaturate to remove that color.  I also brightened the exposure (just a smidge) on the catchlights.  The dust removal tool was handy to remove a couple spots on her chin.

At this point, I was pretty much done.  However, I was noticing quite a bit of “noise” (grain) in this photo, and I realized it was because it was shot at ISO 1600 on a Canon Rebel XT.  I am not in any way knocking the noise or the camera!  I just wanted to make the point that different cameras handle noise differently.  As a rule, however, the lower the ISO, the less noise.  The shutter speed for this shot was 1/640. If the ISO had been set lower to avoid the noise, the shutter speed would have been slower.  And it’s possible this shot could have turned out fine with a slower shutter speed. But toddlers move pretty fast, and it’s also possible that a slower shutter speed would have resulted in a blurry shot.  Boo!  I say, use that higher ISO setting to ensure you get a clear shot and then just embrace the noise!    Thank goodness our digital cameras have the ability to produce images with higher ISOs, or we would miss an awful lot of shots!  And it would have been a shame to miss this one.

For my color version, I did want to go for a smoother shot, so here’s where I brought it into CS3 and used Noiseware, a noise reduction program that can be purchased to work inside Photoshop.  You have to find the balance between getting rid of noise and not over-smoothing to retain detail in your shot.  So, I try not to use it in a heavy handed way.  While I was in Photoshop, I went ahead and used Pioneer Woman’s Sharpen THIS action on her eyes, and the healing brush on a couple little spots on her face.  Then it was back to Lightroom for exporting.  I was going for contrast and some pop, so the shadows are a bit deep, but I love the way her eyes just pull you in!

I knew I wanted to work up a somewhat vintage black and white version as well.  The natural light in this shot was just calling me to it!  So I went back to my very originally edited photo in Lightroom and made another virtual copy.  In fact, I made a number of virtual copies so I could try a bunch of different presets and see which one I wanted to work with.  I ended up using a free one called BW Dependable.  Then I tweaked the tone curve and used the split toning tool to give it a hint of vintage color.  I reduced the clarity to give it a softer appearance, used the adjustment brush tool to bring up the shadows on her hair and added some overall sharpening.  For this version, I decided to embrace the noise by actually adding a bit more!  So, I brought it into CS3 and used the noise filter to add a little bit of monochromatic grain to the whole photo.  I also used Sharpen THIS on the eyes.  At this size, it may be kinda hard to detect the extra grain, but it was a subtle addition. 

Thanks for letting me play today!  Let me know if you have any questions.

This week’s submitted photo is of this cute cheerleader. 

Here is some EXIF data:

f/4.5, 1/50 sec, 135mm, ISO 100

Zooming in, we can see that this photo has some sharpness issues.  Going back to that rule of thumb about shutter speeds (minimum shutter speed for a sharp photo is 1/focal length, which means in this case, the minimum shutter speed should have been up around 1/160 or so), we can see why this didn’t end up being a sharp shot.  1/50 sec is a very slow shutter speed for 135mm, unless the camera is on a tripod and the subject is holding very still.    The aperture is probably opened as wide as the lens would allow at this focal length, so the solution here would have been to raise the ISO to about 400 or so, which would have allowed the shutter to speed up.

I really like the natural textures and colors of the wall behind her, so I decided to try and enhance that feature of the photo.  After warming up the white balance and cropping very slightly in Lightroom, I brought the image into Photoshop CS3.  Then I employed the Color Burst action (one of my favorites!) from Jodi at MCP Actions.  I also used her Touch of Light action (free) to brighten her face, and I further brightened her eyes and teeth with the dodge tool.  I did heal a few skin blemishes on her face, though on this full-body-length shot, they really aren’t noticeable.  I used the Quick Edge Burn action (free) from Pioneer Woman to give the photo a vignette.

For a different look, I used Take My Color Away from MCP Actions, with the Chocolate Wishes layer turned on.

Another cute-kiddo photo was submitted for Fix-It Friday at I ♥ Faces!

Canon 20D, 50 1.8 lens at 1.8, 1/125 sec, ISO 100

Once again, I’m sharing the histogram as displayed in Lightroom, in order to see how this shot may have been improved in the camera, and to serve as a guide for how to improve it now.   There is a lot of blank, empty space on the right side of this histogram, which confirms that it is underexposed and asking for more light.  Three ways to introduce more light to the camera sensor are:  open the aperture, slow down the shutter and raise the ISO.

