Daughter photography

[travisgrendler]

I have recently immersed myself in photography. I started at first with the purpose of taking decent quality pictures to capture my daughter growing up. But since this picture, and I dont know why, I have really gotten into it. I realize now that I have kind of broken the rules of photography in this picture but for some reason I still love it. I would like to hear others opinion on composition, editing, or anything else. I appreciate any and all comments, suggestions, and criticism. Thankyou.

[zona5101]

Hi and welcome.
You should post your exif data.

I am glad you like this shot because when it comes down to it that is all that is really important. For me it's an excellent shot of the ocean but with people in the way. Really, need to see their faces...or even just one face, like the little one looking back. Eyeballs are good. Exposure looks ok but part of the skin looks blown out, the surroundings appear to be exposed just fine. If they were facing the camera there would probably be significant lighting problems because of the bright sun. Midday sun on the beach is almost impossible to shoot well without additional lighting or light modifiers. Compositionally, they are too centered which is less interesting.

[Gobae]

+1 Zona

Yup, what Zona said nails the issues with the pic. For me the biggies in that list are the lack of faces (if the image was taken 90degs from their left shoulders it would be MUCH more engaging), and they're too centered; they need space to walk.

[autofocus]

I also concur with the above comments, and will add a few of my own. You clipped her feet a little to tight which is a common mistake..so you are not alone in that regard. People are so intent on framing the part of the image that includes the faces and heads that sometimes they're not seeing the bottom of the image. (happens to all of us from time to time) Also, the horizon is a little crooked. Again, not always easy to notice when you're in the moment of grabbing the shot.

[TNH]

It is a really good photo, I think. You had a great idea here! The first few things I notice about it, though, is that the lady's feet are cut off, the the horizon line isn't straight, and the people are right in the middle of the picture.

If you cut off her feet when you took this, then there's nothing you can do about it now. But don't worry, we all forget the 'Don't cut off any limbs' rule sometimes. I know I do!

Fixing the horizon line is easy, just straighten the photo in your photo-editing program. I did that in this example. It really helps a picture when you straighten a crooked horizon line.

The Rule of Thirds is a good rule to follow when you're taking pictures. It really helps make a photo more interesting. In this first picture that I fixed, I cropped the picture in a little, so that they are more to the right side of the picture. It does cut out some of the sky, and some more of their legs, but it's the only way to put them more to the side of the frame. Unless you like a widescreen picture, like the second one here. I'm not too fond of pictures that are cropped to look widescreen, because you can tell that it's been cropped- but we all have different tastes.

Those are the things that stood out to me. Do you like the edit? You can understand what I was talking about better in an example.