It's a Snow Day!

Hi,

I like the picture that follows. I like the sun in the background, I like the snow and the trees, and I like my daughter throwing snowballs.
I'm not sure that it is a "good picture", though. I know that "it's a good picture if i like it" but do you think it's a good picture? From a more detatched point of view?
If so, why? If not, why not?
Thanks in anticipation of your responses.

IMAGE LINK: http://www.flickr.com …end_the_light/5​221672746/

Its a pretty nice picture, but I think there's a bit too much empty space around your daughter, and she's a bit too small in the frame! Otherwise, I do like the sun through the trees.

I would have +1 EC'd (or more) the scene to bring out the white in the snow. The snow looks a bit gray to me.

However, I do like the composition. I do think it is a nice shot.

Thank you all for the input. I did find it hard with snow shots to balance the "look" of the snow with the "need for white". It's a very fine balance, I think, and having a blueish tint is preferable to blow outs, in my mind.
I also have processed many of my snow shots in mono, which reduces that problems somewhat, however, I liked the sunlight in this one too much to lose it.

Cheers

I definitely liked the pic.
Personally the sunrise/sunset seems to distract from the energy that your boisterous daughter throwing snowballs at you seems to show. The sunset individually by itself would have been a good picture due to the golden glow and the trees.
Also, maybe getting a shot of a bigger snowball/ or one more closer to the camera to add in more perspective would have looked even better.
Nice hat though btw

I was too busy avoiding the snowballs to get closer...my 400d is not snowproof! ha ha.

She loves that hat and scarf! Can be seen for miles!

A snowball wont really hurt your camera...
Go watch this if you don't really believe me

You've asked a good question. What makes a picture "good"? Putting up one of your own photos for critique is an excellent way of learning how to answer that question.

The principles of what makes an image 'successful' are fairly straightforward. Sure, you may think of an image as a "good picture" because you like it, but you'd probably like it even more if it had even stronger pictorial qualities. Instead of asking yourself if an image is 'good', try to get into the habit of identifying qualities of the photo that could have turned out even better. Even if that quality is something that would have been completely beyond your control at the moment of capture, it's really good practice to recognize what it is.

In this case, you have a photo that has some nice 'passages' in it, but that could come together better as a whole. The low light coming through the trees is terrific; the background has the best light and the most detail and is therefore the part of the image that holds the greatest visual interest. That means it's more picked out than your subject, and that's the reverse of what you want. Your daughter is relatively dark and small in the frame, making her unable to compete with the large, bright background.

Ideally you would have had some off-camera fill flash giving her a full range of tonal values, and she would be larger in the frame, preferably with part of her breaking the plane of the snowy 'horizon' line, so as to tie the two regions of the photo together. Both of those things might have been too difficult for whatever reason, but that's really besides the point. When you can identify things that could have made a photo better, you can carry those lessons forward to future shots and thereby improve your photography.

Even just some on-camera fill flash would have helped here. If you're going to be shooting a backlit subject, be prepared with your flash up and ready to go. Also, when you're photographing children, it's usually best to get right down to their level. That will give them more prominence in the frame. In addition, consider being further away and using a longer focal length and a wider aperture. That will help you to get some subject separation by making the background out of focus.

At any rate, you have a photo with a pretty background and a cute kid in it, and that's a good start.

^ As always, sage advice and critique.

Indeed...I was just coming to say thanks to all...

Thanks all, and as always, I store advice and critique for further use.

abhivg wrote in post #11380586
A snowball wont really hurt your camera...
Go watch this if you don't really believe me

Tried to add a link but it seems its not allowed or something. Anyways it was a video from digitalrev-dot-com where the host compared a 400D and a D90 I think by subjecting them to toughness tests that would give a photographer a heart attack (driving nails through wood using the front element of the kit lens!!! :rolleyes. But the most surprising thing was that both cameras worked and took decent pictures after that...