Zion CC Please - Dont hold back !!

I am working on eyes.. PP and overall sharpness in my portraits. Am I on the right track?

Some info:
Nikon D50
50mm lens
ISO 1000
2.8
1/40 - Handheld
No flash.

This was visiting Santa today

 

You're definitely getting there. Do you think another crop would help minimize the work?

This photo in a shadowbox frame (like he's peeking in on you) might be cool.

(just a thought) I do love the photo!

 

Oh, I'm not sure about this one Z.

Great capture of anticipation, but it doesn't look very sharp to me. This is just me and it is in MHO,the eyes are working only a little. The nose and nostrils are OOF, however, the lips and teeth are good apart from three hotspots I see. One dot at the right corner of his mouth, one dot on his lower lip between the first and second upper teeth (LH side) and the line on his lower lip below his front teeth.

All in all, he does look excited.

 

Thank you!! Thats weird.. I did not use a flash for this one so I wonder how I can get hotspots?

 

Thats a very cute crop ! I will try that!

 

this one seems to be very focussed onto his lips ... unless there is a message in this, I would prefer to get the eyes more into focus.

 

Thats what I'm trying to work on . Next time.. Thank you for the comment Alex

 

Bump ..

Can someone tell me with my settings that I provided how could I have made this shot better.

I know that I need to focus on the eyes and I thought I did. Do you think its because its a Low-Res file?

This was a low-light rec center and I did not use a flash. I did not want Santa to get mad.. - and not get me what was on my list






I don't want to be a pain. I just want to be a better photog!

 

you could try f8 to f11 and focus on the eye and then recompose.

 

first of all let me say this is just my opinion not to be taken as much value.

a. I think the composition is too tight. Portraits that have less than all the head seldom work for me personally.
b. I think the composition would have worked better as a vertical shot.
c. It seems to be out of focus on the eyes. I assume it was manual focus. Always focus on the eyes. They are how most of us judge the sharpness of a portrait. If you did use the eyes as the focus point and you meant it to be sharp, you might try more room illumination to help with focus. If that isn't possible and it usually isn't go with zone focus. IE smaller f stops.
d. If you shot this natural light I don't know where the high lights in the eyes could have come from.

On to the good side. I think the expression on the child is so perfect for this time of year, that I would forgive everything else if it were in a magazine or even in a frame but alas there is nothing in the picture to tell us what he is so excited about.

Back in the day, God help me I'm about to tell an old days story, we always had a Christmas package or something like that in the shot to help tell the story to give it an anchor so to speak. A candy cane would also work.

Please don't put too much faith in this I'm way out of touch here.

 

I'm probably the last person to take advice from but I think if you had use say an f3.5 and left everything else the same the picture would have looked a little better. This and of course getting better focus on the eyes.

 

You seem to have a good grasp on color in post-processing. However, the eyes and lips being so much sharper than the rest of the photo I find a little disconcerting. The lips are clearly a little over-sharpened, and the eyes look like they're about to pop out of his head. I'd give it another go. I think you're definitely on the right track.