Your severe criticism is required

[net_tech]

this is what i came up with after religiously visiting POTN for almost a month.

i posted this and another image in the general forum, but didn't get any critic there, hopefully someone here will point out what i messed up.

http://mx03.homeip.net/IMG_9581.JPG

Thanks

[Living Daylight]

I think that it depends on what you are trying to capture. In this setting it is unlikely that you will get a gallery quality image, so you more just want to capture nice shots of the kids involved. If this is your goal I think you have done a fine job.

What exactly do you dislike about the image?

[suecassidy]

I don't think you did anything "wrong". It is a candid moment between two kids and it is adorable. If anything, I would crop it so that the kid in the background to the left is gone, so the viewer's eyes are drawn to the two children's faces only. Cute shot.

[Robert_Lay]

Technically, all the elements of a good picture are here but only for your own and the family's enjoyment. Exposure, color balance, the decisive moment, lighting - it's all faultless.

Will it win a ribbon - in the right contest or category, yes. Would Grandma like it - absolutely.

Would it sell as photographic art - no, but I don't think you would expect it too, would you?

If you want it to be an even better candid portrait, you could get rid of the background and frame it around the two main characters.

[net_tech]

Bob,

Thank you for your post. I have read quite a few of your critic comments and you are always right on the money. To be honest, I was impatiently waiting for your comment on this picture. What I am getting out of this, is the time I spent reading books and hanging on POTN was not wasted, but I still have lots to learn.

[snyderman]

From my experience, cropping really improves a shot. Read somewhere a cropping technique of starting with the focal point of your shot and working outward. When non-essential elements begin to show in the image, tighten it up so as not to include any of the non-essentials to the shot.

Try a couple of different crops and I'll bet you end up with a much better image than you expected!

Here's an example without a pic. during warmups at a football game I shot a pic focusing on the eyes of a middle linebacker. What showed up on the image when downloaded was the gigantic butt of the OL player filling about 2/3 of the frame. I ALMOST deleted it, but the eyes of the LB were so intense that I cropped out about 90% of the OL butt and ended up with one of the best images of the season.

Crops can work miracles on digital images!

dave