Iris13 wrote: To tell you the truth, i find it amazing, inspiring, sensitive and filled with meanings. I personally love it. Congratulations and good luck in the future
Thank you!
Car629 wrote: Well I like it too (Not that I know too much) it is your daughters engrossment in what she is doing that draws me in, I am wondering what she is doing and why.
Thanks for the encouragement!
Illegal Mexican wrote: I hate giving feedback because I am by no means an expert having only gotten my first DSLR about a month ago (also a 650D). If I had to take a guess, I would say that what you don't like about this picture is the background in the top left corner. If that's the case, I agree with you, it would've been better if it wasn't there. Also, while the title is great, and I believe you when you say a storm was coming, the only thing that hints at the idea of a storm is the white balance (which I find spot on by the way and gives it a "stormy" mood) and maybe the hair blowing in the wind. We don't see any clouds though. Having said all that, overall, I really enjoy this picture and it's definitely a keeper. Good job!
Funnily, I hadn't noticed the top left corner so much, but now that you mention it, that's going to bug me too . About the title, you've got a good point. Actually I was just being cheeky with words - my daughter is 6, going on 13, and has been something of a handful lately. The title is adouble entendre to hint at, whilst there was a storm blowing in, she's the real storm that is coming!
Lemming51 wrote: My first reaction was I didn't like the cropping of the ends of her fingers. On the other hand, it did produce the reaction you were going for, some "tension" wondering what she is focused on.
Yes - I could try to sell it that way, but the reality is that I was disappointed at cutting off the ends of her fingers, and also the nuts that she was lining up on the stones.
AvyMan wrote: Nice candid photo! Often better than stiff poses IMHO. My comments would be that it's cropped a little too tight in the foreground, and the upper left corner is somewhat distracting, especially since it's so close to your subject. The good bokeh helped, though, by using a large aperture (small f/number). Her face and hair around it is a little dark. This could easily be "corrected" with a touch of fill light in PP to lighten that area up, but to your taste (if you even want to) not mine.
Thank you! I actually feel like I missed the ideal focus - I would have liked to shift the focus further in towards her face, rather than making it the extreme foreground. I think the AF caught on her hair, when I should've manually focused on her tummy or face. One of the problems with the Tamron lens is that the AF is less than ideal, which makes me want to try out a Canon lens instead.
baneling wrote: I think its a great picture and not sure I could have done better. but if I was the photographer, I would have tried a wider angle so we can see her surroundings more and so her fingers wouldn't be cropped out like the other guy said. I also would increase the shadows a little so her face would be brighter and we can see the area between the left side of her head and her hair.
Thank you, I do agree about the fingers - I only managed to get three snaps in before she ran off, and this was the best of the three.
imqqmi wrote: Cloudy weather can be very good to shoot portraits in as the light is very soft without the harsh shadows the sun produces.
What I like about it is the tones you've made in this shot. You did a good pp job on it. I also like that the photo was taken like a candid shot.
What bothers me slightly is the hidden limbs that makes it hard to find out how she's posing. The hair over her arm and the close proximity of the hand to the camera makes it disproportionately large. That fact the the leg on the ground is towards the camera hiding the top of the leg from view makes for an uncomfortable pose to look at (in my opinion). I would've shifted my angle to the right so that both legs are fully in view, allowing a better look at her face too probably, and the hand would be farther from the camera making it proportional again.
I'd darken the top left corner a bit, it is a bit distracting. The branches near the foot is a bit distracting as well. If you have a photo editor you might want to try cloning it out.
Her face is slightly out of focus and a bit too dark, might want to brighten it a bit. If the hand was the main focus it should've been fully in the frame, maybe shooting wide open at 50mm, backing off slightly to re-frame it. This will blur the rest more putting the focus on the hand if that was the intention. Otherwise usually you'd want to have the face in focus. Since the hair is in the way I'd choose a focus target on the same focal plane as the face like her left hand (viewers right). But if you shifted the angle that wouldn't have worked of course.
Overall good effort, try to focus on composition a bit and where you focus.
Keep shooting!
Fantastic, really appreciate your feedback! I was disappointed with the focus point, and did wish that her face had been the sharp point - focusing on the other hand might have done it! I might have a fiddle in Elements to see what more I can do to improve the outcome, as you have described.
dave vichich wrote: I hope you don't mind, I brought this photo into my computer and did some work to it.
I'll post what I did after I comment. At your request, I'll remove the reworked photo...
...I took a crack at this, I hope that's ok.
I felt that it wasn't telling the story of the up coming storm. I thought that the colors were a bit drab, so I got rid of them. I said before I didn't like the stick, so I got rid of it.
I felt that her hair and what she's doing was the story, so that's what I tried to bring out. I lightened her face slightly so you can see that she working hard at what's she's doing. I may have over sharpened the foreground a bit, but I kind of liked it so I left it. In turning it into a black and white, I feel that the upper left corner isn't all that bad now.
Let me know what you think.
Wow, Dave thanks for taking the time and effort, really excited that you did that.
First impressions - I love it. You've managed to add more drama and "dystopia" such that it suits the title even better. I really like the emphasis on the tones and wind in the hair, and your work has removed the distraction in the top left corner and the stick by her feet, and also revealed her face better than before.
I do feel your edit is probably quite sharp, so that it almost looks embossed (at least on my crappy monitor at work). I feel that takes it from being a casual moment to the realm of photo-art, but I do love that - it's almost like an alternative interpretation of the photo.
How did you go about the edit? In full-blown PS, or just Elements? Did you take classes to learn, or just fiddle as you went?
