Hi Keren,
This is a beautiful image of two young children overseeing the stock work at a local campdraft event.
Now, I think I am safe in saying that this image was made on an overcast day, and for that reason there is no “hard light” about (direct sunlight). The absence of direct light isn't a bad thing, but you can see that there is not much light being reflected into the boys face either. This is because most light on an overcast day tends to falling directly downwards. For this reason the boy’s face appears rather dark and we do not get to see his expression that well.
Now, when it comes to lightening his face ”in-camera” we have a couple of options. One would be to increase the overall exposure of the image, although this would risk loosing the highlight detail in the hats.
Another option some of you might be thinking would be to add on camera flash into the exposure mix, but believe me when I say that this should be the absolute last resort. Direct flash can ruin a good picture.
In this instance I would be inclined to open the image in Photoshop and then use a Dodge tool to lighten the boy’s face.
In darkrooms of old, a dodge tool was a small circular disk of paper that was usually taped onto the end of a fine piece of wire. During the exposure the photographer would briefly hold the disk over any area in the picture that they wanted to lighten. It was a technique that many photographers used as regularly as they would draw breath, so do not be surprised by the idea of trying it.
These days the Dodge tool can be found in Photoshop and many other photo editing programs. The main thing to remember is to select whether it is the Highlights, the Midtones or the Shadows that you want to lighten, and check that the Exposure option is kept low (about 5-20% is normal). Then all you need to do is adjust the size of the brush to roughly match the subject and see who it all goes for you.
In the image below I have dodged the boy’s face
(Dodge tool set to Midtones), converted
the picture to Black and White and made a slight crop.
This is a well made, sensitive image and I hope you capture many more like it as you develop as a photographer. Well done.
Cheers,
Anthony
Image Doctor's edited version
