Please be mean.

[Don]

I'm trying to grow as a photographer, so please offer your honest critique of this image:

This was shot at friend's party for their baby's first birthday. I brought my Canon and took a load of shots for the couple, and for fun. 99% of the shots, including this one, were un-staged candids. This was shot inside a pavilion, with my on camera strobe being bounced off the painted white ceiling. I put the camera in manual mode, but left the flash on ETTL. I took my meter readings off the sunlit grass outside the pavilion, then relied on the flash to bring the subjects inside the pavilion to a proper exposure, after doing a flash exposure lock on the subject. Was this a good way of doing things?

My laments are that she's a framed a bit too tightly, and that patch of grass is blown out. What else did I screw up?

 

[Robin Usagani]

IMO. You could have picked out a different bib

 

[TJ K]

I hate you! (you said be mean right)

Well definitely I think one of the biggest problems is cutting of limbs. You cut off part of the arm and the head. Sometimes it works but here it doesn't. It also looks like it might need a little bit more contrast.

That bright yellow spot on the left is also a little bit distracting. Good luck!

Oh p.s. Make sure to always focus on the eyes. That should be the sharpest part of the image. I can't completely tell from the picture but it looks like if may have been slightly off and on the top of the head.

TJ

 

[Petraio Prime]

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[PerfectlyFlawed]

Ok not intentionally aiming to be 'mean' , so no offense...just honest..but my honest opinion...Presuming its a girl..., since you stated in the thread. Had you *not* stated the baby was a "she"...from the blue chair, and the overly boyish bib... I'd have presumed a little boy.
Not to mention you cut off her head , which I noticed there's a pony tail at the top of her forehead---which also leads to confusion... Boy with pony tail? Or girl wearing boy bib?....get what I mean? Lol
There's sun beating down on the child's right side/face making it overexposed...and as you mentioned the grass patch is also blown out.
Those are really the only *nitpicks* or C/C rather I can tell of the bat...cute kiddo!

 

[Flash Harry]

Mean, you should have stolen the chocolate cake before shooting. H

 

[Derrel]

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[misstwinklytoes]

Someone already said the whole vertical thing... I agree because as someone else said, it's really difficult to tell that's a girl. I'm just guessing, but probably if you had done a vertical shot there would have been something there that suggested girl, you wouldn't have the bright patch of grass, and limbs would still be attached. It's not a bad shot though. I bet the parents will love it.

 

[robertwsimpson]

Get lower. Make us feel like we're on the subject's level.

 

[LCARSx32]

That's some really nervous bokeh.

 

[Don]

Thanks for everyone's input. I've filed it all away. I appreciate it!

btw - The parents did love it, and were grateful for the pictures I got. I'm just perpetually disappointed with everything I shoot, so it always comes as a bit of a welcome surprise when folks enjoy them, and remark on why they like them. All I can ever see is what I wish I hadn't effed up.

 

[KmH]

The parents are not objective, and likely have little or no knowledge of photography.

 

[AverageJoe]

Couple questions, did you set your focus based on one AF spot or all of them (default setting usually)? Did you shoot this wide open with whatever lens you were using?

 

[Don]

Couple questions, did you set your focus based on one AF spot or all of them (default setting usually)? Did you shoot this wide open with whatever lens you were using?

Spot focus, with the lens wide open. I probably focused on the end ofther nose or I rocked on my feet and moved her eyes out of the sharp DOF.

 

[er111a]

CHARGERS BABY!!!! booo stealers haha jk cute kid, but would look better vertical and different perspective