Practice shoot with strangers!!

[betbet02]

Dyess Familly Photo Shoot by betbet02, on Flickr

Camera Canon EOS Kiss X4
Exposure 0.008 sec (1/125)
Aperture f/5.6
Focal Length 43 mm
ISO Speed 100
Exposure Bias 0 EV
Flash On, Fired

This was my first practice shoot with someone other than family and friends, I had just upgraded from an xsi to a t2i and was still getting used to it. I thought the picture came out very well just think it was missing something although I dont know what it is. I want to take candid shots for the mos t part, that is what this is, as i get nervous when trying to come up with different poses.He was standing on a picnic bench and I just started shooting him from this angle. I was trying not to get all up his nose and things. The sun was shielded by the clouds and I used my flash and was very happy that I got such even skin tone which I seem to have a problem with alot. Any C&C would be appreciated!

[AyanaP]

The shot is not bad. I like the composition overall. However, cutting off the top of the head takes away from this shot. Additionally, I think this might have been a more effective shot in color. Do you have the color version still? Can we see it?

[betbet02]

Thanks, Yea I do see how cutting off the top of the head affects the shot, I dont have the original any longer, I have no space on my mac so finished projects had to go!!! Sorry

[Doug Sundseth]

FWIW, I don't have a problem with the top-of-head crop. You've cropped deeply enough that it doesn't detract from the composition. I might consider cropping in from the right to focus more attention on the boy's face, though.

I do have a bit of a problem with the underexposure and lack of contrast. When you're shooting/processing B&W (especially), I think you normally want to use as much of the dynamic range as you have available for output. If you move both your white point and black point in until they're almost clipping and then move the gamma down to get the skin tones right, I think you'll have a more appealing photo.

HTH