Not much cooperation

[mshockley]

I was asked to shoot some photo's of a young boy whom is mentally handicapped. After some desperate attempts at "posed" shots, I finally decided to just let him go and started snapping everything I could. This is one of about 6 extreme close-up shots I was able to get of him, but it was near impossible for me to persuade him to ever make any eye contact with me. Is the shot just way too close? and what about not having any of him actually looking into the lense to offer my client? Any thoughts or similiar circumstances and how you handled it would be helpful. Thank-you!

EXIF
Canon 500D
ISO 200
f 5.0
Shutter 200
100mm
no flash

[RLucas]

Hi Ms, and welcome to DPS! First of all, I think it is a nice shot. The focus looks good and sharp. I don't think the fact that he is not looking directly in to the frame takes away from it at all. There are a couple of nitpicky things about this image I don't care for. His ear is cut off, which is just a minor annoyance to me. Is this a crop? If so, I would loosen it up just a tad to get his ear back in to the frame, and give him a little more space to look in to. The second thing is the b/w conversion. It's just a taste thing for me, but it looks a little too muddy. Try setting the white and black points in your editing software, and see id you can get a little more contrast. I checked out your stream, and out of all of them I liked this one the best. He is looking directly in to the frame, and had a huge grin, which I find adorable! Same issue with the conversion, which is easily fixed.
As far as what to do? I really think you handled it the best way anyone could. Just let him be himself, and look for expressions that strike you and fire away! I think this pretty much goes for any children, not just special needs kids. He looks like he was really comfortable with you being around, so you must have been doing something right!

[kristenh]

I like this one an the one Luke liked on your flickr stream. i suspect the mom will be more pleased than you are expecting.

regarding the looking at you- i think it's a developmental step that kids take when they realize looking at the camera is looking at you- think of it from their perspective- you've got this big weird thing blocking your face. anyway, that might explain why this guy looked away. my 19 month old is very reluctant to look at the camera, too.

[carlyfan]

I agree with everything Luke said. The ear is kind of awkward, but it's not that bad. I definitely wouldn't say this is too close for a close up, but for this particular picture and the angle you have, the ear being cut off does look a little odd. And also as Luke mentioned, the black and white conversion could benefit from some more contrast, so it's more black and white, and less gray. Great picture though! And I love the one Luke linked to! Good job with getting relaxed, natural smiles!

Lisa

[AdrenoJunkie]

As far as how to handle the circumstances, I think you handled it perfectly. In my experiences with shooting my son and other small children, posing just doesn't work. The ony way I've been able to get good shots is just to follow them while they do what they do. If you really want them to look towards the camera you could try having the parent stand directly behind you and get their attention, or trick them into looking towards you, i.e. "holy cow look at that big elephant behind me!" Not only might they look at you, but you may also catch a cool expression. Personally i think you have a great shot. My only issue, like the others is the conversion. It looks like you just desaturated or did a standard b/w conversion. May I suggest using a gradient map or for more control do a standard b/w conversion then go back and increase exposure and contrast. I did that to this photo, with a couple tweaks, and it looks noticably better. It took me two minutes. I can post it if you'd like. If not I'll delete it.

[neeka]

Just a tip for future reference with any child but special needs particularly (depending on diagnoses often they will not make eye contact) have something of interest behind you, someone assisting with puppets or a mobile especially with boys as they are more interested in movement than color...sorry the psych student in me can't resist, but anyways if you can get them to look past you, you will get the same result

[mshockley]

Thank-you all so very much for the thoughtful answers! And yes, I did just simply convert to black and white, to be honest, I rarely if ever do that, so am quite green at tweaking with it, but now I have tons of ideas! Thanks!