composition question from a newbie

[nyamy]

I'm still struggling to get it all together and produce a good shot. so I know there are many issues with this one, but right now I have some composition related questions

this was taken on the boardwalk at a kite exhibit. that's my dh holding up our toddler and I wanted to capture the little guy's joy.
I didn't know how to best crop the bottom of the shot. there's alot of distraction going on there, but I couldn't figure out how avoid brutally amputating my dh. mid-shoulder looked sloppy. I know enough not to cut off my boy's feet.

and yes, I can now see that I could have moved a bit and avoided the problem, but is there anything that can be done about that now?

and I'd love any ideas, tips, whatever, on how to better take this type of shot. or is it just not worth it?

this one is ok for the family album, and I still enjoy it from a mom's pov, but I was hoping for more.

thanks in advance for any constructive criticism. I will keep on practicing...

 

[realitycheck3907]

Honestly I think you nailed it. He is shoving him up into the air which takes my eyes straight to your son. After looking at your son, sure you look around in the image and see him holding him. But it really doesnt look that busy too me. If you try and crop him out in anyway there will be a floating arm holding your son up there. Theres just enough of your dh to not cut anything off abnormally. I am a newbie though so your mileage may vary.

 

[Harmony]

Or you could just clone in the blue sky over everything in the bottom.

 

[nyamy]

ah, didn't think of that.
still so new at this and only first starting to learn to use GIMP

thanks for the comments

 

[talking fly]

If I were you I would just crop off the 5 or 6 head tops at the very bottom of the picture. I like the flags, and I can deal with the fence and even that last head that would stick up. I think a minor bottom crop would remove 60% of the distractions.

 

[maulrat]

You can try vignetting the image to take focus away from any garbage around the edges of the photo.

 

[Resin42]

I had to google "dh". :blushing:

I'd definitely say cloning is the way to go, you've a vast expanse of blue to blend it into there, It's a very good shot to learn the technique on.

It's actually a very good shot full stop.

 

[mrodgers]

As I need practice with my cloning experience, I took the liberty to try it and show what it would look like. Hope you don't mind. This was a very easy one to fix as it was said, there is a huge expanse of clear blue sky....

I missed a dot of lamp post that was itching your husband's neck. Now it looks like he has a big mole on the back of his neck....

(photo marked private and will be deleted after a short time...)

 

[nyamy]

thanks mrodgers, I'm going to try my hand at that.
this is definitely closer to what I had in mind, although I do miss the flags.

and thank you, resin42 for your kind words.

 

[mrodgers]

You could probably work at leaving the one flag down in the lower right corner pretty easily enough. I imagine the original photo would be a lot easier to work with.