Now that's concentration!

[Mumof7]

Hi,

I'm very new here. Hope I've done this right. I know I'm supposed to post the Exif data with it, but I don't know how to find that. Can someone help me? TIA My camera is a 'point and shoot' Sony Cyber-shot.

I think I have blown out the left top corner of this photo, and have no idea how to fix it.

Can you give me a guide as to whether this is a good photo, composition wise?

What do people generally think of this photo? (Of course, be honest, but be gentle too - this is my first post!)

Thanks

[carlyfan]

I love the composition! Great job finding an interesting and different angle! Great look on his face too. The blown out corner really doesn't bug me, but the cabinet(?) and something else on the other side of the frame is a bit distracting. The quality is not the best though. What image quality are you shooting at?

Welcome to DPS!
Lisa

[Mumof7]

Thanks for the kind comment

It's a piano and speaker on the right. What could I do about that?

The original picture was 12 meg (is that what you were asking?) but I thought I had to reduce the size to post on this site. If you're talking about something else, and don't mind helping out, could you enlighten me?

Thanks again

[carlyfan]

You're welcome.

One way to make things in the background less distracting is to use a smaller depth of field which will blur it more. It is harder to achieve on a point and shoot, but can be done to some extent. The aperture controls depth of field. Here is a great article about aperture if you're interested to learn more.

You were right to reduce the size for posting here. Most cameras have different settings for image size (small, medium and large) and quality(normal, fine, and superfine). So you can control the quality your camera shoots at. Of course, smaller files take up less room, so you can fit more images on your card with the lower settings. But the quality suffers. I would recommend setting you camera to the highest settings. Because other wise, even though you have a 12meg camera, it's like you're shooting with a 6meg. (I hope this makes sense and I hope I got it right. Someone else could probably explain it better.) I just asked because it looked kind of pixelated to me, like it was taken on one of the lower settings.

[Mumof7]

Thanks for taking the time to explain all that. I'll have to have another look at my camera to try to find the quality setting. I thought I had already explored it thoroughly...

I will look at the article you suggested - I am eager to learn. I feel a bit limited with my point and shoot, but that is what I have just now! It has only very limited manual controls.

I'm pretty sure I took this photo in 'portrait' setting, but I'm not certain. Would the Exif data tell me that? Is anyone able to help out with how I find out my Exif data? I uploaded this photo to Flikr, and tried to retrieve the Exif from there, but all it said was 72 dpi...

Thanks

[aishuclickz]

very nice work, as a novie

but for your next attempts.. if u could avoid the head being cut off like that, it would make a portrait even more interesting

[Mumof7]

Thanks for your encouragement, and constructive criticism. So perhaps I shouldn't have zoomed in so much?

[aishuclickz]

yea.. or just try to get the framing right.. maybe u could move a little behind..

remember a picture speaks a lot when its not shot conventionally

so move around a little, you'd be surprised at your compositon .. a little low angle or a side profile and the frame rightly covered can make wonders

good luck with your experiments

[cherrygirl]

Originally Posted by aishuclickz

yea.. or just try to get the framing right.. maybe u could move a little behind..

remember a picture speaks a lot when its not shot conventionally

so move around a little, you'd be surprised at your compositon .. a little low angle or a side profile and the frame rightly covered can make wonders

good luck with your experiments

I disagree with this. I think the framing is good, no issue with it. The biggest issue is the quality but that could be because you reduced it to post so it is hard to critique that aspect.

The angle is perfect...it shows what he is doing and his concentration...it tells a story...and that is photojournalism.

A few pointers would be the background...while most "photojournalism" is not staged, you might want to be aware of it and try to work with it like opening up your aperture. But since you are shooting with a point and shoot..that may not be possible. Not sure how much control you have with your camera.

Backlighting is not a bad thing but it may have worked against you here. But with a little editing, you could fix the washed out look.

Anyway, I think you understand the "photojournalism" part just need to work on the technique part. Good job!

[aishuclickz]

Hi cherrygirl,

That was on a general note i told her about angles and all..

not to do with this pic..
since she was new and am also in the process of learning, i tot it might b of some help to her.