Oh, no, I didn't at all think you were talking down to me, and I definitely appreciate your input. I just meant to say that the original is even more problematic than what you see here, since I did quite a bit of adjusting already. However, when I get home I'll try your settings. Also, I'll attach my CRT, because I did the original work on a flatscreen, and I think that looks a bit sharper than it does here at work on a CRT. I have a new video card on order that will let me have the flatscreen and CRT attached at the same time, which should help me see final results better. Thanks again for providing the suggested settings.
Guest
25-Oct-2005 05:05
Paul, I agree that you've captured joy and pride, which is no small feat!
The exposure was a little off, so what? It is easily fixed in post - that was my point. Using levels for example, setting the black point slider to 25. The sharpening I tried was fairly subtle: unsharp mask 200%/0.25px/2levels. The sharpening could be applied selectively, so as to not introduce noise in the rest of the picture.
I am sorry if it sounded like I was 'talking down to you'. I don't know you, nor how much you already know about exposure and post-processing. To someone new to digital photography, my comment hopefully could have been helpful...
Yes, the exposure isn't perfect. I had just picked up my camera and had nothing set yet when I saw this student coming down the aisle waving. I shot this extremely rapidly without flash. I did quite a bit of combination sharpening, noise reduction (since the sharpening added noise to the robes, etc.) But I liked the composition, her smile, and the blurred wave. Not a perfect shot technically, but there's something about the energy she transmits that makes me still like the photo.
Guest
24-Oct-2005 15:27
Paul, it looks like the lightmeter in the camera got fooled by the black garments and caused the camera to overexpose this. I would darken the shadows, while keeping the highlights, using curves. If you don't have the full version of Photoshop, you could use levels and contrast to achieve something similar. A little bit of sharpening would help also.
