My youngest

[michael88]

Please C & C this picture of my two year old. I took it this morning while I was playing with my camera to get familiar with it.

[blue_max]

I am going to hazard a guess that you are quite pleased with this :lol:

...and so you should be. I love it. Make the most of it before your nearest subjects run a mile!

Graham

[colliewalker1]

An excellent photo of a lovely little girl!

[Robert_Lay]

It is a nice photo of your little girl. The background is nicely out of focus, which is good. The range of tones and placement is fairly good. It's definitely high key and I feel that it is slightly over-exposed. It would appear that you were using direct flash which leaves its tell-tale characteristics behind. If you have some way of converting to bounce flash, that will improve the lighting, in my opinion. As it is, with the direct flash you get rather flat lighting with noticeable hot spots. The catch light in each eye is present as a single point and everything seems tack sharp in her face.

So, my only real suggestion for improvement is to start planning for better lighting arrangments, at least for posed set ups. So long as you continue with candid shots, the only recommendation is for bounce flash or use of an umbrella to reduce the harshness of the light.

[michael88]

Thank you Bob, I appreciate your comments and suggestions. What do you mean by high key?

[Hellashot]

Nice shot. Looks like you could sharpen the image more. Her face is a little soft.

[Robert_Lay]

Thank you Bob, I appreciate your comments and suggestions. What do you mean by high key?

"High Key" is one of the terms for characterizing the tonal range of a print. High Key means that the range of tones starts at or just below the middle tones and runs through the highlights. Therefore, the shadows are going to be light or non-existent.

Low Key, as you might guess will be just the opposite, with lots of deep shadows and the highest tones in the print will be the middle or just above middle tones.

Would you like to venture a guess as to the meaning of mezzotint?

[michael88]

I have know idea what that means.

[sorashell]

Medium color?

Cute shot! First question is how did you get your 2 year old to hold still and give such a great smile, second question is where can I get those eyelashes? Seriously, I'm not good enough yet to give any cc but wanted to let you know I do like the overall picture very much.

[Robert_Lay]

I have know idea what that means.

The term originated before photography was invented. It was a term used by engravers to describe the technique for creating shades of gray by using tiny strokes of the engraving tool, either close together for a dark shade or further apart for lighter color and cross hatching for even darker shades.

In photography we use it to mean a print with predominantly middle tones - very few or little highlights or deep shadows.

[michael88]

Thank you sorashell. This was just a lucky shot. I was sitting there and playing with my 20D to get familiar with it. Abby happened to be there.

[michael88]

Is it better to have a photo that is high-key, low-key, or in the middle?

[Robert_Lay]

Is it better to have a photo that is high-key, low-key, or in the middle?

That question catches me a bit off-guard.

Those terms are only used to describe which general category into which a give print falls. However, the categories are only for categorizing in such a way that you know what to expect from a print in that category - not to give it a score in terms of good/bad.

For example, in the context I used the term high-key, that was to categorize it as a print in which there would be lots of highlights or bright tones. In such a print you have certain problems and characteristics that go with that category - one of which is that the histogram is going to look unbalanced with most of the pixels bunched up to the right. Another characteristic would be that the highlights could be expected to be on the verge of being blown out - so in printing the picture that would be the big concern - to get the highlights correct (and not worry about shadow or mid-tones).

It is definitely not a good/bad characterization.

Does that make it clearer?

[michael88]

I understand and appreciate your explanation.