Preschooler Portrait

[miasmommy]

Is this distracting in a "What is she looking at?" kind of way? It's ridiculously hard to get pictures of active 2 year olds but this one sort of jumped out at me. Also wondering if you think the highlights are too bright?

[The Weird Witch]

The spot on her shoulder does look a little bright, but, I still like this picture. Both the expression on her face and the way the wind has blown her hair back is just gorgeous

[jiminyClickit]

miasmommy,

She's looking in the right direction, so not too distracting, especially with the rich color and focussed eyes, showing iris and everything. Sometimes you can slide on a guideline or two because of subjects like this one. Crop could go either way: more space above hair and on left, or take a little more off top and right side. Face, expression, and colors sell it. Good work.

[miasmommy]

Originally Posted by jiminyClickit

miasmommy,

She's looking in the right direction, so not too distracting, especially with the rich color and focussed eyes, showing iris and everything. Sometimes you can slide on a guideline or two because of subjects like this one. Crop could go either way: more space above hair and on left, or take a little more off top and right side. Face, expression, and colors sell it. Good work.

Thanks! Question about the cropping. It's hard because this was taken on a swing so I can't go horizontal without getting the chains in it and I accidentally cut off the top of her head so we can't really add that back in... Which leaves your suggestion of take more off the top and right but then I end up cutting off more hair and I think maybe it looks like it is really a mistake that I barely caught her in the frame. Does this make sense? What is the end result we're trying to achieve with the different cropping? Is it just to give her more space to look into and get her less centered?

[jiminyClickit]

miasmommy,

If it were possible, yes, a little extra left side room would be icing on the cake.

The right side crop would as you surmise uncenter it and also cut the small dark space, lower right, but at the expense of losing the hair. Given a choice, I'd stay with this frame, clone the spot with pink, and take many more portraits. Very good work, good understanding of 'why' as well as 'what.'