Kids

[Emily Xu]

1. in what area is critique to be sought?
Anything that can help me improve the composition

2. what one hopes to achieve with the piece of work?
Better composition

3. under what circumstance is the picture taken? (physical conditions/emotions)
coolpic p510
flash used
focal length 4.3mm
f number f/3
exposure time 1/30sec
metering mode pattern
exposure compensation 0 step

4. what the critique seeker personally thinks of the picture
Had a hard time trying to get a shot with the kid playing on the playground. Wanted to capture the joy of the kid.

 

[catchlights]

IMO, there is noting much to crop further, unless cropping away the limbs.

 

[Foxshade]

Anything that can help me improve the composition
I don't mean to advertise other site, but this is the article I refer to regularly.

When shooting kids, be prepared to camp with camera during his play time regularly and come home empty handed, sometimes back pain due to bending down at the kid's height.

People often speak of luck when taking pictures, but luck has nothing to do with it when the moment occurs, and the photographer not ready.

Shoot often, and be patient.

 

[Shizuma]

1. in what area is critique to be sought?
Anything that can help me improve the composition

Improve your exposure. You may also want to use an off-camera flash. The light intensity from pop up flash or axis mount flash decreases too rapidly - the shoes are correctly exposed but the boy's happy face is left a little too dark .
Set metering mode to spot and lock on the boy and follow with the center-aiming spot before snapping.

2. what one hopes to achieve with the piece of work?
Better composition

as above

3. under what circumstance is the picture taken? (physical conditions/emotions)
coolpic p510
flash used
focal length 4.3mm
f number f/3
exposure time 1/30sec
metering mode pattern
exposure compensation 0 step

plus a cheerful kid let's not neglect to fill that part in

4. what the critique seeker personally thinks of the picture
Had a hard time trying to get a shot with the kid playing on the playground. Wanted to capture the joy of the kid.

Use flash to freeze action. Set your AF drive mode to the continuous focus type. Overall he is cheerful enough and you did capture it. However you know you can do much better for sure

 

[flame angel]

These r the problems I've spotted in your shot:
1. Used of direct flash has caused harsh shadow around the head and legs area
2. The shot is taken with the camera pointed directly at the shoe so the shoes look kind of oversize.
3. the light falls off the subject from the bottom & gradually darken on the top, kind of like a gradient light source
therefore the face is under exposed
4. One of the limbs is hidden completely from view, it looks weird
5. Background has speckle of distracting light
imo, the expression on the kid face looks great. But u choose a difficult time & situation to take the photograph
When u are in a location, watch how the light falls on your subject. Is it harsh or soft? Portrait generally looks
better with soft light. And also note that if the light level is too low u don't have much choice to make great photos.
keep shooting!

 

[zaren]

i would try to fill the frame as much as possible, in this case cropping away the top portion of (imho) wasted space. as well as improving the lighting levels so that the child can be seen more clearly. the joyful expression and a sense of action is well captured.
e.g.

 

[Emily Xu]

zaren, wow.. thanks.. I think the edited version looks so much nicer.. this shot was taken at night at the playground without much lighting..
the best option was to use the flash on the camera..

shizuma, thanks some great advice there.. i'll try that out

flame angel, the kid is coming down from the slide.. one of the arms is hidden behind.. coming too fast actually.. i'm just blind shooting

btw.. its a girl not a boy.. she just looks too much like a boy.. thanks for the advice.. will continue shooting to improve

 

[Shizuma]

zaren, wow.. thanks.. I think the edited version looks so much nicer.. this shot was taken at night at the playground without much lighting..
the best option was to use the flash on the camera..

shizuma, thanks some great advice there.. i'll try that out

flame angel, the kid is coming down from the slide.. one of the arms is hidden behind.. coming too fast actually.. i'm just blind shooting

btw.. its a girl not a boy.. she just looks too much like a boy.. thanks for the advice.. will continue shooting to improve

you may wish to buy inexpensive flash unit which can be triggered by the light from your on board flash. eg Yongnuo 460, USD 40. cover your on board flash with tissue paper to soften the light and hold the external flash using other hand or ask hub to hold for you .

it is not practical to carry light stand to playground

 

[Emily Xu]

Would this be considered a better shoot?

 

[daredevil123]

you may wish to buy inexpensive flash unit which can be triggered by the light from your on board flash. eg Yongnuo 460, USD 40. cover your on board flash with tissue paper to soften the light and hold the external flash using other hand or ask hub to hold for you .

it is not practical to carry light stand to playground

One of the biggest misconception is that putting a tissue paper over a flash will soften it. It does not really. Only way to "soften" light, is to increase the size of the light source.

