Thoughts on skiing photo

Last weekend I decided walk up a mountain and take photos of people skiing. Here's one of the photos. I'd appreciate any C&C.

s1a1om wrote in post #16707546
Last weekend I decided walk up a mountain and take photos of people skiing. Here's one of the photos. I'd appreciate any C&C.

Well, I may be the only one, and it's a cute kid. But the combo helmet/goggle's immediately think "Oh look...a minion!".

On a serious note, there is something odd in the center. Did you clone out someone? It just looks 'off'.

I like the way you used the ambient light by shooting from this position, it gives the images an interesting depth, and also shows some good detail in the snow.

The image could have been composed a little differently. Other than the subject, you have two other main elements in the image - the snow (foreground) and the woods (background). These each occupy about one-half of the image. If you had changed your POV slightly, you could have made it so that the snow took up about 1/3 of the image, and the woods the remaining 2/3. Or vice versa. But the way it is, divided 50/50, doesn't seem to give as effective a result than if you would have divvied it up differently.

Also, it does look as if something was cloned out in the middle. I hate to have to say this, but if something was cloned out there, it looks like the cloning was done rather sloppily.

It feels like you used selective color because you recognized that the subject was too small a part of the image. That's not a solution in my view. You should have gotten closer or used a longer lens. While you're at it, get in front and get the shot with the skier approaching you. There's more visual interest if at least some part of the face is in view, although it won't be much with the hat, goggle, and mask.

Thanks for the feedback. I did do a bunch of cloning to remove things in the photo. I'm still learning Photoshop and need a lot more practice.

I also like the suggestion of changing the ratio of wooded area to snow area.

I didn't use selective color, but I can see how it appears that way. Attached is the original image SOOC.

Thanks again.

Since we can't see his face, I don't think a closer shot would be an improvement.
I like the first image & might have shot it even wider to show a long expanse of hill in front of him. Sort of a "Am I really wanting to do this" type of thinking.

At least you've made a decent job of cloning the subject so he or she is heading into the space on the left instead of out of the frame, so well done for that.

Still too much going on in the background, distracting from the subject, so I'd crop it some more.
The crop (approx. 16:9) IMHO also makes it look more dynamic than the original 2:3.

scriveyn wrote in post #16762453
Still too much going on in the background, distracting from the subject, so I'd crop it some more.
The crop (approx. 16:9) IMHO also makes it look more dynamic than the original 2:3.

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forum: Critique Corner

I disagree - cropping the left won't clean up the centre where the mess has occurred.

Woodworker wrote in post #16762762
I disagree - cropping the left won't clean up the centre where the mess has occurred.

I didn't crop the left, I cropped the top.