The Text Message

[Meerkat17]

I took this whilst on holiday earlier this year and whilst watching a carnival, normally I don't see the chance for candid shots or miss/see them too late but this was happening almost in front of me and for once I caught it!

Would anyone like to give comment/critique even some pointers might be helpful, what settings to leave the camera on when just walking about.

The image has been slightly cropped and had a little contrast masking done to bring out the women to the right, plus a little sharpening and saturation added.

Cheers
David
http://www.btinternet.com/~David.Lewins/g5/images/txtmsg_1563.jpg

Shutter speed: 1/200 sec, Aperture: 6.3
Exposure mode: Manual, Flash: Off
Metering mode: Evaluative, Drive mode: Single frame shooting
ISO: 100, Lens: 100 to 300mm, Focal length: 100mm
AF mode: One-shot AF, Image size: 2336 x 3504
Image quality: Raw, White balance: Auto
Saturation: Normal, Sharpness: Normal
Contrast: Normal, Tone: Normal
Custom Functions:
CFn 4: Shutter release: AE; AE button: AF, no AE lock
CFn 8: ISO expansion: On

[BrandonSi]

I can't really see anything wrong there technically, but the shot is just not that interesting to me personally. No offense :) Just out of curiousity, have you tried it in black and white, maybe adding a simple white border? As far as walking around, I leave my camera in one of the program modes to just snap, but if I see something that really catches my eye, I'll usually switch to Av and try a few different shots with varrying dof.

[aam1234]

It's a good photo Meerkat17, and I think it has more potential, especially with a different crop. How about cropping more from the bottom, up to the right woman's elbow, but just a little below that. And if you cropped the upper and the sides, I would bring them back.

That's just a suggestion of course, try it and see if you like it better.

[PhotosGuy]

what settings to leave the camera on when just walking about. Something average that can easily be changed for more DOF or more action stopping? Since you were in M, maybe set Av for more DOF & Tv for faster speed, then just switch between them when you need to?

I'd have liked to see a wider shot with the carnival in the background to contrast the activity around her that she's ignoring to send a message. (I know, easy for me to say!) ;-)
Otherwise, I'd crop up from the bottom to the elbows. I see nothing down there that helps the pic.

[sailpamc]

Great editorial stock photo. Check out www.photosource.com and Ron Engh's books. You probably could use it for illustrative photo.

[Meerkat17]

Thanks for all the comments. I agree with the crop and it's something which I missed whene I originally cropped it.

Frank, unfortunately, she was at the back of the crowd of people and the lens I had on the camera was 100-300mm so there was no way I could have included the carnival.:(

Anyway, thanks for the possible settings - my biggest problem is I use M and forget about the other settings! :oops: I'll keep trying ! LOL

Regards
David