Kites and Joy

[begintoend]

Hi, this is my first time posting and my humble shot recently. Please provide me with areas to work and improve on.

1. In what area is critique to be sought?
Will like to know about all areas. how to improve on composition, lighting and technique in landscape and such kite-shooting. Is the hdb background too far? Kites are not as clear as I liked.

2. What I hope to achieve with this piece of work?
To share the joy the people have are as high as the kites in the deep blue sky.

3. Under what circumstance is the picture taken? (physical conditions/emotions)
This was taken last weekend. around 5-6pm. Fair weather and sparse clouds. Open field opposite Sengkang sports complex. Noticed in an instance 2 girls playing, people getting their kites up happily. All this within the vicinity of our neighborhood.

4. What the critique seeker personally thinks of the picture?
Generally I am happy with the shot, composition wise. But was hoping that the hdb background is slightly higher..

 

[nysheng]

if it wasn't for the title, i wouldn't have known they were kites... :dunno:

not sure what the focal point of the picture is.

if u want to show joy, u will need to show some facial expressions. right now, the sky takes up too much space. everything else just takes a back seat. a closer view of the kids playing with their kite might convey ur intention more.

 

[rronnie]

i think if u wanted to show kids n kites u should shoot closer to 1-2 kids and from ground level upwards. I cannot see the kites at all, i see what appears a a bird instead.

i would pick 1-2 kids and 1-2 kites at most, and avoid shooting so much of the sky to fill up the whole frame. just my personal opinion.

 

[Guystqy]

Not a bad shot, I cant think of anything to comment other than the fact that the right side silhouette is a little distracting and you can perhaps crop it out of the frame. Ahh, maybe make your subjects bigger by zooming in on them, or walking forward. Just my 5cents opinion. Hope you wont be offended.

 

[begintoend]

Thanks all bros for their inputs. I agree that I had too much sky too. But I believe Joy can be captured even without facial expressions.
I had a look at ground level up with a person, one kite and sky, for that I couldn't capture details as in the joy. Maybe more on the success of putting the kite into the wind.
When I think back, most of the kites are all high up in the sky, with my kit lens, I couldn't get a kite in sky along with the person on the ground in finer details.
For me the background jus adds the heartland mood into the activity... or so as now.. not picked up by any except me. *facepalm*
I guess all my details did not add up. Will try harder.
Wonder what's best apart :dunno:
kite and person?
Kite + person + sky?
Kite + sky?

 

[izerkudie]

hmm u are focus-ing both kite and people, so kinda out of track, either/neither kite or ppl

 

[pokiemon]

kite and person?
Kite + person + sky?
Kite + sky?

To answer your questions:
Think of it logically. You want to express joy. [Step 1] Capture the expression of the person. Next question is why is the person happy? So you want to connect his happiness with something. Is it the kite or sky? If it is kite, [Step 2] capture the kite. the rest of the elements are noise and can cause distractions.

 

[t3hkor]

my notice wasnt on the kite... the biggest flying thing was the bird

 

[sabee]

1) The shot is a little too wide, there are extra silhouttes (or part of one) on both the left and right side of the photo, cropping them away would be good.
2) There is a strange vignet visible at the top, should be able to crop away as well with no loss of subject.
3) The things in the sky are too tiny, even one big kite in the foreground would do wonders as I will be able to make the connection that the rest are kites.
4) The buildings in the background are a good touch, but slightly tilted, they can be corrected in postprocess as well - might or might not help to improve the picture, hard to tell.

 

[night86mare]

first impression was that it was a cluttered, jumbled shot.

ask yourself - what do you want to show?

now take a step back, look at your picture again as an outsider, and ask yourself, have you succeeded in showing what you wished to show?

you write here that you wish to "share the joy of people flying kites" - now, take a look at the picture, answer these questions:

1) can you tell clearly that they are flying kites if you have not seen this location being depicted as popular with kite-flying?

2) can you see any joy?