down by the levee nearing sunset

[itslina]

I was really into photography a while back but for some reason stopped. I never really did any portraits though. Fast forward 5-6 years and I'm rediscovering my passion for it... although obviously very rusty.. This was one of the pics from my first shoot I did for senior pictures. Oh & I did edit it in cs4 a little but I'm still just learning my way around.

Is the lighting too harsh? shadow too distracting? dof? what would you have done differently?



3/14/10 5:09pm
rebel xs
1/200
f 16
400

[i speak in math]

I find the diagonal nature of the shot a bit distracting. Crooked for crooked sake doesn't work. There needs to be a purpose for a shot to be taken sideways. You lopped off his foot in the composition too. Additionally, it looks like you used a fill flash in there. The lighting looks nice but there are some color cast issues. I would turn the flash down just a bit. Since you shot at 5ish pm, the sun was getting lower and warmer in the sky. The flash doesn't change colors. Thats why the shade side where the flash can be seen looks blueish. You can fix that in photoshop with some selective coloring and masks. To fix it during the shoot, look at picking up a CTO gel for your flash.

[itslina]

Thanks for the critiques. I appreciate the help.