young girl portrait: C&C

brittanyrose864 · Jun 22, 2012

Any advice on how I could do better? Please feel free to critique. (kindly =) Thanks!

BTW, When I shot the picture, I forgot to turn my ISO down (shot in JPEG) since I was shooting outdoors so the quality may not be the greatest.

Sorry!

Ernicus · Jun 22, 2012

Do you see anything wrong with your photo? If so, state what you see wrong and ask how you can fix it? You will get more defined answers.

Not being mean, but your pictures is a mess, and most are not going to go into everything that is wrong with it as it's just too much.

Another note, if you are going to put a web address on your pictures....it's probably best to not put a link to a blank page. ;-) even if your reply will be "yeah..I'm working on that...It's not ready yet". If it's not ready..don't plaster it on your images.

Cute kid btw.

brittanyrose864 · Jun 22, 2012

Ernicus said:
Not being mean, but your pictures is a mess, and most are not going to go into everything that is wrong with it as it's just too much.

Another note, if you are going to put a web address on your pictures....it's probably best to not put a link to a blank page. ;-) even if your reply will be "yeah..I'm working on that...It's not ready yet". If it's not ready..don't plaster it on your images.

Cute kid btw.

=) It needs work, I know. Well, would you mind just telling me what bothers you most about the picture and telling me how you think it could be fixed?

Well, the reason I put the address up there is because I didn't exactly want a link going to my FB page but I still wanted a way for people to get in touch with me if they found my picture somewhere. lol >.< (Probably doesn't make sense... oh well) I didn't want my email address because of spam.

ha

Heitz · Jun 22, 2012

I'll help. Exposure is good, focus is ok, but soft on top, leading me to believe you shot a bit more open than you should be. Try closing it down. But you can tell that this wasn't a planned shot -- probably just the one that just looked best in the end. I say that because the background brick wall is pretty boring, and most would not include the little section of ground on the bottom left. I can see why though, the kid's expression is pretty entertaining. Its easy to focus (cognitively) on the subject so much that you lose sight of what is in the background. If you keep that in the back of your mind, you might have better luck with creating photographs rather than snapshots. No offense intended.

kundalini · Jun 22, 2012

brittanyrose864 said:
Well, would you mind just telling me what bothers you most about the picture and telling me how you think it could be fixed?

There is no fix for missed focus. Other matters can be addressed later, but proper focus on the eyes is first and foremost.

kundalini · Jun 22, 2012

Heitz said:
, focus is ok,

Did you look at the larger image of the attachment?

Ernicus · Jun 22, 2012

It's not just a matter of needing work. It's a cute snapshot.

My statement was really just to help you get answers as I know you are eager to learn. I don't really have much to offer up but opinions.

For instance, if you say "my pictures seem to be blurry all the time" people can help with that. Or if you say "why is my picture so dark" they can help you.

To put up a snap shot and say "how can I do better", well...aside from random jerks popping in with their comments, you will get sooo many overwhelming replies that might spin your head since you are very new.

There is a plethora of information for reading on her. Start with the basics. Learn your camera. Learn about composition, lighting, aperture, shutter speeds, etc etc. How they all work together.

Take more photos, put up more examples, and ask specific questions on how to improve on things you feel need improving on.

Your picture, is out of focus, has a not so great background, composition very lacking, lighting is not ideal, basically looks like you just picked up a camera and pointed it and shot. Which is ok, if that's what you want, a snapshot. I don't think you do though based on your other thread.

So rather than critique your photo, I would rather send you on your way to other areas of the forum reading and learning about what makes a good photo, then learn how to take a good photo.

Hope that helps you.

Heitz · Jun 22, 2012

kundalini said:
brittanyrose864 said:

Well, would you mind just telling me what bothers you most about the picture and telling me how you think it could be fixed?

Click to expand...

There is no fix for missed focus. Other matters can be addressed later, but proper focus on the eyes is first and foremost.

Yea on second inspection it is out of focus. Note to self: see optometrist.

Ernicus · Jun 22, 2012

...and yeah, always get the eyes in focus as kundalini said. The eyes are the key to the soul.

...and I was helping, I was typing up my other reply. I really believe the best help is not to have her photo torn apart but rather direct her in the path of reading and learning what makes a good photo.

brittanyrose864 · Jun 22, 2012

lol! Thanks everyone... I should elaborate more next time. =)

This was just a quick shot a got of a girl after church. I didn't really think about adjusting my settings on the camera and she was moving around a lot so I was not able to focus on her eyes (which is my goal, trust me...)

May I ask what your opinion is on the lighting? Did I "fix" her face too much?

^^^ More specific?

lol jk

Thanks for all the advice... I'm taking it in

Heitz · Jun 22, 2012

Did you lighten her face? If so, I'd say you're pushing it -- any lighter at all and it would appear blown out. Honestly brittanyrose, there's little you can do to 'fix' a shot that out of focus. A little sharpening maybe, but other than that, soft is soft. Kids move around a lot. Are you using AF-C focus w/ single point? Also what was your F-stop for this shot?

SCraig · Jun 22, 2012

If you must pose a subject in front of a brick wall then move them well away from it so that your DOF will render it completely out of focus. The bricks, bright yellow spots, and pile of dirt are very distracting.

Her smile looks like she ate something terrible. A forced smile is worse than no smile at all.

Get down at or below the subject's eye level. That was shot from slightly above.

As has been stated, it's just plain out of focus.

Ernicus · Jun 22, 2012

SCraig said:
Ernicus said:

The image is overexposed as a whole, histogram shows.

I did a quick edit, not to show how to edit, but to illustrate how correct exposure should be. I just adjusted the levels a bit to compensate for the over exposure. Sometimes my stuff don't look right in the threads as im on laptop, but you get the idea and it looks good on my screen, lol. I also did some filters and tried to sharpen eyes a bit, for fun.

Click to expand...

You did notice that her profile states "My Photos Are NOT OK to Edit", right?