Favorite little Trick or Treater

[Michiyo-Fir]

C&C appreciated!

 

[Michiyo-Fir]

No C&C for this little man?

 

[Big Mike]

It's a photo of a cute little guy, but as for the C&C aspect...it's not great.

Firstly, you left a ton of room above the child, but cut off his feet at the bottom. It looks to be lit with on-camera flash, which does light him up nicely, but it's very flat (boring) light.

The background (and clothes of parent) are dark which isn't really a bad thing as it makes him stand out...but usually a 'better' photo will have a better balance between ambient and flash.

Lastly, the big white shoe of the parent is a bright distracting element to the photo...especially because everything else is to dark.

Oh, one more thing. I'm guessing that you know this little guy (is he yours?). That probably means that you have an idea of what he's thinking/doing and you, having been there, know exactly what he's looking up at.
I'm just viewing the image on a screen, I have no idea who he is or what he's looking at. The lesson is that if you want the photo to appeal to 'outsiders', it should have something to capture our attention. For example, if he was looking right at the camera, that creates a connection to the viewer. Or if we could see what he was looking up at, that would also create more of a connection, thus making the photo more interesting to us. A photo like this usually isn't meant to be 'interesting' to outside viewers...it's meant to capture a time and a memory for those who were there and/or who already have a personal connection to the subject.

So it's not a 'bad' photo because of a few technical flaws. It's perfect if it's meant to as a keepsake for the parents etc.
But if you're going to put it up for complete strangers to analyze...it's not very good in that sense.

 

[Michiyo-Fir]

Oh, one more thing. I'm guessing that you know this little guy (is he yours?). That probably means that you have an idea of what he's thinking/doing and you, having been there, know exactly what he's looking up at.

I don't know who he is lol. I work in a mall and the mall was doing trick or treat for the children. So I just brought my camera on that day to do a few shots of the kids heading towards the store. Basically there was no way to pose them or tell them what to do, I'm just documenting the process of children trick or treating as they pass by.

Thanks for the tips though! They were very helpful.

 

[Big Mike]

OK, well that is some good information for us to have when critiquing an image.

The technical points matter more when there really is no connection, as I mentioned above. To improve it as a documentary photo, you might have included more of the background to set the scene but I still think that if he was looking at the camera, or looking at something we could see and identify with, then it would be a stronger image.