Back with some of the latest...hoping for improvement!! (pic heavy)

[AMOMENT]

Hey, guys/gals...hope everyone is well. I'm still at this and still loving it. Here are a few of my latest. How are my doing?

1.
14 by Jadelm, on Flickr

2.
19 by Jadelm, on Flickr

3. (Bad Crop I know)
3 by Jadelm, on Flickr

4.
2 by Jadelm, on Flickr

5.
2 by Jadelm, on Flickr

6.
87 by Jadelm, on Flickr

7.
50 by Jadelm, on Flickr

8.
51 by Jadelm, on Flickr

9.
63 by Jadelm, on Flickr

10.
59 by Jadelm, on Flickr

11.
55 by Jadelm, on Flickr

 

[AMOMENT]

They uploaded a little darker than they are....

 

[frommrstomommy]

The last one is adorable.. and I love the girl with the leaves, but her arm is chopped ;\ A lot of these would be worlds better if little fingers and toes were not missing.

 

[Studio7Four]

C&C per request:

1) I like this one. I'm not usually a fan of the tilt but I think it works here. You seem to have lost detail in your shadows, both in the pants and background, but that doesn't bother me since those aren't really the point of the shot. I love the moment captured, in mid-step and with the hands behind the back. I do wish it had been shot a bit wider, both to get some more of the shadow coming from the feet and to make it easier to frame without cropping off part of the head.

2) Well done turning what would usually be just a snapshot into a keeper. Well timed, getting the expression and the glance to the right that you did, and I like the composition (though again I think it would benefit from being a touch wider) and depth of focus.

3) The major issue for me is the crop, but when I went back to look at it and gather my thoughts I noticed you already called yourself out on that. Otherwise I really like this one. Great timing (I love where you've caught the leaves in the frame), and I like the processing.

4) This treatment doesn't particularly work for me. Her skin seems to have been desaturated a bit, and (particularly in combination with the still-bright jacket colors) this makes her lips come off more as made up than naturally rosy. Also, due to her position in the frame (looking right with the dead space behind her) and her pose (the shoulder tilt, the tight lips), she's coming off with a bit of an arrogant attitude. Probably not how she really was, and probably not what you're trying to portray.

5-11) Sorry, but especially compared to the first four these are snapshots. The lighting is flat, and they don't really tell a compelling story, either through the scene or interaction with the camera. I see that you tried to save some of them by using vignettes...I personally am not a fan of a heavy vignette. Of this bunch I feel that 7 and 10 are closest to being keepers, but when compared to the first few in this post they certainly fall short.

 

[amolitor]

There are definite things to like here. Overall not quite to my taste, but who cares about my taste, eh?

The first four are pretty strongly contrasty and a bit dark (not as dark as that, though, from your remark?) which is definitely a "look" and a coherent one at that. I'm not sure it's a *good* look for pictures of little kids. Still, pulling together a look that you like is pretty important for a bunch of reasons, so, well done.

Several of the later ones seem to me to have overprocessed eyes, but only by a little bit.

Most of the later ones don't do much for me, they seem a little tightly cropped, and they're not particularly evocative of anything.

10 and 11 kinda work for me, partly because you're pushing back into your high-contrast look a bit, so these have a bit more pop and they feel more like "someone's work" rather than just some random pictures. Also, the poses and body language of the kid seem to me more interesting and special.

 

[HL45]

I like the style of photography. Do you ever set you metering to spot? I just wonder how a couple of these would look with spot focus on her eyes and maybe f/3.2 instead of the almost wide open aperture.
I'm having a hard time seeing where the focus hit or the DOF is so small It's not noticeable.

 

[Mully]

I think you need to leave more room around your images so body parts do not get cropped out. This will also give you a little more DOF which is needed on some of them. Very cute captures and keep shooting!

 

[LouR]

You are entirely too close in all of them to consider putting any in nice frames-always leave more room than you need as it is easier to crop it away than add it in.
The hair on the tutu girls is atrocious! Adorable photos ruined by fly-away, dirty looking hair. If it can't be controlled with a comb, consider ponytails or braids.
1 is a nice image, 3 would have been, but you knew that, 5 is adorable but could benefit from just a little retouching of the skin and fly aways.

 

[AMOMENT]

Thanks for the CC. I actually cropped all of these so I think had you seen the original you would see I was quite far away...perhaps I should de-crop a bit. I can try and fix the fly away with a clone stamp....THANKS!

 

[austexshooter]

This is my first hour, first topic. Not sure I belong here in a digital forum. "Clone stamp" yipes! The fourth and eighth portrait where the little girl is close to the edge of the frame, rule of thumb is, and this is old school, but she's too young to be that close to the edge. There should be more room beyond her eyes (representing more life to live), An 80 year-old woman that close to the edge would be more apropoh. Give her room to grow. But then there are exceptions. I don't know this little girl's history. If she were terminally ill with a short life expectancy then that close to the edge would be suitable. Just my 2 cents. May I grade the group of photos overall?