A little fuzzy, a little shadowy...

[kristenh]

I'm in the market for general critique here, i guess. snapped this one of my 3 year old w/o a ton of time to think and of course no ability to pose him:



wondering what you think- are there things that would make it a better photo? it is cropped, but otherwise no pping. sorry for such a general question, but i am just a little mystified by it.

here's the exif data:
nikon d5000
focal length 35 mm
iso 200
aperture 2.8
shutter speed 1/400

thanks!

[sk66]

It's a very nice shot.
I think a bit more contrast to cause the eye to ignore the "inside" more would be a bit better, but it was quite a few minor adjustments to make this minor "improvement" (IMO)

[carlyfan]

Hey Kristen,
This is a sweet picture! It feels slightly crooked though, like the top of the frame is closer to the window than the bottom. I'm not sure if this can be fixed in post. You mentioned that you cropped it. Would you mind posting the original one? I would like to have a play with this too if you don't mind. (not that I'm any good at PP ) I wonder what it would look like with more room on the right side of the frame. It would be nice if his hand wasn't in his mouth, but that's kids for you.

Lisa

[kristenh]

thank you, sk, for your compliment. and your tweaking- i see what you are after and will give that a try.

Lisa, thank you, too, for the compliment. i'm quite sure it is crooked i took it a little from above. in the next shot i took, i had thought to move down to his eye level, but by then his brother had come over to look at him from the inside (which is a cute shot, but better than this one, so i didn't post it for critique ) its kind of fun to look at a series of shots and you can kind of track your thought process....

anyway, thanks for your offer to play and i will post the uncropped version later, when i get the little darlins down for their naps i believe i also warmed it up a little in pp; would you like me to take that away, too?

[edbayani]

i like this photo very much. but aside from being tilted, the face is a bit soft. the focus is on the collar. it also needs a little adjustment in levels or curves to add a bit of contrast. if you can correct this, there will be a marked improvement. attached sample.

[kristenh]

Okay, Lisa, here's the original:



work your magic!

[kristenh]

Originally Posted by edbayani

i like this photo very much. but aside from being tilted, the face is a bit soft. the focus is on the collar. it also needs a little adjustment in levels or curves to add a bit of contrast. if you can correct this, there will be a marked improvement. attached sample.

ed, as always, i like your work. i noticed the focus falling away from the eyes, too- was hoping nobody else would i do like the additional contrast you and sk added and will give that a shot. thanks!

[carlyfan]

Okay, here's what I came up with.


Now let's see if I can remember what I did to it.
To straiten it up I rotated it a bit and used the perspective tool. Then I adjusted white balance and levels. Oh, and I tried (probably unsuccessfully) to smooth out the shadow line on his face. It worked better on his forehead than his cheek so it looks kind of funny. I don't know how Ed did it, his looks great. I tried like five different crops on this, but I think I like the horizontal one the best, even though you lose the cool shadows on the window sill. I also did a wider vertical crop that I like even though he is pretty much dead center. For some reason I don't mind. But that's just me.


Just some ideas, make what you want of it.
Great photo by the way, the more I see it the more I like it.
Lisa

[kristenh]

thanks, Lisa. i do like your edits- now i need a few minutes to try and strike a nice balance btw what you did and what ed did. the more i look at it, i think what was bothering me the most was the kind of dusty reflection on the dusty window... ah, well, i do like it!

thanks to all for your advice

[carlyfan]

You're welcome Kristen! The dusty window was actually one of the things I really liked about it. Especially in sk66's edit, it adds to the old feel with the dirty window sill and all. Photography really is subjective isn't it? I would love to see your final edit when it is done.

Lisa