Critique my photo and convince me to learn more about pp

[kristenh]

Here's a photo i like- my 3 year old son. it is cropped, but otherwise sooc. i'm interested in any basic criticism, but also what i could do in pp to punch it up.

here's the photo:



and here's the data:
nikon D5000
35 mm lens
shutter speed 1/160s
aperture 6.3
iso 200
i don't believe i used a fill flash on this particular shot; i did as he got higher and was backlit by the bright blue sky

[dolphin1]

In pp you could adjust the levels to make your son a bit lighter and bump up the contrast a bit to really make it pop. Hope I helped!

[medicnai]

I'd also go into the adjust color and desaturate the greens a little. That will make him pop out even more from the background.

[LeeR]

I am a big believer in the concept that you need to master what you have before venturing into uncharted territory. This may go against conventional wisdom as well as the wishes of camera and software manufacturers, but it is the only path to significant growth. There are some problems with this image; namely, it is slightly underexposed and the composition needs tweaking. While I'd like to see you fix those problems in-camera, I also know they can both be repair in PP. That is not usually the case. It's a bad habit to assume you can fix problems in PP that should have been taken care of when the shot was taken. Nevertheless, your problems in this image are minor enough that they can be fixed. While you might handle PP differently, here is my take on the image you shot.

[BigFuzzy]

LeeR makes good points about not relying on PP or thinking that it's naturally the next step of creating a nice photograph. May I suggest that lighting knowledge would improve this image more than PP? Shooting this in that type of light is what got you a dull photo.

The technical issues I have would more readily be fixed by knowing how to use flash, and in this case fill-flash, properly much more than any PP work.

Also.. not sure what happened LeeR, because you normally do a pretty good job with your PP suggestions/examples here.. but wow, I hate this one even though I agree lots can be done with the original. Looks so unnatural and overly processed.. sorry, but I honestly thooght: "WTF did LeeR do?"

[BigFuzzy]

Here's what I would have done:


Two mins of work in Lightroom3.
Ooops forgot to add a very slight vignette.. which I would have done normally.

[highlydope]

Can you post the image as shot without crop or any post editing?

[Photologyst]

Originally Posted by LeeR

While you might handle PP differently, here is my take on the image you shot.

Yikes!

I hope that you are kidding. The poor child looks like a little neon-barracuda.

[highlydope]

Originally Posted by Photologyst

Yikes!

I hope that you are kidding. The poor child looks like a little neon-barracuda.

I didn't want to say anything, but I agree.

[Photologyst]

OK, so here's my quick and dirty" version, similar to what Big Fuzzy poster did.

Adjusted exposure in Lightroom (don't have 3 yet). Then to Photoshop for softening of the features. Sharpened eyes and lightened mouth. My preference would be to blur the mouth a bit, but OTOH, those emerging teeth are part of childhood.