Critique and Tips Needed Please

[LynnDA]

Our Photography club is doing a portrait exhibition next year and portraits are not really my forté as I live in the sticks so don't see many people and I haven't got the confidence to ask any people I do see, if I can take their picture. Mainly because of the language barrier. Having said that, I got this shot at a christmas market I had a stall at and I wanted to draw the eye away from the busy background to the kiddy as his face is really cool. The shot was taken indoors at night and I only had my camera so there was no chance for extra lighting.
What is your opinion? Have I achieved what I wanted of is there something else you think would work better? All comments welcome and thanks for looking



Exif data
Taken on December 17, 2011 at 5.43pm CET (edit)
Camera Nikon D3100
Exposure 0.025 sec (1/40)
Aperture f/5.6
Focal Length 50 mm
ISO Speed 3200
Exposure Bias 0 EV
Flash No Flash

[windrider86]

The kid is adorable and you did really well with the dof. A couple things in the background tho are distracting. The bright light for one and the the clutter in the background, anything else would be nitty picky stuff

[ChrisAdval]

Originally Posted by LynnDA

Our Photography club is doing a portrait exhibition next year and portraits are not really my forté as I live in the sticks so don't see many people and I haven't got the confidence to ask any people I do see, if I can take their picture. Mainly because of the language barrier. Having said that, I got this shot at a christmas market I had a stall at and I wanted to draw the eye away from the busy background to the kiddy as his face is really cool. The shot was taken indoors at night and I only had my camera so there was no chance for extra lighting.
What is your opinion? Have I achieved what I wanted of is there something else you think would work better? All comments welcome and thanks for looking

Exif data
Taken on December 17, 2011 at 5.43pm CET (edit)
Camera Nikon D3100
Exposure 0.025 sec (1/40)
Aperture f/5.6
Focal Length 50 mm
ISO Speed 3200
Exposure Bias 0 EV
Flash No Flash

what lens you used? I would have tried to shooting this at the widest aperture as possible to blur out the background and not need to use post processing to make the background less distracting. If your aperture's widest is 5.6 I would recommend zooming out to the maximum level to blow out the background. You could actually keep the background instead all in focus and make this an indoor environmental portrait. Don't need selective coloring, its a chessy digital post processing technique in my opinion.

I check your EXIF on flickr and the lens used was 18.0-55.0 mm f/3.5-5.6, I would have shot this at 55mm to maybe blur out the background a bit more, or shoot this at 55mm or 18mm and at aperture f/8-10 for an indoor environmental portrait.

[LynnDA]

Originally Posted by windrider86

The kid is adorable and you did really well with the dof. A couple things in the background tho are distracting. The bright light for one and the the clutter in the background, anything else would be nitty picky stuff

Thanks windrider86, I'll see what I can do about the light and the clutter

Originally Posted by ChrisAdval

what lens you used? I would have tried to shooting this at the widest aperture as possible to blur out the background and not need to use post processing to make the background less distracting. If your aperture's widest is 5.6 I would recommend zooming out to the maximum level to blow out the background. You could actually keep the background instead all in focus and make this an indoor environmental portrait. Don't need selective coloring, its a chessy digital post processing technique in my opinion.

I check your EXIF on flickr and the lens used was 18.0-55.0 mm f/3.5-5.6, I would have shot this at 55mm to maybe blur out the background a bit more, or shoot this at 55mm or 18mm and at aperture f/8-10 for an indoor environmental portrait.

Thanks Chris, I'll have another look at the original and see what I can do without using selective colouring. I will also make notes for the next time I get the chance to take a shot of a cute kid or anyone really. My problem here was, it was a quick grab your camera and take a shot before he goes, so I didn't really have too much time to think about things. But thanks again.