Family portrait

[Gina]

This is one from a recent afternoon in the park with my friend Geraldine and 2 year old Ethan. It was a great day, we all had a lot of fun. Any critique appreciated.



Thanks

Gina

p.s. I've just noticed some odd marks on the right side of the image so will be correcting this. Please don't include this in your critique. Tar x

[ash]

Re: Family portrait

Now that is a portrait shot to be proud ov!
For me personally everything is perfect 10/10

[Gina]

Re: Family portrait

Cheers Ash

[Josh Bear]

Re: Family portrait

Agree with ash. Really great picture. Love the colours and sharpness. Expressions perfect. Get it on the wall.

Best regards

Josh

[Pol]

Re: Family portrait

Nice one, Gina.

Such a bright, cheerful and happy shot.

Pol

[Gina]

Re: Family portrait

Thank you everyone, my friend Geraldine loves this too. I'm so happy. xxx

[kennykodak]

Re: Family portrait

great one Gina. i must say that i watched you grow in the craft greatly in the past year or so that i dropped by.

i was trained as an international print juror by the PPA. the number quality in a great print is IMPACT. this is perfectly achieved here and with the lighting technique being dead on. love the separation.

[Gina]

Re: Family portrait

great one Gina. i must say that i watched you grow in the craft greatly in the past year or so that i dropped by.

i was trained as an international print juror by the PPA. the number quality in a great print is IMPACT. this is perfectly achieved here and with the lighting technique being dead on. love the separation.

Thank you, that means the world to me.

Gina

[Stephen]

Re: Family portrait

As the others have said, I think this is a great portrait. Not wishing to "rain on your parade" however, I wish we couldn't see her knees.

[Ian]

Re: Family portrait

I somehow overlooked this when it first went up but my first impressions are - great dynamic picture with great expressions from the subjects. The lighting is impressive too. I must admit I hadn't seen her knees until Stephen mentioned it!

As this is the critique board, I'd also add that the bokeh of the de-focused background is not as smooth and creamy as it could be - this is perfectionist talk I stress, and made only because I know you are very keen to develop your results. A wider aperture might have helped - I don't know what lens you used, but you used f/5.6; could you have gone wider? And of course it may be an optical characteristic of the lens itself, in which case there was nothing to be done apart from use a better lens!

Ian

[kennykodak]

Re: Family portrait

an image can be technically correct but clinically dead. i like this image because of the impact of the faces. the knees can be cropped a tad more as long as it doesn't get into the joint of the elbow. looking beyond the subject i see what appears to be two clone stamps above the child's head. also i see what appear to be three patch marks along the right. i may be wrong about the post production flaws BUT my initial response to the image was a smile. the capture of the moment and the sparkle in the eyes are there and strong enough to tell the story rather than the process.

[Gina]

Re: Family portrait

Thank you Stephen and Ian for pointing out some things to consider. I will reprocess this and repost. I loved this shot as soon as I saw it. All you can do sometimes is get the child's attention just for a second and these moments are the ones that I aim to capture for a lifetime. I am not technically perfect, I am working with the same Canon 400D that I bought in 2008 for my trip to Cyprus. I don't have the latest LR or PS but I do the best I can with what I have available to me right now.

I love photography, it makes everyone feel good.

Gina

[Ian]

Re: Family portrait

an image can be technically correct but clinically dead. i like this image because of the impact of the faces. the knees can be cropped a tad more as long as it doesn't get into the joint of the elbow. looking beyond the subject i see what appears to be two clone stamps above the child's head. also i see what appear to be three patch marks along the right. i may be wrong about the post production flaws BUT my initial response to the image was a smile. the capture of the moment and the sparkle in the eyes are there and strong enough to tell the story rather than the process.

I would like to echo Kenny's comments; the heart of an image is the capture. I'd much rather have an eye-catching and inspiring capture with some technical issues rather than a technically perfect but uninteresting capture. Gina's shot was interesting the moment I laid eyes on it, to the extent that I didn't notice some of the technical imperfections!

Ian

[kennykodak]

Re: Family portrait

Gina,
it's the passion not the hardware. the truly great masterpieces are remembered for their impact not their details. equipment is just a tool, and ever changing tool that is depreciating daily. the skill, instinct and imagination that one develops does not. hold your passion near and dear, learn as much as you can and continue to grow. knowledge and skill are yours to keep and will never devalue. as i said before, i was wowed by your image. i never asked on what or how it was made. after some comments i had to go back and look for details. your timing in capture superseded everything else.