Toms Portrait- "Africa Set"

[TommyH]

Hey- This is my first post inside DPS and my first image Critique.

This Is Tom he is a young Ugandan Boy of 12 years- i Continually find it amazing to look through his eyes and begin to see much more than a child but very much a young man. I have done very little to this image apart from a slight brightening of the eyes.

I was hoping to find out the easiest way to remove the legs of the Boy top left from the shot as it seems a distraction. Any other thoughts and tips for improvement very welcome.

Canon EOS 400D fl 75mm exp 1/50
Tommy

http://www.flickr.com/photos/50078756@N05/4600880352/

[SandeeWig]

Hi TommyH, welcome to DPS and congrats on your first request for critique. I hope you find folks encouraging and helpful here.

The image you posted is a strong one, full of emotion. His eyes are captivating. As you said, I do get a sense of wisdom beyond his years when I look into his eyes, yet the child peaking at you from behind him clearly indicates that he is still quite a young boy.

A couple of things I noticed...
There are blown areas on his nose and above his right eye/temple. Overall, the image is quite red, and that happens to be the channel that is blown. Did you shoot in raw? if so, I'd recommend you check the white balance of the image, and then try to recover some of the blown areas. You may also try to add some fill/decrease the shadows on the left (camera right) side of his face a bit.

As strong as the composition is, I find his eyes do not hold my attention as they should. They may be a bit too close to the horizontal center. In reviewing the image, I cropped just a tad off the top and left to put his eyes on the top third line and found it did help.

I do agree that the legs in the background are a bit distracting. The only way to fix that is to clone them out. It would take some effort, but could be done.

If you don't mind plays, I can show you an example of what I mean...

[TommyH]

Hi, Thanks for your reply, This Image was taken Last year living in Uganda. I didnt shoot it on Raw unfortunately- i had not really tinkered with photoshop etc But now my approach to Photography has a little more depth i certainly will be Shooting Raw.

What are Plays?

I Played with the shot a little more i hope i understood you correctly on the Crop!

I think after critiquing the images i shoot now and understanding more i shouldnt make the same mistakes next time.

I have included the Original Untouched shot and the latest one.

TH

[SandeeWig]

By "plays" I just meant, do you mind if I have a go at processing it, to show you what I would do. I'll post mine here, and if you prefer I take it down, that's no problem.

What's interesting is that my play looks closer in color to your original. I cropped it some, but not as much as you did in your most recent post. I was finding it a bit too red, so I toned that down, but actually, the more I look at it, the more I think the richer/warmer color works. My play looks too cool/blue, and given his environment, it most surely was more warm than cold.

So, take it for what it's worth. I did try to clone out the feet in the background. Though, I'm sure if you took more time, it could be better.

My edit:

[TommyH]

Aimee- its really great to see you taken a bit of time to help others out- so thankyou for that.

I have no problems with you putting the image up.

Uganda has alot of bright oranges reds and greens in its landscapes when i return the majority of my things are bright orange from the dirt. So the slight redness of the image for me adds some atmosphere from the area Tom lives.

Thanks for the Help-

Tommy