Portrait Critique: Please don't hold back! =)

[MelissaL]

Hi, I would appreciate some cc & plays with this picture.

Here is my metadata:

f/2.2
SS 1/400
ISO 250
White Balance: Cloudy - yes, I know I should have used my grey card.
Center Weighted Metering

I am editing in a trial version of CS5. I would appreciate any suggestions on colors, skin tone, brightness/contrast, exposure, etc.? What can I do to make it better?

Thanks,
Melissa

Nikon D5000
AF-S Nikkor 55-200mm
AF-S Nikkor 18-55mm
AF-S Nikkor 35mm/1.8
SB 400 Speedlight

[RLucas]

Hi, and welcome Melissa! Kudos for reading the rules! And on the first post too! Awesome!
This photo looks great to me! Tones, focus, contrast, everything! The only thing I think that would do this little cutie justice is a tighter, maybe even a square crop. I think the composition would only benefit from it.
My suggestion would be to crop all of the arm, and leave just the hand in the foreground, since the flower is an object of interest as well. This is just my twisted, humble opinion though.
Welcome again to DPS!

[BigFuzzy]

Hi Melissa,
I'll say this first and get it out of the way because it may be the only thing I say that actually matters. The parent of this kid is going to absolutely love this.. and probably the kid as well. So that may be the only thing that will matter. Especially if it's a client.

Having said that, I don't quite love it, and it's for personal taste reasons, not so much hard and fast "no-no's" and here's why:
Even in the smaller version I could tell before opening it that it'd been heavily photoshopped, especially the saturation and the eye whitening. I personally would scale down on those a bit. The skin also has that "I've been smoothed" look, which, again, is a personal thing for me that I don't like... others may/will love it. And lastly, I I'd never want to block her face so much.. she seems to have such a sweet smile.. and I think that is more important. If you really wanted to get her sniffing it.. you could have done it at a different angle such as a profile or something like that. Also, that bright thing on her head (bow?) is a bit distracting especially since it's cut off and we can't really see what it is (though of course we can assume).

I love the natural setting and how you used the green/flowers as background, I love that. I love how her shirt contrasts super. And as I said, in the end the mom and child will likely looooove it, and you should be happy, but personally, for me, it feels too over processed... subtlety is the key in my opinion.
Still good job!

[MelissaL]

Thank you for your feedback!!

[MelissaL]

Originally Posted by RLucas

Hi, and welcome Melissa! Kudos for reading the rules! And on the first post too! Awesome!
This photo looks great to me! Tones, focus, contrast, everything! The only thing I think that would do this little cutie justice is a tighter, maybe even a square crop. I think the composition would only benefit from it.
My suggestion would be to crop all of the arm, and leave just the hand in the foreground, since the flower is an object of interest as well. This is just my twisted, humble opinion though.
Welcome again to DPS!

Thank you for your feedback!

[MelissaL]

Originally Posted by BigFuzzy

Hi Melissa,
I'll say this first and get it out of the way because it may be the only thing I say that actually matters. The parent of this kid is going to absolutely love this.. and probably the kid as well. So that may be the only thing that will matter. Especially if it's a client.

Having said that, I don't quite love it, and it's for personal taste reasons, not so much hard and fast "no-no's" and here's why:
Even in the smaller version I could tell before opening it that it'd been heavily photoshopped, especially the saturation and the eye whitening. I personally would scale down on those a bit. The skin also has that "I've been smoothed" look, which, again, is a personal thing for me that I don't like... others may/will love it. And lastly, I I'd never want to block her face so much.. she seems to have such a sweet smile.. and I think that is more important. If you really wanted to get her sniffing it.. you could have done it at a different angle such as a profile or something like that. Also, that bright thing on her head (bow?) is a bit distracting especially since it's cut off and we can't really see what it is (though of course we can assume).

I love the natural setting and how you used the green/flowers as background, I love that. I love how her shirt contrasts super. And as I said, in the end the mom and child will likely looooove it, and you should be happy, but personally, for me, it feels too over processed... subtlety is the key in my opinion.
Still good job!

Thanks for the feedback. I can see what you mean about the processing. I will rework this picture a bit to see if I can pull back on some of what was done to it.

That darn bow has been giving me fits. I can't seem to do anything to get rid of the neon white. Any suggestions?

This image wasn't posed...I just caught her doing it. I understand what you are saying about her sniffing so close to her nose though.

Again, thank you for your time in posting. I am still learning and really appreciate people taking the time to offer their thoughts and suggestions. This little girls mom is going to be happy and I am thrilled with that, but there is always room for improvement.

[SusanH1970]

Originally Posted by MelissaL

That darn bow has been giving me fits. I can't seem to do anything to get rid of the neon white. Any suggestions?

I'd crop it tighter, so it looks intentional. Then again, I'm a chronic intentional head chopper.

Wow....trying saying that three times fast with a mouthful of crackers.