My boy in the water...

[SoonerBJJ]

The boy does love the water.

Shot with 5Dmk3 and edited in LR4. My goal with these candid environmental portraits is to capture a scene or subject with personal meaning to the family, that appeals to my own peculiar aesthetic, and do so with composition and technique that can at least be appreciated by the discerning photographic eye. Not saying I will ever achieve it, or that it is even attainable, but my goal is always technical perfection (within the constraints of whatever conditions I'm shooting).

That being said, C&C always welcome.

 

[The_Traveler]

While the exposure and sharpness of his face is right on the button, the tilt is so disturbing as to warrant tossing this.
That blown out area at the bottom hurt also.

 

[SoonerBJJ]

Thanks for the feedback. I guess I'm missing your meaning on the disturbing "tilt." I'm shooting from just above the subject's eye level so he is nearly staring straight on and using his pupils as a horizon they are just over 1 degree off level. For kicks I corrected that 1 degree and it's damn near impossible to discern.

The area at the bottom is actually the stark white rim of the pool. It is OOF as intended and I included the rim because I thought it framed the bottom of the composition, giving some context to the jets of water, so they wouldn't seem to come out of thin air. I also gave the image just a tad of positive vignette because liked the effect. As I'm learning from my mistakes, I've been guilty in the past of being too heavy handed with the negative vignette (a point I believe you've made on an occasion or two ). Right now I like it, but I'll have to give it some thought.

 

[MiFleur]

The little boy is cute but there is too much of him hidden behind the water. I agree that this is disturbing a bit. I would like to his his beautiful eyes better!

 

[SoonerBJJ]

The little boy is cute but there is too much of him hidden behind the water. I agree that this is disturbing a bit. I would like to his his beautiful eyes better!

That's a reasonable point about so much of his face being covered but I suppose I hadn't considered it because I have so many images that feature his face in full view. I liked the novelty of this shot with his face in perfect focus behind the wall of water. Good point though.

I played with an adjustment brush and brought back some texture to the white rim at the base and found it distracting. I'll play around with cropping it altogether and see how it compares.

 

[Derrel]

I think as a family shot, it's very cute. I have no idea what the "tilt" being referred to is. It has a bright, summery feel to it. A little bit of overexposed area does not absolutely ruin an image. As far as "tossing" the image because of some imagined defects...utterly ridiculous. The kid's adorable, and he's having fun. It's a record. Who would "toss" a photo of one's own toddler son based on some perceived tilt? Content easily trumps the technical on family photos. This image, unlike many, has a simple, clear main subject.