Critique

A short while ago I posted a topic regarding Portrait lenses to which I had many very helpful and intersting
replies. As an example of what I was trying to improve upon I eventually managed to add an image - sadly too late to attract any attention as I think the thread had lost impetus.
Anyway my last comment was as follows and maybe this will provide a re-evaluation

Hi Guys,
Hopefully this comment includes a photograph, sorry if I've broken any sizing rules - I'll make that my next lesson.
quote:3496ace15f="Frogherder"]



I'm looking for critique (I'm reasonably thick skinned) so that I can improve. My aim is to get it right in the camera rather than spend ages (ages and ages and ages in my case) playing with Photoshop 7.0

I used the standard 18-55mm zoom with the K10D and only got this close because she was distracted. Hence my earlier comments

regards
Bernard[/quote]Many thanks
Bernard

The picture is indeed far too big - please resize to a maximum of 800 pixels on the longest side.

It's a lovely picture of the cild with an expression full of joy. The parents will see that and nothing else, and that's fine.

As regards an image that we might use in a competition, or publish in a book, then there are lots of distracting details in the background that are rendered quite sharply. It may be that a widish aperture has been used to attempt to tone them down, but they are still quite dominant.

With a different background, maybe trees or bushes, and cropping out the handlebars, then there's a very nice shot in this.

It's a lovely natural image, caught her really relaxed. I would however crop of the frame of the swing, I don't think it adds to the shot. I would also clone out the wire and tree coming from the top of her head. Is it straight from the cam? A curves adustment and sharpen would work well. Great shot though.

I think John's comments are spot on, the child's expression is great, but the background is distracting. It also looks like a tree is coming out of the child's head. Photographing children is not an easy thing to do as they often look better when they arejust doing their own thing rather than posing. The only guidance I can really provide is to really think about what will be behind your subjects and try to position your self in a good location. Everything is a learning curve and the more you practice the better you will get. Enjoy your photography and don't be to hard on yourself, things will become second nature as your photography develops.

Fletcher8

Thanks John, but how do I do that - Can this be done on this site or do I need to do this in Photoshop. If the latter can I then edit the post to update the pic.

To Snappychappy - Yes the shot is straight out of the camera and I hadn't noticed the branch or the wire. I'm afraid my Photshop abilities are worse than my photographic.


On a lighter note if I've broken enough rules is it worth entering in this weeks competition? (Rhetorical)

regards
Bernard

You need to do it in Photoshop - or alternatively upload to Flickr and link to the medium size image. But this site only gives you an hour to go back and edit your posts so it's probably too late.

Hope you don't mind had a quick edit, my version.

It's a very difficult one. The expression and natural lighting on the face are really good.

But part of the reason why she is so happy is because of where she is so the environment comes with the photograph. And the bright hazy conditions are good portrait light but also result in a very bright background sky. I guess that's why photographers have studios. So you have a lovely portrait but not one for the purists. Sometimes you just have to accept those compromises or resort to pp trickery.

With a bit of luck this should be a better sized image.
I've also taken Snappychappy's advise and cropped and cloned out the bits in the sky

Wasn't too painful after all.

Regards
Bernard

I think I was working in parallel there with some of you. It's nice to know I did pretty much the same as Snappychappy if anything I prefer yours -thanks.

Incidentally - how did you fuzzy the fencing?

Bernard

Much better.

Desaturate the background.. Still overpowers the view, or maybe cut out the child and transfer to a solid background..