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All-American girl

© Peter W. Marks

All-American girl

Uploaded: October 16, 2010

Description

Exif: F Number: 2.8, Exposure Bias Value: 0.33, ExposureTime: 1/3200 seconds, Flash: did not fire, compulsory flash mode, ISO: 400, White balance: Manual white balance, FocalLength: 50.00 mm, Model: Canon EOS 50D

Comments

Jeff E Jensen October 16, 2010

Very nice, Pete! I like the strong side/back lighting, though it could probably be toned down just a bit.

The past few days, there has been a couple of guys that could be her brothers, selling potatoes on the corner down the street from my neighborhood. I need to try and grab a shot of them. #1318292

Peter W. Marks October 17, 2010

Thanks Jeff. I was anticipating that responses would mention the overbright left side of the image but couldn't decide how to deal with that. As at every one of the saturdays at our farmers market there was a clear blue sky and a very bright sun that gave me a problem with very contrasty images. Her face was in deep shadow and I think I did a reasonable job of bringing that up but her cap and sleeve were so bright that my limited PS skills were defeated. I would be more than happy for anyone to make a screen grab and show me how to achieve that.
I have found with my various street shots that the limitations for me are that with people milling around I just have to make very quick snaps before the crowds move into frame. I believe I have quite a good sense of composition and and can see interesting faces and situations but camera settings not so much! lol This young lady was a one-off chance to make the image of what for me, a Brit, was a classic American icon- a Mid-west farmer's daughter. Nowhere back in the UK would one come across a beautiful young lady with braids and some freckles, dressed in bib and brace overalls and a ball cap. I love it but only wish it was technically better!
Yesterday was the last market of the season but today there is an Oktoberfest in one of our parks and the Halloween parade is coming up so there will still be opportunities.
Go for it Jeff with the potato sellers, I would like to see what you come up with. #8976007

Brenda K. Beatty October 17, 2010

I think overall you did well getting her face lit. I know from trying to get photos of my boys with ball caps it's hard to light the face without blowing everything else way out. Boys never go anywhere without caps...so I really need to learn how. #8976372

Teresa H. Hunt October 17, 2010

I also think you did a great job getting her face lit. And yes . . . ball caps are hard.

I like this image . . . and your right Pete, it is an American icon . . . especially in the mid-west. You don't see many people dressed like this on the west coast . . . #8977481

Kathleen Nealon October 17, 2010

Pete,
Try using your clone stamp (0% hardness), set at darken, and about 15% (to start). Use the nearest skin on her check to clone from. Sometimes using normal rather than darken works better. I've used this tame bright spots from flash, but don't now how it would work on larger areas. Remember to use the blur tool or one of the healing tools afterwards to blend all the cloning. #8977547

Michael Kelly level-classic October 17, 2010

Peter for sure the all American girl depicted in this one. Keep shooting these as you have a knack for them. You just need to work on some of the basics a bit.

This is not a totally recoverable shot but I ran it through a few things to see if it could be improved.

A couple things to note. Since you get up close and personal with these shots you might try using fill flash to mitigate the high contrast bright light conditions of these market shots. A good flash with a gold reflector attached should really help in these conditions.

I know it is difficult because of the tight spaces. but it would be better if you could mitigate the BG a bit through use of a narrower DOF or shooting at a different angle.

In this particular shot The comp is off quite a bit because of the direction she is looking. She should have space to look into. Unless you have already cropped this photo in order to correct the comp it becomes necessary to eliminate some of the nice elements at the bottom of the shot. If you do have more just move her to the left of the frame.

