Retirement

[Thomas89]

Hi there! This is my first post in the critique section and I'm looking forward to your thoughts :-) I started DSLR photography about a month ago.. mainly did some landscaping photography and occasionally my pets and family.

I would like to share a photo of my dad with you. He recently retired and that's what his day looks like:


walter_paper von cheeseswiss auf Flickr

EXIF: 50mm, f/1.8, 1/125sec. ISO 200
Canon 450D, Canon 50mm f/1.8 lens

I like this picture because it looks very natural and I think I really got the composition right. My questions to you are:
Did the two people on the newspaper bother you?
What do you think about f/1.8?
Do you agree with me about composition?

Thank you :-)
Thomas

[Stryker]

Wow, that's a nice picture! Relaxation is very evident on your dad's face and that is what this picture is all about. Excellent composition too. f/1.8 is just right for this and the bokeh is pretty good too.

The people on the newspaper are a bit of a distraction, yes, but not enough to take away the attention on the subject. If it is bothering you too much, you can always apply a heavy gaussian blur on them in post.

[MrJones]

I like it but there are two things that bother me:
1. his face is underexposed. try brightening up the photo and specifically his face.
2. I would like to see his hand holding the paper to get some connection between the two. I might be wrong about this one since it will leave him with a smaller part of the photo.. but it's worth trying for next time
overall, great job

[3bayjunkie]

this is a cool idea for a photo. i also think its a bit underexposed. but really its up to your artistic interpretation. I would have it brightened up with levels in photoshop.

[Thomas89]

Thanks for your kind words! Because I accidently reloaded the metadata in Lightroom I have to redo the post-processing anyway and I will try to lighten up his face a bit. Thanks again!

[MeAgain]

Originally Posted by MrJones

2. I would like to see his hand holding the paper to get some connection between the two. overall, great job

I was wondering what felt "off". This is it exactly. I love the shot a lot. I just think it would feel better over all if the two elements were connected.

[Thomas89]

Thank you!

I took another shot with a picture that had some hand left in it. This is all the hand I got, which is probably the reason why I cropped it out in the orginial picture. Does it work? How's the exposure/brightness now? On my screen and in my opinion it seems a little too bright, but maybe I'm wrong?


retirement2 von cheeseswiss auf Flickr

[DanaLane]

I think the 2nd image shows better exposure but the 1st image shows better contrast, but that's really just my opinion.

I'd really like to see a bit more of his hand, or go with out it entirely. The small piece just seems distracting to me. On the newspaper, I actually like the faces on the paper and how they sort of mirror his face, making a small triangle

The lighting is really nice on his face.

Overall, I'd say nicely done!