On Vacation
by teachme53

Comment by kiwiness:
Is this car a Mercedes or Mercury? Nice idea! Did you dispose of the body afterwards? :-)

Peek-A-Boo
by teachme53

Comment by indigo997:
Dejavu... This is the third shot titled "peekaboo" that I have done in a week!
First of all, looking at your photo & info I notice a couple of things. You definitely need better lighting. You don't have to have professional lights, but set up a bunch of soft lamps and diffused lighting. Lots of people (me included) use worklamps from Home Depot to help with this. Once you get more lighting you can get a faster shutter. 1/60 is the minimum for avoiding camera shake, but with a moving chid you really need something faster. You also need a higher aperture to get sharper focus. Somewhere between 5 and 6 is usually good for this sort of thing. A really small f number (like 2 or 3) is good for portraits when you have a background to blur, but that wasn't a problem here. That's one thing you have going for you - no distracting bg.
The composition is pretty good tho you might not crop quite so much off the top of her head. Main problem is that it looks so dark/underexposed and a little blurry. If you've been in the forums lately you'll know that people are pretty tough on kid shots. Sometimes I think that most of those people just haven't tried taking a good shot of a moving child ;P
This is somewhere between a snapshot and a studio shot. I think you are considering things (like background and composition) and just have a few technical issues to overcome. You have the cute factor working, but focus is SO SO important in portraits. The eyes are open and looking at the camera so they HAVE to be in focus. I know that's tough with a moving child, but using a high f number helps a lot. Good luck with this cute model! Don't get too discouraged with entering kid shots. Once you get the hang of it, they can be far more rewarding than many other things. Besides, what's really more important... a good shot of a child or a good score from a bunch of strangers?

Standing tall
by teachme53

Comment by Tarbini:
Very nice shot !!!

Standing tall
by teachme53

Comment by jodiecoston:
Quite beautiful. I love the way the flag actually leads out of the frame. Compositionally it gives you a full triangle which it nice to look at. Great work. (9)

On Vacation
by teachme53

Comment by kellie:
good job

On Vacation
by teachme53

Comment by RiderGal:
Is this an Iowa license plate from Sexton Ford? Good use of incorporating Waldo's red and white stripes into the photo, it works well with the red and white of the car. Also the red background is nice. Maybe you could have tried going without the tennis shoe, possibly with a white sock? the grey of the tennis shoot and the bright spots on it detract from the photo IMHO. But it's a nice photo, composition wise, and it fits the challenge. Good luck! -Talya

Before and After
by teachme53

Comment by jmsetzler:
Greetings from the Critique Club :)

I think that the major points of this photo have been hit in the comments already...

1 - It's visually unappealing, which, on the other hand, creates some amount of impact, even though it is a negative impact. Creating impact is a good thing. The stirring of emotions may be the objective of this shot... if so, it was accomplished.

2 - The lighting is very weak. The image is flat where color is concerned. There is a severe lack of contrast.

3 - The eggs look yellow from tungsten lighting. Your D100 should have white balance capabilities that would correct this in cam for the most part. The eggs are not bright enough to really shuffle themselves into the role of 'subject' of the shot.

4 - Most importantly, this photo lacks good focus. There is no clarity to add to the 'definition' of the shot. Maybe 1/30" exposure time was a bit too long for a handheld shot. In an image that shows no real sense of depth, I believe that sharp focus is key in a 2 dimensional environment.

5 - The artistic value of this piece could be considered weak. It doesn't strike me as something that you would want to print and hang on your wall.

In my humble opinion, each of these 5 elements are fundamentals for scoring well at DPChallenge.

Keep Trying :)

John Setzler

Message edited by author 2003-02-10 14:45:48.

On Vacation
by teachme53

Comment by Chuckie:
What is this, i see the shoe and sock but what is the background?

Standing tall
by teachme53

Comment by WILDBLUE:
Excellent shot. Nice colors & contrast. Good angle.

Before and After
by teachme53

Comment by bamaster:
The colors are a bit pale and the focus seems soft to me. Interesting concept... I like the fact that it's not egg to chicken... not even egg to fried chicken... but egg to eaten fried chicken! hehe