In this case, the aperture was opened as far as this lens will allow…f/1.8.  A wide-open aperture also provides a narrow depth of field, meaning the focus point may be sharp and the rest will nicely blur.  The closer you are to your subject, the shallower the depth of field gets.   Even though this shot had a very shallow depth of field, the focus is nice and sharp on the right eye.  That can be very tricky to accomplish, so bravo to the photog for nailing the focus here!  When zoomed in, the left eye isn’t quite as sharp as the right, and that’s because of the super shallow depth of field.  However, this really isn’t noticeable and doesn’t detract from this image at all.  The background is nicely blurred which allows all your attention to stay on the sweet face.

Since the aperture couldn’t have opened any wider to adjust for the exposure, we’re left with considering the shutter speed and ISO.  The shutter speed of 1/125 was obviously fast enough to ensure a sharp shot, which is great.  The rule of thumb we discussed last week says that with a 50mm lens, the shutter speed should at least have been 1/50 to ensure a non-blurry photo (of a stationary subject).  So, in theory, the shutter speed could have been slowed down a bit in order to let in more light for a brighter exposure.  However, this shot looks quite spontaneous (see that cute bit of tongue poking out?!) and slowing the shutter in this case may have  captured some motion blur rather than the crisp photo we have.

That leaves us with bumping up the ISO.  The higher your ISO number gets, the noisier (or grainier) your photo may be.  However, if you underexpose your photo and need to boost exposure in post processing, that also introduces noise into your image.  The least amount of pushing and pulling on your photo’s exposure in post processing, the better it is for your image quality.  So, in this case, bumping up the ISO in order to increase the light sensitivity of the camera sensor would have enabled a more brightly exposed image that wouldn’t need quite as much adjustment after the fact.  I believe ISO 400 would have been a more successful setting in terms of exposure for this image.

The Fixin’s

I pulled this RAW photo into Lightroom and first adjusted the White Balance.  I like to use the WB selector which looks kinda like an eye dropper tool.  Usually there is something in the photo that can be clicked on that should be a neutral color.  In this shot, I ended up clicking on the white of her right eye.  Then I adjusted exposure by dragging the exposure slider over +1.25.  This brings us to here:

The histogram is beginning to be a bit more balanced and the skin tones have more warmth.  At this point, I started playing with some presets in Lightroom, which are kind of like actions in Photoshop.  Presets and actions can be a place to get really creative and have lots of fun, and they can be a way to express your own personal taste and style.  This time, I rather liked what this preset did.  (NYKF – free preset found on this list – New York State of Mind.)  One click of the mouse and we are here:

This preset deepened the blacks and brightened the lights, brought some contrast and a zing of some interesting color.  Look at those blue eyes!

At this point, I used the Dust Spot Removal tool to get rid of some crumbs around her mouth and on her teeth, and then I employed the Adjustment Brush to brighten up the shadows around her eyes.  I decided to pull it into Photoshop (I use version CS3) and do a few more tweaks.  I used MCP Action’s Magic Powder to smooth out her skin tones, MCP Action’s Skin Cast Blast to tone down reds and blues and give a warm/golden appearance, Pioneer Woman’s Sharpen This to sharpen her eyes, the clone tool set to Lighten and 20% opacity to slightly brighten her teeth, and a bit of a curves adjustment to just make it all pop a bit more.  (Jodi at MCP Actions has written about Curves Adjustments and even has an online workshop about this powerful adjustment tool in Photoshop.)

Then I went back to Lightroom to play with the crop.  I really like the crop tool in Lightroom, and I had fun playing with it on this shot.  The girl’s head tilt is charming and endearing and gives this photo some movement and lines to consider when cropping.  When composing a shot in camera or cropping afterward, something to consider is the Rule of Thirds.  If you were to divide your photo into thirds with lines, left to right and top to bottom, the lines would intersect.  The idea is to place major points of interest at those intersections, or at least along those lines.  (Many cameras have focus points placed where they can help you compose your shot with this rule in mind.)  Not every photo should follow this rule (sometimes, rules are meant to be broken!), but in general, a photo is more dynamic when composed this way rather than placing the subject smack dab in the middle.

The Lightroom crop tool has some grids to lay over your photo to help you see your photo’s lines and consider some possible crops.  Here’s the standard rule of thirds overlay:

As you can see here, the lines from this grid aren’t really working with the lines existing in this photo.  Let’s see what else we’ve got.  (Just hit the letter O to rotate through the various crop overlays in Lightroom.)

