My turn for a critique! Need your fresh eyes :)

[graciousness]

My turn for a critique As you know, it's easier to critique than to analyse your own work.

I took this photo two days ago at a children's party (unpaid, just for practice). I took 250 for two hours so you can imagine how hectic that would have been. I love his face (dirty and all) and I feel it has potential for a good photo. This is a candid shot (as all of the photos on the day are) so of course, you don't have control of who and what is in the background.

Also, because I just got my new imac (heeeeheee) and everything you look on this brilliant LCD screen looks vibrant, I really need everybody else's eyes to tell me:

- how is the colour balance on the photo - is he too yellow?
- is the blown out sky too much? I didn't have time to expose for the sky;
- whilst the background is blurry and all, are all those people and limbs to the left too distracting? If they are, what should I do? Clone as much as I can out very carefully or just accept the fact that it is what it is and/or forget about the photo?
- Or should I crop this tighter and lose context of where he is that the background provides? (Crop needs to be one of standard size);
- there's that one dirt on his hair. It's bugging me, but is it bugging you, too?
- anything else I am missing that my tired eyes don't see?

Yes, my eyes are really tired so I really need to borrow yours. I've just edited 250 photos in two days so today, I don't know what I'm looking at anymore.

By the way, external flash was used as fill flash but still mounted on camera. I just don't have an extra hand or assistant to take it off camera. So am aware that the catchlights in his eyes just in the wrong place, but that's something I hope to improve in time. With some assistance (gear or person wise).

Many thanks for looking and for your help.

Cheers,

Grace




Canon 40D w/ 24-105L lens
Exposure Program Manual
Exposure 0.013 sec (1/80)
Aperture f/4.5
Focal Length 80 mm
ISO Speed 200
Exposure Bias 0 EV
Flash On, Fired (fill flash)
Flash used: 550 EX
Handheld

[Hill Country Hack]

Well, well, well. I'll be glad to give this a go.
A great looking kid with a good face and it tells a story.

On the plus side, the tree and the arm at camera left are not growing out of odd places. I feel the dad holding the baby adds to the context.

The white shirt and blown sky are not doing you any favors. Is it possible to tone down that sky at all? His blonde hair on camera left gets a bit lost. The bit of dirt in the the hair does not bug me and personally I think it helps make the image.

Have you tried a crop to get rid of the lady in brown and still maintain a standard crop ratio?

I don't think he looks too yellow. But I'm not the best to judge that or your use of flash. You will be better serves getting feedback from those who use flash on a regular basis.

My gut tells me you will have to live with what you have regarding the sky. Don't pitch the shot, it tells a good story.

[graciousness]

Cheers for your help!!

Yes, I did try and clone out the arm on his left. The hard thing is that I could only clone using the blown out sky and when I did that, it looked even funnier. I wouldn't even know how to clone out the legs because what do I clone as replacement? I'm not very good with cloning, can you tell

They blown out areas are hard. The shirt is easy to fix and that doesn't bother me as much, but that bloody sky! This is where my minimal editing skills leave me stumped as I don't know how to fix it. Not that I think it could be fixed? Someone enchant me, please ....

The crop is hard. There's not a lot of room to his head above so on a standard landscape mode, it chops off his head and the heads on the blurred family to the right. The only crop I've tried is portrait mode (I think it's 8 x 10 or 5x7)...can't remember.

I want standard crop because I need to practice cropping in this mode. Before, I cropped and chopped without having any thought to standard sizes should anyone want to frame. Now I have to keep it in mind.

Thanks again!

[Doug Sundseth]

White balance doesn't bother me.

I agree with HCH about the man with the child and the woman at camera right (keep and lose, respectively ).

I had to look more than once to see anything in his hair, so I'm pretty sure that means it's OK by me.

I think I'd be tempted to reduce the exposure of the background just a bit to increase the boy's separation. This might reduce the impact of the blown-out sky.

[graciousness]

Originally Posted by Doug Sundseth

White balance doesn't bother me.


I think I'd be tempted to reduce the exposure of the background just a bit to increase the boy's separation. This might reduce the impact of the blown-out sky.

Thanks, Doug!!

How do I reduce exposure on the background without losing it on main subject? Is this where photoshop comes in with layers or something?

[Liz Caldwell]

I wouldn't mind taking a stab at that edit too... I could probably remove some of the distractions in the background, and record how I did it for you, if you like...


Very cute boy and great capture Keep it up!

[Liz Caldwell]

Originally Posted by graciousness

Thanks, Doug!!

How do I reduce exposure on the background without losing it on main subject? Is this where photoshop comes in with layers or something?

That would be done in Photoshop. There are a few ways you could do it... layers would be one, but you could also use the burn tool, or see if a level's adjustment would do the trick (it often does)

[graciousness]

Hey Liz, cheers for your reply. No, I don't mind an edit at all - please feel free!

I have done an minor levels adjustment but it didn't do it well. More of, perhaps I didn't do it well. I'll try levels again and see.

The burn brush hardly did anything to those skies

I'll have a play with photoshop later and see what I learn. I'm so photoshop newbie I wouldn't even know how to separate background and subjects using layers.

Cheers!

[Niresangwa]

For me, while everything is wonderful on the kid, the background by contrast is cacophonous, and I spent more time looking at the out of focus areas, particularly the guy with a child on his lap. It's really the vibrant blue and pink that is the major pull.

I would probably try a black and white conversion, which would at the very least reduce one part of that distraction.

Failing that, as others mentioned, cloning would be one answer, but not one that would be easy to pull off well.. you may very well find that you could spend a good long time doing it, only to find it didn't help at all.

Have you considered just cropping it into a portrait orientation?

[Elbie]

Noob here so take what I say with a grain of salt. I love the little boy and his expression. The arms and legs don't bother me and neither does the sky, but my eyes were immediately drawn to the man and the baby. I find them distracting and maybe if it was black and white as Niresangwa suggested, it would provide context without as much distraction? Didn't notice any dirt in his hair. Overall I think the boy is adorable and it's a keeper.