Help me with composition

[clos]

http://corvusva.com/photos/walk.jpg

All,

I am not sure how I want to crop this picture or if it even needs it. It looks right to me but my eyes aren't as well trained as the many on this forum. Is it too centered? There appears to be a lot of space up top yet seems to help frame the subject...but what do I know.

Other comments are welcome please.

By the way this is my daughter Lea with her Aunt.

Taken with Canon 10D and Canon 75-300mm IS lens.

-Clos

[slejhamer]

Nice shot, Clos! What focal length and aperture did you use? I love the shallow depth of field effect.

Cropping: it's probably fine as it is, because the greenery in the background frames them so nicely. Or you could crop it horizontally a little below Lea's foot, and then take some off the top to get her eyes back to the 1/3 position. You'd lose some of the background framing though.

Cheers,

[clos]

Thank you slejhammer, I am new and really need the feedback. I hope I get more critiques. I know my photos are kind of boring compared to other posts here but I am working on technique for now and hopefully in a few years be able to successfully explore the artistic side of photography.

Thanks again.

Clos

Here is the EXIF info:
75.0-300.0mm @ 300.0mm
1/125 sec, f/5.6
Mode: Av
Metering: Evaluative
Exp comp: -1/2
ISO: 200
AF mode: AI Focus AF
Drive: Continuous
White balance: Daylight
Flash: Off
File size: 5,295KB
Image size: 2048 x 3072
Color space: AdobeRGB
Saturation: Normal
Sharpness: Normal
Contrast: Normal
Tone: Normal
Custom Functions:
CFn 4: Shutter release: AE lock; AE button: AF

[slejhamer]

Thank you for posting the EXIF data. 300mm at f5.6 sure did the trick as far as shallow DOF is concerned. Very nice, once again. The soft lighting you captured here is perfect for the shot.

Keep posting; you'll get plenty of critiques. Sometimes people are a little shy, especially with regard to a picture of someone's family.



Regards,

[Veronica]

I would crop just above the figurines in the foreground. They distract from the beautiful portrait.

[Leighow]

Its hard to say -- let's just do it.
**************************
Here then is a tighter crop.
http://members.rogers.com/hleigh/walk.jpg

I am not saying that the original did not have these elements, but it seems to me that here we have:

* A tighter look at the people
* Less of the location's setting surroundings -- but enough to set the scene
* The lightly shaded right-hand-side house siding is gone, so we move into the darker heart of the picture
* The top corner space is kept larger for the grandmother, accentuating the forward motion of both
* The diagonal that crosses the image from bottom left to top right is dark and reinforces to forward motion and the forward tilt of the grandmother
* The frame is set darker on the child's side of the image
* The "mode" Adobe 1998 has been converted to sRGB and lightened curves -- so the coloring may not match the original web-enabled rendition.
* There still may be a bit of room to crop the left and top sides of the image. I did that but fell back to this for now.

Lovely pair. There is a real sense of family, family cycle, and global culture here. Beautiful.

HOWIE

[clos]

Howie,

Thank so much for putting in the time to help me out with this picture.

Definately more intimate and you pointed out a lot of things I didn't see. This is exactly the type of feedback I was hoping for!

I'm not to sure about the square framing though. It may be due to the 4x6/5x7 training my eyes are acustomed to.

Also, at first I thought the figurines added to the picture but now that you mentioned it Veronica, its starting to bother me.


Thanks again everyone.

-Clos


-Clos

[prohidium]

Great shot...

I like it as is without cropping.

To me, it shows the calmness of the moment and the serenity of the area. It also shows an element of "effort" for Auntie carrying your child while your child gazes off into the foreground.. almost as if she is looking at those grey items on the rock. The distance and the low level of distraction make the subjects stand out just fine. The whole of the shot makes it a good one. If I were to crop it I would take a little off the right hand side where it looks like a couple of "rings" just showing up on the edge of the photo.

Prohidium.

[Leighow]

Please also take a look at "oops'" 2001 post on Diane Arbus at:

http://photography-on-the.net/forum/showthread.php?t=2037#8189

HOWIE

[stopbath]

This is tough to crop. But I would eliminate some space behind the pair and above them, perhaps a smidge from in front.

The problem is the bottom. She is gazing down, watching her footing as she walks through a pathway. We can't loose what she's looking at otherwise we wonder what she's looking at, but I find the little statues and ground distracting. Crop out the dirt, but perhaps the statues could be cloned out instead of cropped out.

It's too bad about the pacifier being there...