This one’s interesting.  LR’s crop tool allows you to rotate your photo and keeps the crop inside the photo’s boundaries.  (On this shot, I’ve maintained the original aspect ratio of the shot, keeping it rectangular.)  See the lines extending from the corner through her eyes, and from the other corner through her smile, and the intersection taking place on her right eye, which is the focal point of this photo?  Here’s what it looks like cropped:

While I do like this, I think the angle may be exaggerated more than I would prefer.  Let’s try something else.

Look at those lines!  From the corner along her smile, from the corner down through her left eye, from the corner along her hair…

I’m liking this one.  But let’s try one more.  This overlay is kinda fun…

It’s a swirl!  (If you hit Shift+ the letter O while looking at an overlay, it will rotate the overlay so you can apply it to photos with focus points in various areas.)  See how the beginning of the swirl is right between her eyes, and then the line curves around through her right eye and then continues around her entire face?

It ends up being quite similar to the previous crop, but this one puts her eyes at slightly less of an angle.  I think I like this one the best.  And once again, here’s where we began:

Thank you to Carol for submitting this photo for us to play with this week!  And thanks to any readers who made it this far, for hanging with me while I rambled on about histograms and crop tools.    I am certainly not an expert in these areas.  I’m simply trying to share what I’ve learned with the hope that it may help someone else along on their photography journey.  I know there are many (many!) others out there who have greater knowledge and are better at explaining things than I am.  Hopefully, you will be encouraged to maybe try something new and have some fun! 

It’s Fix-It Friday time at I ♥ Faces.

An older shot from Angie of one of her little ones is featured in this week’s Fix-It Friday photo. Check out those dimples! Oh my, he’s a cutie!!

This photo has some good things going for it: an adorable subject with a cute expression; his face is definitely the center of attention; the background is nicely blurred.

The parts of this photo that could use attention, as I see it, are exposure and sharpness.

Before I describe what I did to “fix” this photo after the fact, I thought I’d discuss a couple options for improving this sort of shot straight out of camera (SOOC). In order to do that, it’s helpful to know where we began with this one, so let’s take a look at what’s called the EXIF data. Among other things, this tells you what your aperture, shutter speed, ISO and focal length were when you took the shot. This shot looks like this:

f/6.3 | 1/100 sec | ISO 100 | 230 mm

Because the focal length is 230 mm, I know that a longer lens was used for this shot. I’m guessing perhaps a 70-300 f/4-5.6, or something similar. When I zoomed in on this photo in Lightroom, I saw that it isn’t completely sharp. I was curious about this, because the little guy seems to be holding fairly still for this photo. So, I looked at the shutter speed. It is 1/100 sec. That could be the culprit! A great rule of thumb to remember is to not let your shutter speed drop below 1/focal length. Remember the focal length for this shot was 230 mm. So, a better minimum shutter speed for this situation would have been 1/250 or so. The reason for this is because even if we think we’re holding still, we’re really not. And the longer the lens, the more difficult to hold it perfectly still. Chances are, the boy was holding still, but the shutter wasn’t fast enough to compensate for any wiggling (by the photographer) while holding that long lens.

Now, many lenses come equipped with Image Stabilization (IS) or Vibration Reduction (VR), etc… (and some camera bodies come with it built inside). The trick is to find out how slow of a shutter speed your hands can handle, even with that technology (if you have it). It can be extremely helpful. Just remember, it doesn’t compensate for moving subjects. Only moving photographers! So, keep the rule of thumb (shutter speed no less than 1/focal length) tucked away as a starting point, and remember to check that shutter speed.

Back to the above photo…the rule of thumb said to keep the shutter up to at least 1/250 sec to match the focal length being used. If the little guy had been moving around, the shutter speed would probably have needed to be even faster, in order to avoid motion blur from him, not the photog.

So, how do we adjust to get the shutter speed up where we need it for this lens and situation? There are a number of pathways to do this. The first one I’ll mention is to get more light inside the lens by opening up the aperture. You would need to be shooting in Aperture Priority Mode or Manual Mode in order to adjust the aperture. So, how ’bout opening up to f/5.6? (Or even wider if your lens allows it –> smaller f/number = wider aperture.) Every little bit helps! That would allow a slight increase in shutter speed, but probably not quite enough. So, the next option is to bump up the ISO (which increases the light sensitivity). This shot was taken at ISO 100. So, how ’bout trying ISO 200, or perhaps even better, ISO 400? Now we’re talkin’! Wide-open aperture on a long lens, zoomed in on cutie-pie’s face, with an ISO setting that keeps the shutter up where we need it (at the very least 1/250, maybe faster)…now we can get a sharp shot!

