Hip Hop Guys

[vangogh]

I saw these guys practising a dance routine n the bandstand in my local park. They quite happily posed for a pic:

http://IconicCreative.smugmug.com/photos/145549491-M.jpg

Had a bit of hassle getting a reasonable exposure due to the shadows under the bandstand, the fact that I was shooting into the sun etc. I used fill in flash ISO was 500 wb auto f3.5 1/1600. Any suggestions as to how I could have improved the exposure. I had the 40-150mm lens on the E500.

Txs

[Ted Szukalski]

Nicola,

that is a tough shot to do. White background and dark faces these are opposite ends of dynamic range your camera can capture. I think you should have dialed FEC (flash exposure compensation) up a stop or two as your background still overpowered the scene.

[W00DY]

I saw these guys practising a dance routine n the bandstand in my local park. They quite happily posed for a pic:

http://IconicCreative.smugmug.com/photos/145549491-M.jpg

Had a bit of hassle getting a reasonable exposure due to the shadows under the bandstand, the fact that I was shooting into the sun etc. I used fill in flash ISO was 500 wb auto f3.5 1/1600. Any suggestions as to how I could have improved the exposure. I had the 40-150mm lens on the E500.

Txs

Hi Vangogh,

I am no expert and still feel a little uncomfortable critiquing images but I will let you know what I see.

I think they are good subjects, they obviously didn't mind their picture being taken. The first thing I noticed was the pole coming out of the guy on the rights head, this may have been avaoided by moving to the right a little???

The second thing I saw was in the bottom left corner, is that part of a stereo? where they practising to music? If so I think it would have been cool to include it in the image (the bottom left corner would have been a good place as well) but at the moment is a little bit distracting as it is.

I can't really help on the exposure question as I am just not a good enough photographer myself :rofl however I personally feel you should not always worry about the background, I would have used spot metering on the guys and just blown the background (like you have).

:D

[W.W. Webster]

I used fill in flashFill-in flash is the usual way to deal with this kind of difficult situation, and I can't understand why it hasn't worked for you here. What distance were you from the subjects? Have you attempted to lighten them in post-production?

[vangogh]

Yeah I saw the 'head growth' when I downloaded the pic & thought 'damn'! I was a bit nervous to be honest as I wasn't sure what their reaction was going to be & I was struggling with the exposure, while they were patiently waiting. It's usually something I'm very 'hot' on :-).

I didn't notice the music box at all when I was shooting. I'll have to look at PPing out.

I was about 6-8 feet away & shooting up into the band stand.

Txs