First critique request

[jasbags]

Hi everyone

REALLY nervous putting up a picture on here as i am only new to this photography game after purchasing my first DSLR at xmas.

Anyway, I have been playing around with it over the last few weeks and getting use to most of the settings. In between, I have been frantically reading as many photography websites as possible to learn as much as possible!! DPS has been a great help so far. :)

The below pic, is a snap I took a few weeks back now of my nephew. He was playing in the back yard late in the afternoon and didn't realize I was taking photo's of him. I called his name and as he turned he looked straight down the lens and I captured this shot.

Now please forgive my settings as I had only had the camera for a day when I took this shot. This was taken with one of the kit lenses.

<a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/23823003@N06/2266010554/" title="jars by junkyjason78, on Flickr"><img src="http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2285/2266010554_f904c127ba_o.jpg" width="600" height="449" alt="jars" /></a>

Camera: Canon EOS 400D
Shutter: 1/320 sec
F-Stop: 7.1
ISO: 400
Focal Length: 187mm
Flash: did not fire

Unfortunately, I took this shot in JPEG (didn't know about RAW at the time). I have done some post processing work. Have cleaned up some of the chocolate off his face and have adjusted the saturation, curves, cropped etc.

What do you think of the shot? Does it look over-processed? Where do you think I can improve?

Personally I really like the shot and the intensity of the subjects eyes and the texture of his hair however I am really interested to receive your feedback and any guidance you can give me as to what I have done wrong or what I could have done better to improve the shot (either in the shot or post processing).

All feedback welcome......

Thanks / Jason

[KathrynWilson]

It is a lovely shot. Color and focus are great, comp is nice.

Tips:
I would burn the object in the BG back a little bit so it is not so distracting. I think the irises of his eyes could use more light, particularly as the whites are so bright. The skin tones do look a little bit overprocessed in places, but that sort of works with the kind of 'urban' look processing. I'd love to see the straight from camera shot as a comparison for that.

[jasbags]

It is a lovely shot. Color and focus are great, comp is nice.

Tips:
I would burn the object in the BG back a little bit so it is not so distracting. I think the irises of his eyes could use more light, particularly as the whites are so bright. The skin tones do look a little bit overprocessed in places, but that sort of works with the kind of 'urban' look processing. I'd love to see the straight from camera shot as a comparison for that.

Thanks for the quick reply and I take your point regarding the burning of the background distractions and the light on the irises. Acutally, i had already lightened his irises quite a bit from the original pic. Maybe it needs some more!! :)

I would be pleased to post the shot straight off the camera but I was under the impression you are not allowed to post more than one image in a post? Is there anyway around this? Sorry for the 'noob' questions.

[KathrynWilson]

You're right - I thought you were allowed to post 'follow-up' images the same way others can post plays but maybe not... it's a pain with PP'd images because it's always helpful to see the SOOC in order to critique. Maybe a mod will let us know.

[jasbags]

Will wait on mods advice.

I have created a 'flickr' account and have added both images to that account. I have set it for 'public' viewing.

The link is

http://www.flickr.com/photos/23823003@N06/

I don't know if you can see that or not???

Also, when i tried 'inserting' the image directly into my original post (with a URL link to my flickr account) the image doesn't display. It just comes up with a white box with a red X in it??

Thanks

[KathrynWilson]

Having looked at the original, I can see why you'd struggle with choosing a PP style for this - it sort of looks good with everything! I think your original version on the whole was really good, here are a couple of other ideas for you though.

First is just a more muted version if yours, second is a vintage look.

<a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/kathrynwilson/2266062704/" title="2265231737_22c8aefdb6_o copy by KathrynWilson, on Flickr"><img src="http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2373/2266062704_7a4453d4d5.jpg" width="500" height="357" alt="2265231737_22c8aefdb6_o copy" /></a>
<a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/kathrynwilson/2265274727/" title="2265231737_22c8aefdb6_o copy2 by KathrynWilson, on Flickr"><img src="http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2172/2265274727_d21c32ee4b.jpg" width="500" height="357" alt="2265231737_22c8aefdb6_o copy2" /></a>
To paste from your Flickr go to 'all sizes' from the pic, select medium, then copy and paste straight into your DPS message the text that is in box 1.

[jasbags]

Thanks for all your help Kathryn.

[ELAY]

Jasbags --

This is by no means an "official" response, but I think posting reworks in response to critique has always been tolerated as either falling within the "one photo per" rule or as an exception.

EL

[EDIT: The official response is the same -- reworks are just fine.]

[RexK_Cozumel]

good composition nice job post processing. Only thing I would try to advoid in the future is the big blob in the foreground it is distracting and does not add anything to the image. It would be different if it framed the subject more but as it is it just is a random blob.

[Sela]

I think this photo is great, my only suggestion is to do one more thing in photoshop: sharpen up those eyes!!! To me the eyes, while intense in expression, look a little soft in this image in regards to focus.
What I do is select them with the lasso tool, while they are still selected hit control+J (on a pc) to have a copy of the eyes in their own layer. Then apply 'filter-->unsharp mask (or smart sharpen)' to them. I think a little extra bit of sharpness in the eyes will really put the finishing touch on this image.

[jasbags]

Rex and Sela

Thank you very much for the feedback. I certainly take your points regarding the distracting background and sharpening of the eyes.

I'll definately consider that with my future potrait shots.

Thanks again

Jason

[Sela]

I saw a show on tv with a professional portrait photographer (for magazines etc) and they showed him sharpening the eyes in photoshop as a matter of course...I think especially with digitial even if you have them in sharp focus when you take the picture it helps to add that extra bit of sharpness in post-processing, too. (The pro also used the lasso tool on the eyes).

[LauraSAnne]

I'd like more information on your post processing! It looks amazing! I tried to recreate it with your original and wasn't too successful. :(

[lilTanker]

Jasbags, I hope you don't mind, but I did a little bit of editing in photoshop my self

http://ozerus.com/zen/playful/others/jasbags/image/595/boy+copy.png (http://ozerus.com/zen/playful/others/jasbags/boy+copy.png.php)

The background really needed removing, however it isn't a very good background correction on my part, its only 15 minutes worth of work, it could do with another 15 at least to get it spot on!

and I did just a little bit of editing too just for my take on it, I adjusted the contrast and levels, added a photographic filter, shaprened the eyes and adjusted the pink in his lips

http://ozerus.com/zen/playful/others/jasbags/image/595/boy+copy+copy.png (http://ozerus.com/zen/playful/others/jasbags/boy+copy+copy.png.php)