Debbie, to get the kids in focus, you should use manual focus and get them sharp before the water comes on. All that spray will fake out most AF cameras so you never quite know what is in focus.
As far as exposure, if you expose the frame properly for the kids, you will get blown out white on the water as it is acting like a big reflector for the sunlight. You are metering off the water reflection which is brighter than the reflections from kids. You can experiment and try a 1 and 2 stop over exposure to see if it works. It should bring up the brightness and detail in the children to the proper range. It is a balancing act between the subject and the water.
Thanks, Terry. I understand the weird situation, coz I posted a couple of photos of kids playing in water and the kids inside the water did the same thing as your photo did. I was just wondering if there may be a trick to getting them to not look so much like they are in "fog" or something like that.
Hi Debbie, I was going for this effect when I took the photograph. I wanted to go for a silhouette effect on the fireman, because of the lighting I was shooting in, everything was turning out washed out. I metered off the water spray,and then bracketed. I was shooting at 2:00 p.m. so the sun was bright, and harsh. Almost all of my pictures were either too light or too dark, but I liked the effect of this photo, so I posted it.. The sharpness of the photo is pretty good, until I scanned it ), but the kids in the photo are blurry because of the amount of water that was passing by. This was a weird situation for me to shoot, unlike anything I have ever done before, but I really appreciate your comments, and I hope to get some suggestions.. Every little bit helps ) Thanks
Anybody have any suggestions as to how to make people inside the water area of a photo like this one to be more focused? Or better exposure as to lighting of this area? Terry, commenting on photo as to what to do to correct the area of the people inside the water spray.