My daughter from 1-10

[justhe9ofus]

Please rate your opinions of the following from 1- 10 and please give reasoning. I made it soft on purpose and is it a problem that the hand comes out of nowhere. My daughter was getting her face painted and the hand that had the brush was blurry so I cut it out. F/5.6, 1/160, ISO 100, 24mm

Exposure

Clarity

Composition

If you were a consumer paid to come to an event, in this case a strawberry festival, how happy would you be with paying for this picture (among others) and would you add this to a portfolio?

I changed the photo to include some of the paint hand but as you can see it is very blurry.

Thanks!!!!

[tanyanizam]

Your daughter looks absolutely adorable. She's very photogenic and the contours of her face must produce many good b&w photos.


I think you perhaps see the hand as a contrast and maybe some people would like it. I dont as I wonder whos hand it is and feel uncomfortable. The hand seems to appear a bit too close and detached from its owner.

Sorry! Hope it helps.

[justhe9ofus]

Thanks! That does make sense. You're right I did see it as a contrast but I see what you are saying too. I originally had a piece of the other hand in there. Perhaps if it were displayed as part of the series so you could see it was the woman painting her face.

[Yellow Dog]

I agree. The hand is a bit odd to me. If you kept the other hand with the brush that would give it context and it would be fine then. As it looks now it almost looks like it should be your daughters hand. lol.

I won't use this photo if I was the promoter of the festival.

Your daughter is beautiful though and has a very sweet expression in this picture.

[3bayjunkie]

i think she is cute, and its a good photo. 8/10

[justhe9ofus]

Thanks 3bayjunkie!

[candidrachel]

I'd prefer to see it in colour to be honest. She's got a cute expresson but I feel that in colour you can really get the shot more in context with the face painting.

[Niresangwa]

Originally Posted by justhe9ofus

Please rate your opinions of the following from 1- 10 and please give reasoning. I made it soft on purpose and is it a problem that the hand comes out of nowhere. My daughter was getting her face painted and the hand that had the brush was blurry so I cut it out. F/5.6, 1/160, ISO 100, 24mm

Exposure

Clarity

Composition

If you were a consumer paid to come to an event, in this case a strawberry festival, how happy would you be with paying for this picture (among others) and would you add this to a portfolio?

I changed the photo to include some of the paint hand but as you can see it is very blurry.

Thanks!!!!

It's not a good black and white conversion. It's mostly comprised of muddy greys, few blacks and the only white is the blown sky. This leads to a dull look to it, definitely imho, not suitable for that you're trying to convey here.

It looks to be underexposed, which again contributes to the weak B&W conversion.

Why did you soften it? Tones are softer in colour, so in black and white like this, it just feels like you slightly missed the focus. the hand holding her chin definitely looks sharper than her face and more essentially i this instance, her eyes.

Composition looks like a snapshot, not a great deal of thought put into it. If you're trying to convey an event, the tight framing doesn't work as there's no real context as to whats happening. If you wanted to convey her emotion, as cliched as that is, she just looks bored, and there's no connection with the viewer, which is why it would be stronger to show more of the scene.

Inclusion in a portfolio? Probably not, although that's a relative assessment. As I mentioned, it looks like a cute snapshot that will ave value to you.

As far as whether it would be paid for, let me ask you this - is this a shot that a regular mom with a point and shoot would be absolutely unable to produce? Again, probably not.

The DoF is shallow enough to throw the background out of focus, but not enough to prevent it being a distraction.

What could improve the shot? A complete rethink of what you're trying to achieve. Right now it's neither one thing or another thing...

More care needs to be put into the composition with a view to understanding what you want to show. If it's the kid, get the other stuff out of there... if it's the scene, show enough to give it context. Use framing and composition to achieve this.

If you want to have a strong black and white, you need to make sure your exposure is on base, or at least have the post processing skills and software to be able to carefully control th adjustment using levels and contrast.

More judicious use of DoF would have been my option if she is your focus, not the event.