Summer portrait for C&C

mattfinucane

Hi Folks,

Wanted to get your C&C on this photo. Taken with a Nikon D200, Tokina 11-16 wide angle lens at ISO 200 with aperture f11 (I think) and shutter speed of 1/250sec. SB400 flash used.

Cheers,



Disclaimer: Please feel free to re-use but talk to me about it first - thanks

AnimalRights

Way too much saturation, the grass looks plastic and fake, the babies head is lost in the fencing and contrary to some people who always think low is best, this is shot from to low.
The whites are totally overblown...
Also have you over used the clarity or contrast? The babies skin looks unatural.

and why would someone want to re-use the pic for?

Besides that its a nice summer feel.

mattfinucane

Thanks, some very good points there. The whites are overblown. Good thing I shot it in raw. I'll have to have another go at it tonight and upload again.

Cheers dude.

AnCatDubh

Ah kids. What's not to love eh!

Nice image. The white of her dress appears kinda blown from where i'm viewing it. Did you shoot raw / is there anything there to recover.

I'd also suggest the saturation / contrast is bumped just a little too high. I think i see what you were going for, but think you just went a little too far with it.

The vignette(?) is quite stark - was it intended so?

Not the most sought after angle for portraits, but i quite like it and think it works here in this image.

You 11-16mm also wouldn't be a normal choice for portraits but you had your reasons i'm guessing.

It's quite candid, it's a pity that perhaps there wasn't a lot of engagement but that said if it was candid that you were after then nothing wrong with that either.

So broadly speaking, it is nice imho.

smelltheglove

As above, would normally be too low but I like it in this picture. If you shot raw you are laughing and will have a lovely pic in the end, the dress is way too blown out, the saturation pumped up too high also, which makes it look almost cartoon like.

Sometimes we find it hard to decide between high saturation and low and best way to get yourself used to an acceptable level is to open the pic twice, side by side and compare high saturation and lower saturation, same with any editing techniques (if you have photoshop you can just create new layers and compare) as sometimes we have a tendancy to overdo things without realising. Remember though, too much saturation and contrast makes skin tone look dreadful and that is one of the most important aspects of a portrait.

I cant tell at his size with my dodgy eyes but I suspect the focus may be more on the fencing than the face?

Rainbowsend

I think I like the low view, but it would have been nicer if she were
looking into the lens, perhaps even leaning into the lens, but then
they dont take direction very well do they?