Critique -- Natural light child portrait

[srehorst]

Hello --

I am very new and am scheduled to take my first class in the next couple of weeks. Bearing in mind that I am a pretty new newbie, I ask for your feedback on a shot I took of my son. So I make sure that I cover all the areas, I am posting from the guidelines.

Please include the following information, if possible, with your image: EXIF info, type of camera, specific questions (What do you think? is not a specific question)

Camera: Fuji FinePix S200EXR
f/6.4
ISO-200
All sizes | 381_pp | Flickr - Photo Sharing!

Thank you ahead of time. I honestly welcome all feedback!

[yulchick]

not much of a cretique here, but the outfit is adorable he's a cute lil guy. I think the picture would be awesome if the backround would be all bricks..the bottom part of the wall is kinda distructing,kinda wish it wasnt there, otherwise I think its a very cute shot

[srehorst]

Hello!

Thanks for the critique! I tend to agree with you about the background as well. I know what I was trying to accomplish but I think all brick would have worked better to make the outfit pop.

[MrJones]

welcome to photography and your son is very cute!
as for the photo,
1. when taking a photo of a child, usually (not always) get down to his eye level. the photo will be much much better and wouldn't look like a normal soccer mom picture (soccer moms out there - no offense!)
2. you're shooting at f/6.4, was that intentional? normally when taking a portrait, you'll want the background as blurry as possible, meaning you'll use the widest aperture you can.

[srehorst]

Originally Posted by MrJones

welcome to photography and your son is very cute!
as for the photo,
1. when taking a photo of a child, usually (not always) get down to his eye level. the photo will be much much better and wouldn't look like a normal soccer mom picture (soccer moms out there - no offense!)
2. you're shooting at f/6.4, was that intentional? normally when taking a portrait, you'll want the background as blurry as possible, meaning you'll use the widest aperture you can.

Wow -- you sure know how to win a woman like me over ... compliment my son!

1. The exact reason I'm doing this is because I don't want his pics to be the same ones that any other mom can do. When they are this little ... and smaller too ... do you literally just go belly down on the ground to get the right angle? I was crouching when I took this, because I know enough to have heard of getting down on their level.

2. I read a funny quotation about a week ago ... something about not knowing the difference between a bus stop and an f stop. That was me about a month ago. :-) My current camera is a nice point and shoot but regardless it is still a point and shoot. Budgeting for a Canon hopefully within the next month or so. So ... with that in mind, no the aperture setting was absolutely unintentional. I know the look that you are explaining and I am craving a tool to make that happen. Incidentally, I discovered today that our camera does have a place to control the aperature so I am still trying to play around with that.

If I may, I think I read in one of the previous critiques that increasing the subjects distance from the background can also assist in creating that "blurred" look. Am I correct in this? Could I have achieved a better look by pulling him further away from the wall and using a wider aperture setting?

Thanks so much!

[MrJones]

Originally Posted by srehorst

Wow -- you sure know how to win a woman like me over ... compliment my son!

1. The exact reason I'm doing this is because I don't want his pics to be the same ones that any other mom can do. When they are this little ... and smaller too ... do you literally just go belly down on the ground to get the right angle? I was crouching when I took this, because I know enough to have heard of getting down on their level.

2. I read a funny quotation about a week ago ... something about not knowing the difference between a bus stop and an f stop. That was me about a month ago. :-) My current camera is a nice point and shoot but regardless it is still a point and shoot. Budgeting for a Canon hopefully within the next month or so. So ... with that in mind, no the aperture setting was absolutely unintentional. I know the look that you are explaining and I am craving a tool to make that happen. Incidentally, I discovered today that our camera does have a place to control the aperature so I am still trying to play around with that.

If I may, I think I read in one of the previous critiques that increasing the subjects distance from the background can also assist in creating that "blurred" look. Am I correct in this? Could I have achieved a better look by pulling him further away from the wall and using a wider aperture setting?

Thanks so much!

I usually go to eye level or slightly above. usually crouching will do the trick, sometimes just sitting on the floor will get you to the right hight .
and yes, you are correct, the bigger the distance between your subject and the background will lead to a blurry background - unless you're using high aperture values.