Corrections on the bright areas included 100% on the recovery slider, about 5 shadows and 8 highlights, a selective reduction in exposure of .25 stops on the brightest areas, a selective Gaussian blur on the BG, a reduction of the yellow channel saturation, and a reduce noise pass. Still not great but here it is. #8978025

Aimee C. Eisaman October 18, 2010

I bet she's not afraid to get her hand dirty or break a nail! LOL I agree with the technical aspects of this image that the others are talking about, but what is bothering the heck out of me is that I can't read what is on her cap....can't figure out what it says!!! LOL :~) #8979692

Peter W. Marks October 18, 2010

Thank you all for your responses and suggestions.
Aimee- the writing on her cap says "Mooney Hill xxxxx" but I have no idea what the last word is. Mooney Hill is on Route 66 just outside Edwardsville, Il. where I live. I have tried Googling Mooney Hill 'farm', 'orchard', 'produce' but have come up blank so until next year's market it will remain a mystery to us both.
Kathe and Mike- your suggestions will have to wait until later; I have so much tree-limb lopping and clean up to do outside. But just to quickly mention a couple of points Mike.
1.My crop was to eliminate the back of a lady in a purple coat just a few inches infront of, and to the girls left so not much room for manouver there.
2. Fill flah is not something I would ever want to use in this type of candid shot. I have already stopped using my 70-200mm lens as it looks very intrusive and intimidating and having a flash fire in folk's faces would be unacceptable to both me and the subjects. I roam freely in this small market (about 40-50 vendors) and without exception the stall-holders chat with me and I always feel welcome so I certainly wouldn't want to tic off their customers.
3. I shot this at f2.8 so not much room for getting a narrower DOF. I guess I could play around in PS and blur the truck but farmer's daughter, box of pumpkins, box of corn, pick-up truck -for me all help to tell the story. Posed shots with everything just so, are not so much my thing and I just get what I can and hope that luck helps me out.
But thanks again my friends.
#8980337

Rita K. Connell level-classic October 19, 2010

with all that is said I think you caught the american girl very nicely. I think mike suggestion on the correction on the bright area will work well. #8982736

Peter W. Marks October 19, 2010

Just a quick one Rita. Mike's adjustment thumbnail looked reasonable but when I clicked on it to make it full size it was really bad on my monitor. I also tried it on Elizabeth's computer and it was equally bad, So I am asking you and any others who care to help me with this to take a look at the full size image that Mike made and tell me what they see on the girl's right cheek which was over-highlighted in my original image. What I am seeing is a featureless area of white skin surrounded by a lurid pink. It looks like a case of severe burns where the flesh is trying to heal. Presumably Mike doesn't see this which is why I would like others to comment.
Thanks. #8982966

Teresa H. Hunt October 19, 2010

I see what your talking about Peter. And I agree, I prefer the overexposed cheek. Though I wonder how much of it is because Mike was working on a small file. #8983341

Aimee C. Eisaman October 19, 2010

I'd go with the overexposed over the other version, but I am sure the compressed screen shot they took didn't help any either! :~) #8983579

Peter W. Marks October 19, 2010

Thanks ladies. I agree that there really isn't much one can do to improve a low resolution image where there just aren't enough pixels to make good the blown out areas. I guess I should try to work on the full size RAw image but I am increasingly coming to the conclusion that I should just make a better job of the exposure when making an image and save myself much grief! :0) #8983646

Aimee C. Eisaman October 19, 2010

Peter I think you did very good with the exposure...your camera can't make HDR images. If you exposed for the highlights her face would have been very dark, but if you exposed only for the shadows the highlights would be horribly blown out. So you have to make the best decision you can at the moment. :~) #8983729

Peter W. Marks October 19, 2010

You are very kind Aimee. Now let me show you what I had to work with and why I gave myself mucho grief! I just so liked the subject that I was prepared to resist pressing that delete button.
#8983843

Ellen H. Robertson level-classic October 19, 2010

Peter, you have such a great eye for capturing this candid shots.

Exposure is difficult I think when trying to catch "the moment" of an unplanned people shot. Thanks to Aimee I am getting better at exposure and I have not ventured to candid people where the lighting is not always where you want it.

Anyway, I love the feel of this shot. She looks like she has had a long day and is ready to go home.
#8984108

Joan E. Hoffman October 19, 2010

Love the feel as well Peter. Hard to get a great unposed shot. Think you did really well to capture this as you did. She does look like she is more than ready to toss in the gloves for the night. #8984249

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