Cutie with a Teddy - How can I make it better?

[NikD300]

HI, took this shot while at a friends place over Christmas party. She was playing with the teddy and I didn't want to loose the moment. I loved the picture but wanted to see if I could have made it better (angle / focus / colors / saturation etc...). Do you feel Teddy is dominating her?

All I did was to adjust the sharpness of the picture using Picasa.

Nikon D300
50mm / f1.8
800 ISO
Inbuilt Flash Used (due to overall dim lighting in the room).

Really appreciate if you share your thoughts and comments.

[SwissJon]

Nik.. I can't see anything more than a thumbnail. Can you provide a link to Picassa web or something?

[NikD300]

Really? Sorry about that. I was able to open the picture. Here is the flickr link to this picture.

PER_8410-2 | Flickr - Photo Sharing!


Thanks in advance.

[cherrygirl]

This is going to sound harsh but it's not meant to be...the only thing that would make it better would be to have planned and set the shot up with good lighting...you have two different light sources here that are very obvious. I know you were trying to "capture a moment" but this is basically just a candid snapshot...a cute snapshot, but a snapshot none the less. When doing portraits, you really need to control the lighting.

If you look at others that do portraits of children, you will see that they are either using natural light or studio lights.

Other big issue would be focus.

[NikD300]

Thanks Cherrygirl. Yes, I realized its 2 different light sources and I might not get the right overall soft lighting but had to go with the moment of the flow.

When you said the other problem is focus, do you feel the picture is out of focus? Or may be I should have used a higher f stop than f1.8 for a overall crispness.

[SwissJon]

Thanks, I can see that now. I think what cherrygirl means is that the pattern of settee that your subject is sat on is in focus, and that's distracting..

Also I wondered whether your primary subject was intended to be that big white bear? It's far to much in the photo and hides the child. She's got a very cute face but it's almost hidden. A really tight crop might help push the focus back onto the child and away from the distracting elements?
5330697329_1183256a50_b.jpg

[LoveDSLR]

Cropped (rule of thirds) and adjusted brightness to 'refocus'. Image for illustration only.

[NikD300]

Originally Posted by SwissJon

Thanks, I can see that now. I think what cherrygirl means is that the pattern of settee that your subject is sat on is in focus, and that's distracting..

Also I wondered whether your primary subject was intended to be that big white bear? It's far to much in the photo and hides the child. She's got a very cute face but it's almost hidden. A really tight crop might help push the focus back onto the child and away from the distracting elements?
Attachment 47654

Cherrygirl/John..Does this look better than the previous one?

[NikD300]

Originally Posted by LoveDSLR

Cropped (rule of thirds) and adjusted brightness to 'refocus'. Image for illustration only.

Thanks LoveDSLR. This looks nice. Definitely an improvement over what I have before. What exactly you did to the picture apart from cropping? Did you use PS?

[LoveDSLR]

Originally Posted by NikD300

What exactly you did to the picture apart from cropping? Did you use PS?

With an older version of Photoshop Elements. This

and burning, skin tone adjustment + sharpen.