 

[daredevil123]

Would this be considered a better shoot?

I prefer your previous shot a lot more. This picture's framing cut of your child's right hand, and part of her left palm. The lighting and angle also cause some reflection of the area under her nose, giving a runny nose look.

But all these attempts are not bad. A suggestion is to shoot in better light, so you can shoot in natural lighting.

 

[eggie87]

1. in what area is critique to be sought?
Anything that can help me improve the composition

2. what one hopes to achieve with the piece of work?
Better composition

3. under what circumstance is the picture taken? (physical conditions/emotions)
coolpic p510
flash used
focal length 4.3mm
f number f/3
exposure time 1/30sec
metering mode pattern
exposure compensation 0 step

4. what the critique seeker personally thinks of the picture
Had a hard time trying to get a shot with the kid playing on the playground. Wanted to capture the joy of the kid.

hmm well u did capture the joy in the kid.and its no easy task to get awesome shots of kids at night with just a pop up flash...u can always use photoshop to increase the brightness curves so the face area gets brightened up abit..but other then that..everything is fine=D

 

[eggie87]

Would this be considered a better shoot?

this shot better for B/W with a sephia filter..but a big nono to cutting off hands..

 

[Emily Xu]

sorry but if I may ask.. why is cropping of the hands a big nono?

I always thought that it is alright to crop any way you want.. is there a rule of thumb when you crop a photo?

 

[flame angel]

sorry but if I may ask.. why is cropping of the hands a big nono?

I always thought that it is alright to crop any way you want.. is there a rule of thumb when you crop a photo?

Yes there's a rule, not to crop at the joint & it's better to crop at the wider part of a body(hands, legs etc).
And also avoid cropping at the fingers.
as for your 2nd pic , it still doesn't look good by shooting down. it looks out of proportion, the limbs of the kid
look way too small. i'd sugggest that u getting low to shoot at the child eyes level. This would make better photos.
Meantime u may want to practise your framing to get better composition & always try to shoot in good light.
until u gain better shooting skill, then u might want to try shooting at different angle or try something
different.

 

[zaren]

sorry but if I may ask.. why is cropping of the hands a big nono?

I always thought that it is alright to crop any way you want.. is there a rule of thumb when you crop a photo?

the rule of thumb in cropping or doing anything else in photography is....."does it make the photo look better?"

 

[bonrya]

sorry but if I may ask.. why is cropping of the hands a big nono?

I always thought that it is alright to crop any way you want.. is there a rule of thumb when you crop a photo?

it could just be others' preference... for me, the captured expression in the second picture is the focus of the picture, so even with the hands in full view it will not affect the picture in any way.

it's like saying cutting off parts of the body off is bad, and a better composition will allow you to avoid that. it's not 'bad'. but no one will want to crop out the hands for no reason right?

i like the expression in the first picture too. Agreed that the lighting could be better, but nothing that cannot be fixed in post processing.

thanks for sharing!

 

[Shizuma]

One of the biggest misconception is that putting a tissue paper over a flash will soften it. It does not really. Only way to "soften" light, is to increase the size of the light source.

does damping the light intensity do the same ? the spread is not as wide as compared to true diffusion but the main source of light in my suggestion would be the light stand which may be sufficient to provide a soft light and hopefully the damped pop up flash will be overpowered by the external optical slave

 

[daredevil123]

does damping the light intensity do the same ? the spread is not as wide as compared to true diffusion but the main source of light in my suggestion would be the light stand which may be sufficient to provide a soft light and hopefully the damped pop up flash will be overpowered by the external optical slave

Pop up is TTL flash. Even though the damping decreases the flash power, the pre-flash is also lower, so the camera metering reading the weaker pre-flash, will tell the popup to fire even stronger, giving you the same intensity in the end. All you are doing is just wasting battery power.

If firing off camera flash, it is still better to use an inexpensive trigger. They are pretty cheap nowadays.

 

[Shizuma]

Pop up is TTL flash. Even though the damping decreases the flash power, the pre-flash is also lower, so the camera metering reading the weaker pre-flash, will tell the popup to fire even stronger, giving you the same intensity in the end. All you are doing is just wasting battery power.

If firing off camera flash, it is still better to use an inexpensive trigger. They are pretty cheap nowadays.

thanks for sharing !