Black & White of My Niece

[augiecrazy8]

Had my camera and was taking pics. Caught this one of my niece who was pretending that a piece of ice was lipstick. I cropped out some tables from the background, and fixed some cracks in the ground. Question, is it too plain? I have a tendency to not pay enough attention to the background, and tend to put too much in the composition, so this is as plain as I get. Thanks



Exposure 0.003 sec (1/320)
Aperture f/4.0
Focal Length 55 mm
ISO Speed 100
Exposure Bias 0 EV

[Niresangwa]

Other issues aside, the processing here is an area you can look at. Assuming you were going for a black and white conversion, its worth pointing out that this is more of a 'grey scale'... no real whites, no real blacks, just lots of grey which gives a muddy flat look...

...ideally black and whites have more contrast and punch to them, which i'm sure you'll admit this one is missing.

what processing software do you have available to you?

aside from that, the placement of the subject is good, nice use of space. I'm sure someone will say they wished they could see th girls face and eyes..

[augiecrazy8]

Totally agree about the lack of contrast. I do use Lightroom, but am definitely learning about post-processing to create more intriguing images. How about this update? Too much contrast?

[kristenh]

i don't think its too plain at all- i usually strive for a nice textured, but not bright and not eye catching background. i don't know anything about pping, but i like whatever it was you did- she really stands out nicely in the second shot. my complaints would be- you seem to be taking the photo from a standing position and i would have liked you to be on her level- and i'm guessing you cant really fix this b/c of what you said about cropping and background- but i would have liked her to have a bit more headroom.

it's a nice shot, though- cute little girl