Kinder promotion of my son

[vipgraphx]

Here is a picture of my son. Now adays they reward almost everything. This was his kinder promotion day and they had a little party in the library to celebrate after the ceremony.
I used on camera flash as my off camera flash batteries died...great!!!! Anyways given the time thay I had and little bit of wiggle room I took this picture and thought it came out ok. Not no where near a professional portrait but given the circumstances its not to bad.

I thought this corner would be a good spot but now looking at it I think maybe the lines in the back ground are not working here. I also think I should have use a higher F stop. I think I was at 5 and should cave tried maybe 2.8 or something like that to blue the back ground more.

Any Other thoughts on what I could do better. Since I am always taking more and more shots on the go and in a hurry I thought it would be good to get some useful tips on what and what not to do.
Ex. street shots, what makes a better street shot then a poor one?

I did two edits. The second one I blurred out the BG a little and then darkened the BG so my son would pop out a little bit.

Thanks!

First Edit


zion graduation kinder by VIPGraphX, on Flickr

2nd edit


zion graduation kinder by VIPGraphX, on Flickr

 

[mitchota]

One way to help this shot out would be to get down on level with your son so that you're not shooting him from above. It's making him pull his chin up which makes his eyes look sleepy and you can get a good view up his nostrils. Opening up the aperture to 2.8 would help get the background a little more blurred out, along with moving him a little further away from the bookcases. I think the books in the background do create a nice story that adds to the "academic" nature of the event being celebrated. You definitely don't want to lose that.

It can be tough to get great light from the pop-up flash, and I totally sympathize with you on your flash batteries dying on you. I've had that happen to me more than I'd like to admit. You did capture a good moment as this is definitely something to celebrate, and it's better that you have some kind of picture to have as a keepsake. Like you said, they do tend to celebrate everything now in school, so you will have more chances to practice situations like this for sure!

 

[gregtallica]

Just a comment from no one but an "onlooker" - the blur on the second edit doesn't really work to my eyes. I like the first much better.