Kiss by the sea

[gredawarha]

Hello everyone

I recently posted a thread on the landscape forum following my trip to Cornwall. I have been busy since then but this evening went through my photos and found this one:

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This was taken on the beach in Charmouth, Dorset. I had actually left my family down on the beach to climb the cliff face to try and get some landscape shots. As I came back to join them I managed to catch this shot before they realised I had returned. It was totaly spontaneous and candid. looking back I guess it would have been better if Alex (my son) had been facing toward me but I guess that is the beauty of spontaneous candid shot as opposed to posed portraits.

Appreciate any comments and critique/constructive critiscism.

[Loose Canon]

Hi Darren!

Nice capture and I can tell it has great meaning to you.

I like the way you have composed/cropped your candid, sir.

Candids, to me at least, are super fun to shoot. I feel that in some ways to snag that great image while things are just happening with no interference from the photographer has its own challenges. Not the least of which is that the photographer really kind of has to keep his/her eyes open, anticipate, be a little sneaky, and a little luck never hurts! I have to wonder if you could have ever posed this shot and been able to grab this with all the emotion of this beautiful moment. I doubt I could (though it wouldn’t keep me from trying!).

A couple of suggestions I might have tried in addition. For your consideration…

First I might try lowering the exposure by around just enough bring back the slightly blown areas on the subjects. Mostly Alex’s shirt, but I would see if that might help the overall skin tones a bit.

I might just try some basic blemish removal to compliment your Female subject. I might try some skin softening for her, but I would have an eye toward keeping it minimal. If I didn’t like it, I might trash it, but your subjects are certainly in harsh lighting. No worries, thus is the nature of the candid to me!

Then maybe see about burning the subject’s skin and Alex's awesome red hair with a largish brush and a low opacity (maybe 8% or so) to taste. Making broad passes over the skin.

I would ask myself if I really wanted to mess with removing the bra strap. I would probably try with the caveat that if I didn’t do it convincingly, I would bag that idea. I wouldn’t consider it a big deal, but its there.

I would definitely try a nice vignette for some separation and targeting. This I would most likely do no matter what else I did. And maybe a bit of sharpening of the subjects.

Then, regardless of whatever else I did, I would print it in an obscenely large size and hang it!

I would then proceed to enjoy it every day for the rest of my Life!

[gredawarha]

Hi Darren!

Nice capture and I can tell it has great meaning to you.

I like the way you have composed/cropped your candid, sir.

Candids, to me at least, are super fun to shoot. I feel that in some ways to snag that great image while things are just happening with no interference from the photographer has its own challenges. Not the least of which is that the photographer really kind of has to keep his/her eyes open, anticipate, be a little sneaky, and a little luck never hurts! I have to wonder if you could have ever posed this shot and been able to grab this with all the emotion of this beautiful moment. I doubt I could (though it wouldn’t keep me from trying!).

A couple of suggestions I might have tried in addition. For your consideration…

First I might try lowering the exposure by around just enough bring back the slightly blown areas on the subjects. Mostly Alex’s shirt, but I would see if that might help the overall skin tones a bit.

I might just try some basic blemish removal to compliment your Female subject. I might try some skin softening for her, but I would have an eye toward keeping it minimal. If I didn’t like it, I might trash it, but your subjects are certainly in harsh lighting. No worries, thus is the nature of the candid to me!

Then maybe see about burning the subject’s skin and Alex's awesome red hair with a largish brush and a low opacity (maybe 8% or so) to taste. Making broad passes over the skin.

I would ask myself if I really wanted to mess with removing the bra strap. I would probably try with the caveat that if I didn’t do it convincingly, I would bag that idea. I wouldn’t consider it a big deal, but its there.

I would definitely try a nice vignette for some separation and targeting. This I would most likely do no matter what else I did. And maybe a bit of sharpening of the subjects.

Then, regardless of whatever else I did, I would print it in an obscenely large size and hang it!

I would then proceed to enjoy it every day for the rest of my Life!

Hi Terry

Thank you for both your kind comments and helpful critique.

I'm pleased with the candid shot, in hindsight I agree that I could probably have got them to pose for the shot, with Alex looking more toward the camera but I wonder if it would have had the same effect? Who knows. Ellie is generally not get on me taking photos of her, a bit self conscious . Saying that I do have a shot of her posed that I may post at a later date.

I am certainly more confident at post processing exposures than I was when I originally processed this shot, and I have managed to find the original RAW file so will give that a go when I have the time. I have done some basic spot removal in the past but not really skin softening but will have a look see if I can improve it. "Burning" I am also not sure about from a technical aspect.

I can certainly try a vignette and I think removing the bra strap might be a bit more than I am capable of so may just leave it.

DEFINETLY looking at getting the shot as a large canvas and hanging it somewhere in the home.