Few shots from the other day C&C

JeffieLove · Mar 20, 2010

These are a few shots I took of the kids the other day at the playground...

Wanted to see what you all thought

Bitter Jeweler · Mar 20, 2010

I like the third one.

Aayria · Mar 20, 2010

Beautiful children!

1) I would boost the "warmth" of tones in this picture- the blues seem a bit too dominant, maybe the blue of the playground equipment was reflecting "blue-ish" light onto the child's face? It's a darling shot, but it seems the camera chose to focus on the object closest rather than the boy- to my eye it looks like the slide is more in focus than he is. I'd like to see more of him in the frame, less of the slide.

2) I like this one much better than the first

His lovely eyes are in great, sharp focus, and the skin tones look much more natural. None of the fake blue light here. What I think could make it a little better, is having him less "dead center" in the shot... It's a sweet picture of a beautiful little boy- but it doesn't hold my interest. Also, something about the shadow seems off.. Is that part of the playground equipment, or am I seeing your shadow in the frame?

3) LOVE this one! Great job on using the forground to frame your subject! It really draws the viewer in to the child, and (his/her?) eyes. It really makes you wonder what the child is thinking about

I think maybe boosting the "warmth" of tones would befefit this shot as well, but the blue-ish color isn't as dominating or distracting as in the first one, so it really does work well with the overall mood. The third one is worth of framing IMO =)

Looks good! Most importantly, how do YOU feel about the pictures? Did you have fun?

JeffieLove · Mar 20, 2010

Bitter Jeweler said:
I like the third one.

We need a happy dance smiley!!!

I got a HUGE smile on my face seeing you say you like one of my pictures

lmao!

mrpink · Mar 20, 2010

Playgrounds offer so many choices for unique perspectives, play around with different looks. Try and get the children in a more natural state of play.

Watch the exposure too. A blown out sky is understandable (#3) but when half the hair detail is lost (#2) you need to back it off somewhat.

p!nK

JeffieLove · Mar 20, 2010

Aayria said:
Beautiful children!

1) I would boost the "warmth" of tones in this picture- the blues seem a bit too dominant, maybe the blue of the playground equipment was reflecting "blue-ish" light onto the child's face? It's a darling shot, but it seems the camera chose to focus on the object closest rather than the boy- to my eye it looks like the slide is more in focus than he is. I'd like to see more of him in the frame, less of the slide.

2) I like this one much better than the first His lovely eyes are in great, sharp focus, and the skin tones look much more natural. None of the fake blue light here. What I think could make it a little better, is having him less "dead center" in the shot... It's a sweet picture of a beautiful little boy- but it doesn't hold my interest. Also, something about the shadow seems off.. Is that part of the playground equipment, or am I seeing your shadow in the frame?

3) LOVE this one! Great job on using the forground to frame your subject! It really draws the viewer in to the child, and (his/her?) eyes. It really makes you wonder what the child is thinking about I think maybe boosting the "warmth" of tones would befefit this shot as well, but the blue-ish color isn't as dominating or distracting as in the first one, so it really does work well with the overall mood. The third one is worth of framing IMO =)

Looks good! Most importantly, how do YOU feel about the pictures? Did you have fun?

On #1, it is definitely the playground equipment

I can work on the warmth thing, or something with it

As far as more of him and less of the slide, that's just a matter of another quick crop

On #2, the shadow is actually the red bar that he was next to. It is one of the support beams on the equipment... As far as not having him dead center... Another quick crop

In #3, again, I will see what I can do with the warmth of the picture

I definitely understand what you're saying though

JeffieLove · Mar 20, 2010

mrpink said:
Playgrounds offer so many choices for unique perspectives, play around with different looks. Try and get the children in a more natural state of play.

Watch the exposure too. A blown out sky is understandable (#3) but when half the hair detail is lost (#2) you need to back it off somewhat.

In all 3 pictures, I caught them mid play

it was our first trip to the playground after the winter snows and early spring rains and everything so they were kind of "out of their comfort zone" which is why they were more than willing to sit still for pictures...

I take my camera with us EVERY time we go to the playground hoping I will get some better action shots... It's a work in progress

No worries

As far as the hair being blown out in #2, I tried burning it in PP but it didn't seem like it was doing a whole lot... Not really sure if I was doing something wrong, or if there is another tool I should use? Feel free to play around with some PP if you want

mrpink · Mar 20, 2010

JeffieLove said:
As far as the hair being blown out in #2, I tried burning it in PP but it didn't seem like it was doing a whole lot... Not really sure if I was doing something wrong, or if there is another tool I should use? Feel free to play around with some PP if you want

You cannot "heal" an area that is totally blown out. The pixels are white, in other words, no data.

I am not sure if Cannons have the "Highlight" feature in their playback mode. If they do, turn it on when shooting in harsh sunlight. It will help you quickly identify the overexposed areas. Taking a look at your histogram will help as well.

p!nK

JeffieLove · Mar 20, 2010

yeah, I haven't quite learned the histogram thing yet... That will be one of the next things I learn

I know basically with the histograms, it needs to be evenly spread, nothing clipped at the top, left, or right, and if it is clipped (or there's a peak) on the right hand side, it's over exposed and if it's clipped (or there's a peak) on the left hand side it is under exposed...

Is there more to know about the histograms? (i'm sure that's a dumb question lol)

mrpink · Mar 21, 2010

When I talk about "catching them in a natural state of play", this is what I am talking about...

I waited for her to find this tunnel, and then captured her reaction to it.

There are some blown highlights in this photo, but I do not believe them to be very distracting.

p!nK

JeffieLove · Mar 21, 2010

it was suggested that I "warm" this picture up a bit...

wanted to see if this looks any better or if someone wants to give me some suggestions on how else I can warm it up...

JeffieLove · Mar 21, 2010

no idea how to make the picture bigger... i posted it from flickr instead of photo bucket...

i am really sucking at this right now lol

mrpink · Mar 21, 2010

JeffieLove said:
it was suggested that I "warm" this picture up a bit...

wanted to see if this looks any better or if someone wants to give me some suggestions on how else I can warm it up...

Post a full size file for a better comparison. To me, it looks over saturated, I like the original better.

p!nK

mrpink · Mar 21, 2010

JeffieLove said:
no idea how to make the picture bigger... i posted it from flickr instead of photo bucket...

i am really sucking at this right now lol