Sweet dreams

[skyunicorn]

1. in what area is critique to be sought?
The composition and exposure.

2. what one hopes to achieve with the piece of work?
Hoped to capture my son sound asleep peacefully.

3. under what circumstance is the picture taken? (physical conditions/emotions)
He just woke up with a nightmare and got put back to sleep. The room is dark and lit by a yellow homemade night light. I lifted the cover so that it would brighten the room more but not so much that it would wake him. I was feeling upset that he has grown more attached to my mum rather than me after I started working again.

4. what the critique seeker personally thinks of the picture
As he is my son, any photo of him just melts my heart. So my view on it is very subjective. Personally I think it is my best photo so far that I have taken in the past 2 months since getting a dslr. The photo demonstrates the shallow dof in my new 50mm f1.8 lens.

 

[Eworms]

this is a lovely picture. the shallow DOF is right for this type of portrait. the warm colours :thumbsup: the closed eyes are in focus. that's the most important part of the face.

i like my 50mm too. not expensive but simply marvelous. puts my 17-55 to shame.

 

[Lekech]

Exposure :thumbsup:, composition :thumbsup:, subject (your son) :thumbsup::thumbsup::thumbsup:

 

[daredevil123]

Quite nice. But I think it would have been perfect if you go for a tighter framing by moving in quite a bit closer.

 

[night86mare]

nice mood. not a bad shot, and the shallow dof works well here.

the only bone i have to pick is the color palette here. not a fan of the red/orange slant.

 

[skyunicorn]

Thanks Eworms and Lekech !

@daredevil123: I actually cropped abit already, I'll try playing with cropping it tighter. Thanks !

@night86mare: the original shot was really orange/yellow due to the yellow night light so i reduced the saturation. i tried reducing it more but it will make the picture like a black and white photo. any suggestions?

 

[night86mare]

autocolour in photoshop can do wonders sometimes.

i just autocoloured, and then layered the result over, set to 80%.

further tweaks via color balance: -5/-5/-3 for midtones.

hope this helps.

 

[Eworms]

The original feels like the child sleeping in a bedroom with curtains drawn. Afternoon nap. The warm colours due to the filtering of sunlight thru the curtains. I like the feel. Although it was night light according skyunicorn.

The processed image does not appeal to me. It is as if the curtains had been partially withdrawn to let the lights in. So bright. How to sleep like that?

 

[night86mare]

The original feels like the child sleeping in a bedroom with curtains drawn. Afternoon nap. The warm colours due to the filtering of sunlight thru the curtains. I like the feel. Although it was night light according skyunicorn.

The processed image does not appeal to me. It is as if the curtains had been partially withdrawn to let the lights in. So bright. How to sleep like that?

you haven't seen white curtains before? :bsmilie:

 

[nostagia]

autocolour in photoshop can do wonders sometimes.

i just autocoloured, and then layered the result over, set to 80%.

further tweaks via color balance: -5/-5/-3 for midtones.

hope this helps.

Yes ps do wonders but the "right" white balance don't seem to work in this picture. Spoils everything and makes the sweet kid skin tone sickly.

 

[RebelXsii]

one word to say. UPZ:thumbsup:

 

[skarekrow24]

the warm tones of the original picture work better. However, I agree that tighter crop will further enhance this lovely picture

 

[skyunicorn]

Oh thank you so much for all your encouragements and critique !

I am now very hardworking in taking photos of my kid, hopefully I will have another one that I am proud of soon. In just less than 2 months I took over 1 thousand photos of him :bsmilie: