critique my critique? father + son

[cameramum]

hi, ive very recently bought my camera, and am loving it.
I took this picture of my son and his dad a few days ago while he was teaching him to play golf.

I know its got a long way to go, and more of a family snapshop, but was wondering if im on the right track with my critique.

it was taken on a very overcast day
Im thinking its slightly over exposed, and i should have used a higher iso or faster shutter speed?
i did fired the flash because without it the picture looked really dull and flat.
I shot in A priority, and i think i should have increased the f stop so they were sharper all over.

I did also do a tighter crop which also looked nice.

i did a small amount of pp, but im struggling with that as im using a laptop and the picture looks different when u move the screen!

if you can comment of what ive written, and also make any suggstiions for making this shot look better if i was to take it again that would be great.



exif info
canon 1000d 50mm
2.2f
100 iso
1/125 shutter
flash fired

[NicolaB]

Hi there and welcome :-)

Overcast is good - bright sunshine is not your friend :-)

I am finding it a challenge to get the exposure right esp in situations like this when you have dark colour and light clothing all in the same image.

I can't help on the flash as I don't use one - yet. I do know that on camera flash can make an image look quite flat, so I have always avoided it and gone for the higher ISO as you suggest in your self cc.

Dad face is perfectly exposed, but the lighter areas eg - Dads top, shoes and your little ones hair are overexposed. The more experienced may correct me on this but they key for next time, may be to expose for the lighter skin (ie your sons) and up the ISO as you suggest if it looks underexposed in camera. I suspect it is the flash that has taken you over here.

What pp are you using? It may be possible to 'burn' the overexposed area if you feel so inclined - or just slide the recovery a tad. The exposure is very close.

As for the av mode - as they are side on like this, it is possible with practice to get a sharp image at 2.2. I personally whimp out and go for 3.2 for safety. I think wide open is great for close up shots when you have more control over you focus.

In this instance the wide open does not give you any advantage (ie you are not drawing attention any particular aspect and there is not the need to separate them from the background. The focus has fallen on your little ones shoulder area I think.

Your cc is spot on I would say. The only thing I would add, is that it would be nice to see a fraction more grass at the bottom to balance the image. If you don't have enough before the crop you could clone some in. I like the connection this image shows. Looking forward to seeing some more :-)

I hope you don't mind I did a quick edit - but without the extra grass. I can take it down if you prefer.

[LoveDSLR]

Here's my 2 cents and no expert in pp.

- crop
- level adjustment
- remove distraction behind the child
- adjust for a wamer skin tone
- apply micro contrast sharpening (experimenting)
- darken highlights via layer mask (slightly)

[cameramum]

thankyou both for taking the time to reply.

And i def no what u mean about more grss in the front of the shot. I will see if I can add that.

Thankyou for showing me that the flag behind my son can be removed. Im using elements 9, so will have a little look at that later.

[LoveDSLR]

Originally Posted by cameramum

Im using elements 9, so will have a little look at that later.

I used Elements 8 to do the edit.

[mshockley]

Hello Camermum,
I also use a laptop-wanted the portability, but the screen is an issue. I did not want to buy a 2nd PC for my office to do my processing/editing on, but instead purchased a nice big flat screen monitor. Wonderful! When home it's a simple matter of setting your laptop to use that screen for viewing. Just a thought for you as you progress along.