Thirsty face...

[Rye]

I had a chance to photograph one of the beneficiaries of our water system project in the island of Mindanao in the Philippines. It was not easy getting the right exposure for this shot because I was facing the sun. How could I improve this shot? What could I have done to get a better exposure? is the composition good enough? How can I compose the shot in a way that viewers would know that he is grateful for the water project?

I would greatly appreciate your helpful insights.



Olympus E-520
14-42 mm lens
1/125 sec
f/5
ISO 100
21mm

[Matthew_Scullion]

My suggestion:

Crop in from left almost up to his left side.
Crop in from right to lose the distracting background.
Use curves and some localised contrast/dodge/burn to add a bit of punch and emphasise his interesting face.
Take out the distracting bright white sections on his jeans. De-saturate the blue on the taps a little. Clone out the remaining edge of the green stool and also the spot of lens flare on his chin.

Basically, remove all the distracting stuff and maximise what's left into what will be, I think, I really charming portrait that tells an excellent and worthwhile story.

I had a go myself - hope you dont mind. Please bear in mind this was just to illustrate the idea - didn't do cloning of face/chair properly as only spent a couple of minutes on it and I am not an expert to start with! Let me know if you're not happy with this and I will remove.



Cheers and hope this helps, Matthew.

[Rye]

Wow! You said you spent just a couple of minutes in it and you did great. I loved how you cropped the picture and eliminated the distraction, what you did in his face highlighted the dramatic expression he has. Thanks! I will try also to do my own version. Really appreciate it.

[MeAgain]

The crop is awesome and just makes the shot pop. I'm going to have to remember this. Thanks for sharing!