At the playground

Crazydad · Aug 4, 2008

Hoping I'm getting better. Let me know what you think.

1.

2.

3.

4.

5.

midlight21 · Aug 4, 2008

Those are better shots than I get when I take my 3 year old to the park. He never poses at the park! I like most of them though I have to say that the last one I don't really like much because of the feet.

rufus5150 · Aug 4, 2008

A good looking series overall... and I see you're in Leander -- I live in Cedar Park

Overall, your white balance is inconsistent. Her skin tone changes from shot to shot.

In #1, the pose is very cute and, having been swayed to the 'angles in shots are evil' side of things, I have to say that the angle the photo was taken at actually works well with this shot. In my opinion, this is your strongest shot of the bunch.

It could stand to be a bit warmer and de-hazed (all could stand a bit of de-hazing). Here's a quick edit with both of those things as well as a slight adjustment in curves:

#2 has a nice use of framing with the elements of the playground but the limbs are cut off awkwardly. Both this and the first have very nice focus on her eyes.

#3 does nothing for me from a compositional/subject standpoint. Though the lighting on the swing in the background would have been a neat element to work with (its illumination of the chains). Your subject is lost in this image.

#4 I don't think your focus is where you intended (I could be wrong!) but the focus, for me, doesn't work in this photo. This and #5 both use a nice center and symmetrical approach to composition, but again, you trim parts off closer to the joints. #4 would be better if the feet were in the frame. You might want to experiment with a tighter cropping and reduce the negative space, but I'd definitely say, if you did that, put the cropped and uncropped side by side and see which you like best.

I like the way the light works on #5 in regards to the subject's hands. The feet could work in this, but ... the blurring is a bit harsh I think.

Crazydad · Aug 4, 2008

Thanks for input, I really appreciate it.

midlight21 said:
Those are better shots than I get when I take my 3 year old to the park. He never poses at the park! I like most of them though I have to say that the last one I don't really like much because of the feet.

She is a born ham, and has always been willing to pose for a picture.

rufus5150 said:
A good looking series overall... and I see you're in Leander -- I live in Cedar Park

You are correct. Nice to meet a neighbor!

Thanks for pointing out the white balance. I just have the camera set at auto and am still learing it, but will work with these in PS.

As for the haze, I think that some of it may have been caused by my own stupidity. Last night I took some pictures of my son's church play and had the ISO cranked up to 800. Any guesses as to what I forgot to do this afternoon....?

I admit the swing shots (4 & 5) didn't turn out quite like I wanted. She was swinging and I was lying down under her so it was hard to frame it accurately. She did a great job not kicking the camera (or my head!), but I guess her feet were just too close to avoid the effect.

rufus5150 · Aug 5, 2008

I de-hazed with an unsharp mask (20 amount, 60 radius, 3 threshold) in the picture I edited up there. I'm not sure ISO has anything to do with haze in images, just noise.

Crazydad · Aug 5, 2008

Cool, thanks for the settings. Do you think the CP filter may have had something to do with the haze? Or just the fact it has been so hot and hazy around here?

rufus5150 · Aug 5, 2008

I'm not yet sure how to correct haze in camera so I'm not sure what exactly causes it. Maybe someone brighter can explain.

From what I understand from reading portrait photography blogs/websites, it has something to do with exposure being not exactly right.