I was on Santorini Island last year participating in a wine tasting at a winery near the village of Oia. There was a young British couple sitting across the table from us with this cute little boy. The little tyke was drinking water from one of the wine glasses and having a great time. I asked his parents if it was okay to snap his picture and the thought that would be great and asked that I e-mail them a copy. I grabbed my Nikon D200, activated the pop up flash, fired, and had a sip of some great wine.. The image on the left is what I got. When I got back to ship and downloaded the image files to my notebook, I was very disappointed with the photo. No way would I send this to the boy’s parents. The photo was underexposed and the little fellow looked like Damien for the movie the Omen with his glaring red eyes. (Oh, how I hate those pop up flashes) After about 20 minutes in Photoshop, I was able to turn the image into something I would gladly send the boy’s mom and dad.

Image metadata: Camara: Nikon D200 10.3. megapixels. Lens: Nikkor 18-200mm VR f3.5-5.6, Focal length: 67mm (97mm at 35mm equivalent). ISO 125, flash fired. 1/60th at f11.0. Pattern metering.  Click on image for larger view.

Corrections: Exposure and white balance corrected. Red eye removed. Skin softened and hot spots removed. Selective and print sharpening. Exposure and color balance were probably affected by the flash reading the dad’s shirt as neutral gray. Click on image for larger view.