Travel Portrait...Critique Please

[Kellyj525]

Hi everyone! This is my first post here and I would really appreciate a few critiques. I have had my first dSLR for a few months. My interest in photography is also quite new but I think I have a bad case of the bug. My first time out with the camera was a trip to Myanmar. The image I am posting here is one of my favorites but I would like to have critique to improve on what I am doing...part of the learning process, right? I have not done any post processing yet. My initial thoughts is there is too much of a yellow cast and I am not sure of the placement of the little girl. Thanks in advance!

[Donald]

Kelly

First of all, a very warm welcome to CiC. I hope you enjoy being part of the forum and that it does contribute to your learning and development. You'll find yourself in good company in terms of people with a passion for making high quality images.

And secondly, you don't say where you are. If you wish, you can go to Edit Profile and enter your location so that it shows up alongside all your posts, just as in my details alongside this message. Then we all know where everyone is in the world.

Now, I'm no portraitist so am in no position to give good guidance. But, if you are seriously wanting to get in to portraiture, then I'd recommend looking at the series of lessons that Colin (Southern) prepared here on CiC (and he knows what he's talking about). Click here to access them.

In terms of composition, you've placed the child beside (or she was standing beside) that structure. In itself I think that's fine, becuase it gives some context/narrative to teh image. But, do you think we need to see so much of it? It could maybe be seen to be competing with the child for top billing in the image, instead of being a complementary element in the image of the child. I'd wonder about cropping some of it out.

[Kellyj525]

Donald,

Greetings from Austin, TX and thank you for your reply! I have updated the profile and very much appreciate the link. I see what you mean about the crop. I am going to try a few things there. She was leaning on a doorway of a large structure and her mother was on the other side. This was the only capture I was able to get where something else wasn't in the way and she had stepped back a bit from being in front of the wall edge. Shooting strangers is a challenge! I sat with the child and her mother before getting the image and got this one as I was kneeling to put some things in my bag... she wasn't entirely expecting it. Thanks again for taking the time to respond.

[rpcrowe]

This is a very intriguing portrait... I love the shy smile of the girl along with her intent eyes. I agree that cropping some of the doorway would improve the image but, I just can't decde how much. I tried cropping away the entire door and the image was O.K. I tried cropping out a portion of the door and I think that it was beter.

I then did a simple color adjust using Photo Shop Elements 10 by selecting "remove color cast" and placing the "eyedropper" tool over the lace collar of the girls dress/blouse (which I assumed was white). That helped. I then selected the door with the rectangular marque tool and darkened that a bit. It brought out the difference in color between the girls face and the door. BTW: after removing the color cast, the girls neck, which wasn't painted, seems to be a normal skin tone...

[Kellyj525]

Wow, Richard. I am going to try this. I also tried different crops with and without the wall/door. I can't decide either. I'm going to do some work on the photo this weekend. I do not have elements but will see what I can do in lightroom and photoshop. Thanks so much, these critiques have been insightful for me, I really appreciate it!

[Traveller46]

I need to ask a question and it is worrying me that I may offend people, but here it is:
Am I strange if I do not like portraiture in photography. It does nothing for me unless it is an action shot of some kind. As a budding and new amateur to photography is this normal?

[rpcrowe]

We are all interested in different things. I am pretty ecclective when it comes to photography but probably like dogs and people as my most favorite subjects.

Other folks like flowers and sunsets. For some, there is no image of a child that isn't great.

And there are some folks who come home from a vacation with no shots except their vacation mates standing in front of well known landmarks.

Whatever and whoever you want to shoot is fine. I would not worry about being "normal" or not "normal".

However if my lack of desire to shoot a subject results from fear or from feelings of inadequacy, then it might be time expand my shooting venues...