Freezing child playing in snow

[ctcook]

I took photography lessons during high school, and have just recently switched to digital photography, I would label myself as a novice photographer.

I took this picture hoping to freeze the moment. I'm not sure if I used a fast enough shutter speed. I also tried to make the subject and snow stand out more in post editing by making parts of the background go black & white.

Picture Info
Camera: Nikon D40
F-stop: f/1.7
Shutter: 1/200
ISO: 1600
Focal Length: 55 mm

[ericw]

Shutter speed looks fast enough to me, but a bigger version would make it easier to tell. I think it looks pretty wack with the right side of the background black/white and the left side color... why not just decrease saturation of the background on both sides? Or make both sides of the background black and white, or the whole thing? I don't like how it feels like you cropped him at his ankles - I'd try mid-calf or go full length (not an option after the fact).

Other than those points I think this is very nice. Did you shoot it at night or something? Hard to believe it was dark enough to need f/1.7 and iso1600 to get 1/200 with all that snow on the ground...

[AnnaV]

I'd crop a load of the right hand side - it\s not needed at all.

Lovely shot otherwise

[ctcook]

Originally Posted by ericw

Shutter speed looks fast enough to me, but a bigger version would make it easier to tell. I think it looks pretty wack with the right side of the background black/white and the left side color... why not just decrease saturation of the background on both sides? Or make both sides of the background black and white, or the whole thing? I don't like how it feels like you cropped him at his ankles - I'd try mid-calf or go full length (not an option after the fact).

Other than those points I think this is very nice. Did you shoot it at night or something? Hard to believe it was dark enough to need f/1.7 and iso1600 to get 1/200 with all that snow on the ground...

It was just before dusk so it was pretty dark. This was right after I got my camera, so I may have over compensated on the settings. I see what you mean about the saturation now, thank you. I will also try re cropping the image to see how it looks. Thank you for your advice.