The Flower Girl

[JohnnyA]

I am just looking for an over all critique of this photo of my neice. It's my favorite shot I have taken to date. Please lay it on me...good or bad Just looking for honesty.
Thanks

Fuji Fine Pix s1000
F-stop f/5.6
Exposure Time 1/280 sec

Dan & Tasha's Wedding 025.jpg

[villafane928]

well i have to say it all depends on what you were trying to capture. if it were your niece she is very underexposed. Also all those chairs behind her are a bit distracting to my eye but may not others. as a whole i am looking at it and thinking its a pic of the pretty flowers and not your pretty niece. keep on snapping!

[michellegphotos]

Agree that the chairs are a distracting background for your pretty niece. And since the flowers are somewhat blocking her face and in better focus than her face, our eyes are going to the flowers before her and then get distracted by the chairs. I would have either changed to a simpler background, used bokeh to get rid of the distracting chairs, or got in closer to her. Also would have focused better on her face and dropped the flowers down a bit. But a very pretty girl.

[JohnnyA]

Thanks for the feed back. I see your points. She is a precious little thing.
Now. Sorry, but I am very new to this and this forum. I am going to crop the chairs out of the photo...Or most of them anyway...I have Photoshop Elements 4.0 as well as CS4 . I am just going to concentrate on 4.0 until i get use to the whole Photoshop thing.
How do I get rid of the under exposure on her face? Unfortunately I can't lower the bouquet away from her face. But if I can brighten her up a bit maybey the attention will be brought more to her face than the flowers.
Thanks again.

[fshram]

To some extent, I kind of like the repeating patterned look of the chairs in the background. They are a bit distracting, but overall I like it.

[JohnnyA]

Thanks fshram. I Don't mind the chairs either really. This photo was taken before most guests attended the outdoor wedding. My neice was a bit bored and grabbed a chair, sat down and admired her bouquet. I was able to catch a relaxed photo of her as she is normally a little buzz saw
I will try and play around with the photo when I have a bit of time to crop some chairs out and try to get a bit better exposure as was mentioned to see how it changes the look of the photo..

[irishmuth]

I'm in the camp that the chairs are distracting. The symmetry and brightness of the chairs just draws your eye there, and even a crop doesn't completely eliminate that. I masked and blurred the background and fixed the exposure on your niece. I'm not a huge fan of selective color, but I think it works with this picture if you also go with an overall, softer, desaturated look (just to a lesser extent) for the main subject. She's a very pretty girl and I think this helps put the focus on her.

EDIT: decided to add the edit without the desaturation/selective coloring as well - but I personally prefer the softer look (the first thumbnail)

[daddyoproductions]

I don't mind the chairs either really, but I would have probably kept snapping away till she moved those flowers or looked towards you or something, like if you called her name or asked her for a pose...can't hurt after you've snapped the first image if she runs away You've got to follow little people around and they'll do cute things, but it takes a gazillion shots

[JohnnyA]

thanks Irishmuth . I as well like the first one. Fortunately for me, I have found this great site to learn from. There is much to be learned as I consider myself a "basic" photographer. The kind who just takes a picture of whatever and whenever. The advice and helpfulness of this site has taught me a lot already. To the point of being hungry to learn what I can to pursue some type of career in photography, be it part or full time.
Thanks again