A picture and a question...

[GodnataS]

First of all, I apologize for the length of this post when all I'm looking for is a critique.

Ok, a little background. In mid January I wanted to go and get a new camera, I went to Best buy to pick up a new P&S camera because my girlfriend's camera was old and not very good. What I ended up doing was looking into DSLR cameras and I ended up getting a Nikon D40.

Now, I am not the creative type (That's my Girlfriends department). I used to be, but my job, life, etc, has gotten in the way for a LONG time. It seems my creative juices over the years just seemed to have faded out. But when I got my camera I wanted to try to stir them up again.

Overall, I think this is my best picture so far over the last few weeks. I was just shooting some random shots of my son and I caught this. I used it for the weekly eyes competition.

<a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/godnatas/2233583824/" title="eyes by GodnataS, on Flickr"><img src="http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2115/2233583824_d7d979221d.jpg" width="500" height="333" alt="eyes" /></a>

Basically, what do ya think?

should I have left in in color? should I have made it Black and white with the eyes highlighted blue?

I would like brutal honesty. If you hate it and see nothing redeeming about it, just tell me. If you think it has promise and could be improved, please let me know. If you like it the way it is, tell me! I am asking for any criticism, even if it is not constructive!

I'm just looking for some objective opinions from people who are a lot better at photography than I am. I've never been into photography, so this is a new medium for me. My family's kinda biased. So I know they like the pic, but I'm not gonna get a really good critique on it.

Here is my flicker page. http://www.flickr.com/photos/godnatas/

it doesn't have a lot of pictures yet (I'm trying to only upload shots I think are good). If you have any critiques on those pictures please PM on them! I have taken a couple thousand pictures since getting my camera and I guess there are more that I should have posted up there, but I am trying to be critical of my shots and only post those I think are photo worthy, but I'm not even sure what that means right now.

Now for the question part of my post. As I have said earlier, I used to be a creative person. I liked to create new things in photoshop or come up with nifty visual ideas. but I have seemed to have lost the nack. So I ask you this. If a person who used to be creative but hit a wall for the last decade, and seemed to have lost his spark. Do you think it can be brought back? and whats would be the best way to do that in your opinion?

Thanks you to everyone in advance for any input!

GodnataS

[RussHeath]

GodnataS -- That's quite a post you have! First, we like to see EXIF data in all these critique shots. I took the liberty of getting yours from flickr (just click on "more properties"):

1/60
f/5.3
ISO 400
145mm

Now about the picture. Whenever I first open these pages I make a concerted effort to look at the picture for a second or two before reading anything. Your picture really drew me in, and I'm having a hard time putting into words why exactly that is.

I think more than anything it's the direction of your son's eyes. He is looking almost towards the camera, but just over the shooter's right shoulder, and it really makes me wonder what he's looking at. Nice catch.

The hands in front of his face are a bit chopped at joints (at the wrist and elbow) which is something people classically try to avoid, but I don't think it's a big detractor in a very closeup shot like this.

I like the sepia coloration.

If you're going to spend time with photoshop in a shot like this, focus on the eyes. The things that stand out to me here are that the catchlights are small and dim, and his eyes are not very bright. I would try to selectively enhance both eyes with an unsharp mask, and I would try to enlarge the size of the catchlights, perhaps with the dodge tool. There are many good threads here about how to do those things. Start by looking in the Post Processing section if you're new to that type of editing (the search feature works pretty well too).

Overall, good shot. This was all new to me too just over a year ago, and it has been a wonderful creative outlet. I don't think creativity is something to be lost and found but rather actively used or practiced. Keep taking pictures and sharing them here and I hope you'll feel that soon too. :)

[sukanta]

like the sepia color... emotion of a child face is almost impossible to put by word (and by shot itself) but you did this "mission impossible"
Really I like the shot. the muted emotion of the child eye draws my eyes to them...there is almost nothing to say in "improvment" department.. but if you hard pushed me.. the only minor thing I can tell that I would like to see his right ear.. and also the left ear in focus.. f5.3 is a really good choice but if you decrease 1 stop you will probably get those..
By the way in my personal opinion creative is something to find conficdence in yourself.. If you confidence enough you can be creative in any medium and offcourse photography is a good medium.... Just one word for you.. Dont be affraid with your camera..

[ELAY]

I'm with Newbie (now RussHeath).

I think if I were working on this photo, I would try to work on the eyes primarily. It looks to me like your main light source is quite high -- and therefore you have bright spots on the upper cheeks, and the eyes are in shadow under the brow.

It might be tough, but if you could lighten up the shadows under the brow a little bit and bring them a bit closer in brightness to the adjacent cheeks, your son's eyes would become even a stronger focal point for this photo.

I haven't seen the colour shot so I can't comment on how it would look in colour -- as for selective colourization (eyes blue, the rest BW), it can be a fun thing to try out, but I am not sure this shot would be right for it.