Wedding Dress
by mindylue

Comment by snaffles:
Greetings from the Critique Club!

Nice shot, I like the idea and can see you were going for a very dreamy look here and did your best to execute that with ambient light and available settings. I just wish this was a shot of a little girl wearing flowers on her head, not flowers resting on the head of a little girl. I hope you understand and see the difference, because the flowers - in terms of size, colour, sharpness, everything really - completely dominate the shot. She is almost an afterthought. A simple daisy chain or something similar would have worked so much better, that headpiece looks like what the MIL would wear.

Technically, I don't understand why you used such a shallow dof. The eyes are not in focus and having to rely on pp tricks to fix them is very weak. Unless you have razor-sharp focus on the eyes, never, ever use such a shallow aperture for a portrait. The fast shutter speed is understandable for a fidgety child, but an ISO of 400 that nearly blows out the right side of the shot and thus gives you yet more to fix in post...not necessary. ISO 200 should be your max for daylight, esp with sunlight and so little dof.

Sorry to be harsh but I want you to see where you went wrong, and try to help you from making the same mistakes in the future.

Feel free to PM me

Susan

Smile
by mindylue

Comment by snaffles:
Greetings from the Critique Club!

Cute model and the white backdrop is definitely a good idea - but as already noted the focus is soft/off and thus no part of her is truly in focus, let alone the eyes. Not that the eyes should be picked out and made to look glassily perfect and doll-like, but you need to learn to adjust your AF so it will track your subject and, when you shoot, never settle for just shooting a couple of frames, especially true with a squirmy subject like a toddle. If you don't get at least a few dozen, you won't have nearly enough to choose from. And once you've chosen the best one or two, where her eyes are tack sharp - chuck the rest!

Hope this helps

Susan

Apirl Showers
by mindylue

Comment by snaffles:
Greetings from the Critique Club!

Very cute pic, great splash capture, but the overcast sky has led to a washiness in all the tones but especially the skin tones. There needs to be some contrast to add depth and realism. The bg is distracting - the roofline of the house bisects her head and the second partial line through her shoulders also draws the eye away from her.

You have the right idea in terms of POV, too many people shoot from regular standing person height instead of eye level with your subject. It might not have hurt to level the horizon of the sidewalk behind her, its offness leads to an uncomfortable sliding downhill sensation!

Hope this helps

Susan

Smile
by mindylue

Comment by jomari:
Gorgeous!

Smile
by mindylue

Comment by jim29028:
Cute kid photo, focus seems to be off with everything soft, I'd prefer sharp eyes on this

Apirl Showers
by mindylue

Comment by tate:
adorbs.

Apirl Showers
by mindylue

Comment by grahamgator:
Priceless.

Smile
by mindylue

Comment by Cyrilda:
This is truly a cutie for high key.

Wedding Dress
by mindylue

Comment by MeMex2:
How fabulous !!!

Wedding Dress
by mindylue

Comment by WonderDude:
This is a beautiful portrait.