Please critique

What do you think of this shot? Thanks for your comments and time!

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It's a good shot, I would crop out some of the space above their heads though.

It's a on camera flash shot but a lighter background or some backlighting would have made it a much better shot.

I love it. You've captured such a natural expression on both of them. I think the exposure is very good- as mentioned, crop the dead space and you have a real keeper.

I hope you don't mind- when I saw this shot I immediately thought a B&W would give it a timeless feel. Here's my take...

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I do not mind the black and white. Thanks for the comments everyone

My attempt.

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IMAGE LINK: http://callto://mickle​uk

Take note of all of the severe hot spots, starting with the 3 right in the brow and the one on the tip of the nose. All of these are distracting and un-necessary. They are the direct result of harsh lighting. It is necessary to have very diffuse lighting in order to avoid these hot spots - especially when you have any surfaces that will reflect like a mirror.

A crude but effective diffuser can be constructed from a polyethelene milk jug.

Just stepping back and using a telephoto lens setting can also reduce the harshness of the flash.

You know gplracer, when I look at a picture, the first thing I notice is how it makes me feel, or what the picture says to me. Afterwards, I tend to look at the technical aspects.

This picture is emotive and speaks volumes to me. You've successfully captured the emotion in the subject's faces; a difficult feat for some photographers.

When you master the minor technical aspects that Bob and others pointed out, you'll produce consistent "winners" (in my opinion anyway).

I like this picture

Meaty0 wrote:
You know gplracer, when I look at a picture, the first thing I notice is how it makes me feel, or what the picture says to me. Afterwards, I tend to look at the technical aspects.

This picture is emotive and speaks volumes to me. You've successfully captured the emotion in the subject's faces; a difficult feat for some photographers.

When you master the minor technical aspects that Bob and others pointed out, you'll produce consistent "winners" (in my opinion anyway).

I like this picture

Unfortunately, my critiques tend to focus on the technical details, which often fails to give recognition to the emotive aspects of the image.

The image has great warmth and feelings that go with it, and that is every bit as important as any of the technical aspects. In other words, the technical aspects can hurt your image, but an image that is technically perfect but carries no feeling would be pointless.

Robert and Meato thanks for your comments. They are both very welcome and greatly appreciated. Mickle that was a great crop. Actually when this was printed it was cropped in a similar fashion so that it ended up as a 5x7 form factor

That looks really dark on my monitor.