The other issue with this photo is the exposure. This photo’s looking a bit dark. But what if it looked OK on your camera’s LCD screen? How would you know it was a bit dark when you took it? What if the little tick mark on the exposure scale (that thing that starts with -2 and goes up to +2) is set right on the zero? This is where the histogram becomes your bestest friend! I’m quite sure that all digital cameras have histograms, even point and shoots. If you’re not sure how to view your histogram on your camera’s screen, please check out your camera manual. Many cameras can be set to quickly display the histogram automatically after each shot. That way you can easily glance at it to get an idea of where your exposure actually is…too bright or too dark or juuuust right.

Here’s a screen capture of what this photo’s histogram looks like in Lightroom:

On a histogram, the darkest pixels are charted on the left and the brightest pixels are charted on the right. Mid-tones are displayed in the middle. Notice that this histogram has a lot of empty space on the right side. Now, I can see that this little guy is fair skinned with nearly white blonde hair. His shirt has some light stripes on it, and the background has some sunny spots. Those brighter portions of the photo should be approaching the right edge, which would pull the entire “mountain” over to the right a bit, bringing up the entire exposure. So, how do we make use of this information while we’re shooting?

Immediately after taking a shot, taking a super fast look at the histogram can reveal if you are underexposed (too dark because no pixels are approaching the right side) or overexposed (too bright because things are pushed over too far right and not enough left). When highlights are blown or shadows are plugged, this can also cause “blinkies” to show up on your LCD, warning you that some pixels have been lost because they’ve been pushed over and beyond the edges of the histogram. (If they are really lost, they cannot be fully recovered, even in Photoshop! Sometimes that’s OK…it just depends on what sort of shot you’re after.) A quick adjustment to a setting or two and you can start shooting again, glancing at that histogram every now and then to check on things. But what to adjust?

I like to shoot on Manual Mode and run through a basic little list in my head that goes something like this:

• Aperture – is it as wide open as it can/should be in this situation? (Keep in mind depth of field.) I then aim and focus on my subject and check to see where the little marker is on my exposure scale (that number line that starts with -2 and goes to +2).

• Shutter Speed – is it fast enough to get a sharp, well-exposed portrait in this situation? (Keep in mind the rule of thumb and the focal length of the lens and if it has Image Stabilization or not, and if your subject is moving or not.) I have a wheel on my camera that I use to scroll the exposure marker to the right of zero (slow shutter down) and to the left of zero (speed shutter up). To be honest, I rarely end up shooting with the marker right above the zero. (For portraits, it’s usually a tick or two to the right, on my camera.) I adjust the shutter speed by scrolling that little marker around to where I think it may be a proper exposure, paired with my already chosen aperture.

• ISO – is it appropriate, based on my aperture and shutter speed needs? Once I have attained what I hope to be a proper exposure with my aperture and shutter speed, if my shutter is absurdly fast for the situation (say 1/5000 for a still portrait), then I lower the ISO (if possible) and slow down my shutter speed so the little exposure marker is back where I want it. (I lower the ISO because a lower ISO provides a cleaner, less grainy photo. I slow down the shutter because once I lower the ISO, my exposure has changed and I need to readjust.) If, on the other hand, my shutter is too slow for a sharp shot, then I bump up the ISO and speed up my shutter for proper exposure, and click away and check my histogram.

• Histogram – is it approaching the right side, but not bunched up on it or pushed over the edge? In a portrait like the above, glancing at the histogram would have revealed that a wider aperture and/or a slower shutter speed was needed for a better exposure (in other words, the photo was asking for more light). The shutter speed was already too slow for a sharp shot, so a bump in ISO was needed in order to raise that shutter speed to “sharp shot” levels. Remember, the photo needed more light…wider aperture, slower shutter and higher ISO are all ways to introduce more light. You just have to set all three so they work together for your particular photo, providing a combination of proper exposure and sharpness.

I realize this may sound like a lot of info to process very quickly, but the more you do it, the faster and more accurate you get. Aperture. Shutter. ISO. Histogram. Not necessarily in that order. Do what works for you. Starting Rule of Thumb: minimum shutter speed= 1/focal length, such as a 50 mm lens should have a minimum shutter speed of 1/50 sec.

A great book on the subject of exposure is called Understanding Exposure by Bryan Peterson.

