First 'People' post...please critique!

Hello everybody,

Here's a picture I took of my son. I adjusted lighting levels in PSE. Please let me know what you think! I can handle it...good or bad. Thanks!

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don't know much about pics but you have a very hansome son!!!
daniel from "Lank custer"

Thank you for the nice comment, Daniel!

nice picture

Thank you, rohitkumar! Is there anything I could have done better? Is the picture too bright?

It's a great portrait. I like the tight crop and composition. You've really got a tight dof here- good job getting the eyes in focus (although I don't think it's perfectly focused). As for lighting- maybe a little light, did you try adjusting the levels? Regardless, I think the extra exposure works well here. Who says that the exposure always has to be exactly as we see it in "real life" anyway.

Hi Alan,

Thank you for the CC! I truly appreciate it. I used my 85mm for this one and love the DOF I can get with this lens. The picture was actually post-processed through Photoshop Elements. I adjusted the lighting levels a bit just to see how light I can go without ruining the shot.

The people here in these forums are so helpful. I try to absorb all the information everybody can give me so I can shoot better pictures.

Very unusual lighting. The primary light seems to be coming from below the subject - note that the lower half of his face is brighter than his forehead.

I'm not good at judging "in focus" with the low resolution and jpg compression as required for hosting on the POTN, but the plane of focus seems to be with the eyes, so that's good. The exposure on the face is reasonbly good in spite of the unusual lighting. It's a high key shot, so the background is bound to be pretty hot, but this background is very hot, and I think that when you have control over it that a background should be a little darker than the subject - enough so to obtain good separation. Here, we have good separation, and there is not much one can do about the background in a candid shot.

Composition is good for a candid shot, with one exception. Try to avoid having an important element of the primary subject from coming into contact or very near contact with the frame, as does his chin. Since you are using a Rebel XT, the aspect ratio we see here (3:2) is normal for that camera, which suggests that you did not crop the image. Therefore, at this stage there is no way to avoid the chin at the frame.

It's a very nice candid shot, and I think whatever treatment you have given it already is about as far as one should go. I don't think it advisable to sharpen images of youngsters or infants, as their skin and features look more natural with a normal degree of softness/sharpnes.

You captured a happy, smiling subject, and that always adds to the image, as in this case.

Congratulations,

Hi Bob,

I always look forward to your comments! You are very thorough and that is much appreciated.

Thanks for the advice! I do need to watch out for shooting too close-up that I cut off the top or bottom part of the face. My son was getting a bit antsy when I was taking this picture. I was actually quite lucky to get this shot as he is usually giving me a goofy face.

Thanks again!

Hi JenB,

Very nice image.

I would try going back into PS and use levels and curves to remove the orange/red color cast. I did a edit in PS to give you an example.

Once again very nice image.

Jim

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The original image looks better. That edit has weak colors in comparison. Portrait orinetation might have been a better for a face shot.

It's a wonderful capture and I think the light background has worked well as it brought a softness to the image. I had a play to enhance that feeling and also tweaked the white balance.

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Hi Jim,

Thanks for the comment and advice! I like your example, but I do like the color casts on mine. The picture pops out a bit more with the orangy/reddish color.

Hi Hellashot,

I do need to work on portrait orientation...well, back to work...need to practice a bit more!

Hello Pxl8,

I love what you did to the image! All I can say is, "Wow!"... and will you please tell me how you did it?

Thank you!

For me, color cast does not work for this shot and I know what you mean when you say you like color casts.

Unlike what most of people said about this shot, I will have to disagree. Hope you do not get offended but "I" would delete this image right after I view it in the view finder.

There are a lot of things that are not right: No contrast, wired color cast, curves/levels, shadows/depth, sharpness, crop/angle.

Well, actually, other than the kid, which happens to be a good subject just because it is your kid, there is nothing right in this picture and again I am emphasizing this is my personal view.

MALI

I wouldn't go as far as Mali but I do have to agree the color cast ruins the image. It's unnatural and unflattering.