Hello from the Critique Club:
On first impression I am so very surprised. I did not realize that a place like Belgrade would have slums. I've never been out of the Americas, and I always assumed that European cities did not have slums, or poor people, or discrimination - I guess I should have known better.
About the technicals of the picture: Your focus is fine. 3.5 aperture with 1/250 secs seems to have worked in this instance, although you're right, it would have been better to make this image at a lower ISO (you could have used a lower shutter speed with it, same aperture).
Composition: Again, I see no problems with it. It is what it is, a beautiful but very sad image. Sweet in a way, but bittersweet in my opinion, the boy to the left looks both curious and apprehensive, the other child looks so normal. The brown tones with patches of pink and green are quite beautiful IMO. I think moving slightly to the left to eliminate the two little yellowish object right by the pole would be good.
Post processing: I think you used Neat Image or some other digital noise remover software (probably because of the graininess of ISO 400). I don't know if it shows up on your screen or not, but on mine, the noise removing has created these areas that are just too smooth to look real (for example, on the tarp behind the boy and on the ground). These smooth patches are uneven, and sort of destroy the textures in the photograph. I am not sure, but an image like this one might look quite good "grainy".
Overall: A good entry, and a good score to show for it.
Keep up the good work!
Ursula
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Comment/questions/complaints - please feel free to email me at ursula-abresch@shaw.ca |