Cute little girl

[dlanter]

These were done for a client who is getting her little girl into beauty pageants and needs some portfolio shots. The client has already ordered a bunch of prints so she must like them, but I wanted to see what fellow photogs thought about them.

[mivy00]

Good poses and lighting. Why is there so much cloning in these images ? Was there something wrong with the background?

[dlanter]

That didn't take long to catch my screw up. This was my first time using the white backdrop and I got the lighting off. I had my main light at f5.6 and background light at f8 but the background still came out a little grey. I tried several techniques to lighten the background and still look natural. What you see was using the dodge tool. Did I totally screw it up? I am trying to learn as much as I can by your examples and advise. The biggest thing I learned here is never use a new piece of equipment on a job without first trying it out at home.

[mivy00]

Did you take the photos in RAW? If so the tecnique I have always used to brighten the background is to push up the exposure till the background is blown out, and open that file in photoshop then reopen the image in the raw converter and set the exposure for the main subject. Then combine the two images......

Not sure if that made sense .....or even if it is the right way to do it but you might try it out

Also the main reason I noticed is along the edges of the girl you painted her white..... maybe if you created a selection then painted white it would create a sharper edge

[dlanter]

Matt, Yes I do shoot in RAW and I tried the technique you are talking about, but when I combine the two there is too distinct of an edge. For example on her hair, it made the edge stand out too much and I couldn't find a way to blend it. Do you know what I mean? How do you deal with that?
I also tried the selection method and adjusting the saturation, but again I got too much of a sharp edge that made it look pasted on.

[mivy00]

You use a layer mask to merge the two images together ? If so I would paint the over exposed picture onto the correctly exposed one with a soft brush at 25 - 30% opacity

[dlanter]

Thanks for the help Matt. I have a lot to learn especially with the editting. Hopefully I can improve with the shooting though and get it right in the camera and not have to spend so much time in photoshop.
Dan