Little girl in Mississippi

[a5i736]

I took this picture while on a mission trip in mississippi. Please let me know what you think And what I could do better next time. I like the comp, but let me know what u think.

 

[Alpha]

It's a relatively unflattering picture, and not expressive of any particular emotion(s). The exposure and comp are pretty good, though.

 

[Trenton Romulox]

It's a relatively unflattering picture, and not expressive of any particular emotion(s). The exposure and comp are pretty good, though.

I agree mostly. I think the composition is just rather, I don't know, but I've seen it before. Be braver with backgrounds.

 

[The_Traveler]

And what I could do better next time. I like the comp, but let me know what u think.

Typically one crops to show the image at its best and to eliminate parts that hurt the image while including portions that benefit the image.

This picture is cropped to a very strange aspect ratio 4 x 7.3 and I can't understand why you chose it. You have clipped off her fingers, yet kept in the completely blown background at her waist height. I don't see what the composition is meant to show.

She has a lovely interesting face (altho it is underexposed by a bit.) I would crop this picture severely to remove as much as possible of the blown out areas, which only draw the eye away - and concentrate on her face.

The histogram below shows the tone distribution in the girl's face only. Her face is underexposed. When exposing for a dark subject, either skin-tone or in the shadow, against a bright background, you need to expose for what you think will be important in the final image.

 

[mysteryscribe]

I can forgive everything but the crop as well.

 

[nabero]

Background is blinding , distracts me from the subject(i especially dislike how it leaks into her shirt)....and I agree about her hand being cut off. IMO her expression is interesting and would have made a great close-up.

 

[mysteryscribe]

Hand isnt the issue. One rule of thumb I always used was, Full lenth, head to chest or tight head shots. Thats generally how I want to shoot people. This crop would be clumsy to me without a fill body shot even if the hand was there.

As for the exposure the child seems to have been exposed for her face more or less which is the way you do if you dont have a flash handy. That will almost always give a too bright background when you have backlight. A background exposure would have given her a very dark face without a fill flash.

Lots of things going on in that shot. Some very right some not so right but still a darn good effort. I would give a example of a better crop except for the not okay to edit in her post. If i had noticed that earlier I wouldnt have commented at all. Which would probably have been a blessing.