A smile and eye contact

El2 · Apr 21, 2009

Just wanted to get some CC on the picture I took of my kid. I know that the orange color (back of the chair) is distracting and the harsh shadows. What else can I improve on?

tirediron · Apr 21, 2009

Hey, nice work on this one. You're going to have to be careful though; if you don't watch it, the young fellow's going to be demanding modelling fees before too long. With respect to the image itself, a couple of thoughts: You've done an excellent job of lighting the subject. The highlights and shadow are almost perfect, the only slight critique here is that you might want to lighten the eyes just a little in post. There are [at least] two options to resolve the shadows on the background. One of course is to have greater separation between subject and background, and the other is to light it. A strobe on the floor, pointing up will wash out the shadows and eliminate a lot of the background detail. Another thought, which plays into that is your colour choices here. Between the blue shirt and the blue background, there's a lot of blue. I would consider something a little brighter, such as say a red shirt with this background to provide an increased contrast between the two, or perhaps a black background, in which case shadows would not be a concern at all.

Keep up the good work!
~John