Lost in thought

[helga]

I took this picture last year in The Gambia. There's a flaw spot in the right corner (have no idea actually how I managed to get it there...) and there's a lot of brown-yellow-orange going on. Would love to have your opinion and tips for any improvements whatsoever. Thanks!

PS: took the medium size at flickr, is that too big for the forum?

Picture taken with Canon EOS 400D
focuslength: 145mm
f-stop: 5,6
shutterspeed: 1/15

[lputman]

This is a darling photograph. Did you do post work on it? I ask because it looks like there's some inconsistent brush strokes with the orange-brown thing happening. Medium size from flickr is just perfect for the forum.

[SusanH1970]

I checked your EXIF on Flickr and it shows you had your white balance set as manual. Do you remember what setting you had it on? That could indeed be the case of the orange tone, the white balance is off.

I believe that spot in the lower right is a bit of lens flare; I could be wrong.

I do have to say that your focus is very good for such a slow shutter speed at that focal length. Did you use a tripod?

Love the light in the child's eyes. I normally prefer strong eye contact with the camera, but this photo leaves me wondering what she's thinking about.

[helga]

Hi, unfortunately I don't remember which setting the white balance was on. Probably in line with the sunshine.. I will have to pay attention to that in the future.

The picture was taken without a tripod, but if I remember well, I was sitting on my heels and had one arm on my leg to stabilize the camera. Guess I'm lucky to have a pretty steady hand too. I take most of my pictures out of hand.

There was a little bit of PP on the picture, but not that much. The flaw in the right corner was there on the raw version too, so I guess it is indeed lense flare. Didn't have a hood right then.

thanks for the compliments on the picture!