Fixing

I usually begin photo editing with exposure and white balance adjustments. Because this was shot in RAW, I can easily adjust both of these during post processing. I wanted to show you what a simple exposure adjustment looks like, both on the photo and the histogram. This was done in Lightroom, by simply dragging the exposure slider to the right to about +1.25. This was the only adjustment made so far:

See how the histogram is now approaching the right side, but not quite touching it or going over the edge? This is the sort of histogram to look for in the camera, for this type of shot. The advantages to getting this exposure in the camera include saving time during post processing and being kinder to your pixels. By that, I mean you don’t degrade your photo or introduce noise (grain) by forcing tough adjustments on it, after the fact.

I kept my adjustments simple for this one. After bumping exposure, I raised the blacks, in order to tug the left side of the histogram back to the left a bit. I warmed up the white balance just slightly, cropped a wee bit, adjusted clarity and sharpening, brightened the eyes a smidge, tweaked curves, and gave a little vignette.

And sometimes, when photos aren’t as sharp as I’d like, I think converting them into some sort of black and white photo suits them well.

For this one, I began with the edited color photo and chose this free preset: PH Naturally BW. Then I brightened the exposure again by +.34 and played with the Split Toning until I liked what I saw.

What a sweet photo we have to play with today!  A participant at I ♥ Faces submitted this shot for us to fix up.

Fix-it Friday is a weekly feature at I ♥ Faces.  Participants may submit a photo they’d like to see fixed up.  Once chosen, a team of contributors goes to work on it with their various editing programs and shares their basic steps.  It’s great fun to see all the different interpretations that can come from just one photo!  Here’s my take on this one.

• Import into Lightroom and adjust white balance
• Crop according to rule of thirds (eyes are in the top third of the photo)
• Apply free preset:  Fort Knox
• Apply free preset:  WOW HSL Skin 01
• Use the dust spot removal tool to remove the little flash catchlights in the middle of the pupil
• Use adjustment brush to desaturate and lower exposure of the bit of tree in upper left corner
• Use adjustment brush to slightly brighten the eyes
• Use adjustment brush to desaturate the shirt
• Use dust spot removal tool to remove a couple spots on the shirt
• Use dust spot removal tool to remove a couple spots on the lips
• Use adjustment brush to slightly saturate lip color
• Use adjustment brush to slightly lighten shadows under eyes
• Take this edited version into Photoshop CS3
• Clone and heal stray hairs on face and right eye (I like the wisps of hair on the cheek; they point right to her eyes!)
• Clone and heal hairs in the background
• Apply free action:  Pioneer Woman’s Lovely and Ethereal at 40% opacity
• Apply free action:  Pioneer Woman’s Slight Sharpen at 80% opacity and mask out most of it, except for the face

Over at I ♥ Faces, I’ve been extended the honor to participate as a Fix-It Friday contributor. This is an exercise where someone submits a straight-out-of-camera (SOOC) shot for “fixing” and the contributors get the first crack at dressing it up.    Sometimes the photos need some help with exposure or white balance or other technical issues, while sometimes the technicals are fine and the photo just needs a boost in some way. This could mean making the color pop, or adding some contrast and sharpening, or converting it to black and white, or cropping it differently or removing a distracting element.  All of this stuff is called post-processing, and the cool thing about it is that the possibilities are endless!

Fix-It Friday contributors are working with a wide range of editing software:

• Picnik (free, online editing!)
• Photoshop Elements
• Photoshop Lightroom
• Photoshop CS2, CS3, CS4

There are many other editing software options out there, ranging from free to very expensive.  I think the Adobe Photoshop products are probably the most widely used.  I started out by using Photoshop Elements and have since begun using CS3 and Lightroom.  The more I learn the more I realize there is MORE to learn!  I feel like a toddler in my post-processing journey, so taking part in I ♥ Faces’ Fix-It Friday department is a priviledge, and it’s a great place for anyone to be exposed to all sorts of creative ideas for your photos!

This week’s SOOC photo was submitted by the wonderfully talented Susan Keller.  Her blog is Short On Words and it is a visual feast!  She is more than capable of bringing out the best in her photos, but she was generous to share this one of one of her boys whom she caught in a moment of sadness at the beach.  This photo was nicely focused on his face, so I decided to try to bring more attention to that.

photo by Susan Keller of Short on Words

I brought it into Lightroom and adjusted exposure and contrast, using a combination of sliders, presets and curve controls.  I kept the colors warm, to reflect sunset light.  I then cropped it, so his face was the more dominant feature.  Adding a vignette and a touch more darkening over his ear shifted the focus to his profile rather than his ear and cheek.  A touch of sharpening and it was done.

To see some super creative takes on this photo, to be inspired, to learn new techniques…visit I ♥ Faces: Fix-It Friday #5!