Lucky Shot

[Gbird]

Got a lucky shot of my son yesterday. 2 Questions: It feels a little too centered, should I crop? Also, the water color was amazing- but is it too overpowering in this shot?

Thank you!

<a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/22785107@N07/2287935193/" title="IMG_2686w by gbirdwell, on Flickr"><img src="http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3121/2287935193_26ec6ce466.jpg" width="500" height="333" alt="IMG_2686w" /></a>




Camera: Canon EOS 40D
Exposure: 0.005 sec (1/200)
Aperture: f/10
Focal Length: 35 mm
ISO Speed: 400
Exposure Bias: 0 EV
Flash: Flash did not fire

[jiminyClickit]

Gbird, Welcome

Thanks for a very good thread start, all a Critiquer needs to get going.

You could go portrait crop, putting son on right third, leaving the space above and below him. Otherwise you begin to lose that extra space if you want to uncenter him.

The emerald green is pleasant and not too much on this monitor. Ultimately, if it's what you saw or what you like, it's fine. You did well in keeping all the detail in the shadows.

If I could only change one thing, it would be to make the leaf look more "leaflike," lighten, saturate some. Otherwise, good job.

[Be careful how close you post your photos: the rule is one photo every 24 hours, which has a little flexibility. It's sort of the next day for this one, but if you only leave a few hours between, one of your posts may be deleted. Just a reminder.]

[jdepould]

I'd experiment with cropping on the right side of the image, since his arm is extended to our left. Are you familiar with the rule of thirds? It might be something to consider.

[private]

That is an awsome shot! ...Coming from a mother's eye.

[netbymatt]

Great shot. I'd agree with Jiminy, a portrait crop would make the composition more interesting. It would also help with the color of the water. There is a lot of green, and the vertical crop would take a lot of that away, but it would leave enough of it in the image since it is a great catch. Make sure that when you go to crop it that you don't loose your son's legs where they enter the water. The ripples they're making are a nice touch.

[KathrynWilson]

The other thing you might wish to consider is in some way trying to alter the very dark shadowed strip. I did a very quick'n'dirty clone job here as I found it quite distracting.

http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2145/2288731283_65d67db8f3.jpg

[LightChaser]

I think you can afford to crop (just a little) from the right.

One thing that's sort of nagging me is that it feels a tiny bit slanted. The dark band on top seems just a bit thicker on the left and makes the whole image seem tilted. You can rotate the image (less than 2 degrees CW, I think), or do as KathrynWilson suggested and clone it out.

My 2 cents.

[blueshark]

hi guys, here is the most lucky shot in my possession. please comment.tq

http://i109.photobucket.com/albums/n80/pitya/homeworkpitya027.jpg

[deck]

Hello Gbird,
I think this is a nice capture for what you would call a lucky shot, the subject is in focus, the exposure is just right that the colors are well saturated, what I'd suggest if you fall upon situations like these is that you get into action and start shooting a lot of pictures, be conscious of where the light is, and the background and what story you would like to tell.
Post processing wise, if you would like to do a crop of the picture I think KathrynWilson already made a nice suggestion for the crop.
Thats all I can say, I love lucky shots, they remind us to be on our toes and be prepared all the time ;)
Keep shooting!
Deck