Independence Day parade. Comments please (specially on composition)

[RLanna]

Ok, I'm not at all used to tanking shots from strangers on the street, but it felt like a good idea to do it during Independence day parade (witch is september the 7th in Brazil BTW).

At first I was using a 18-55mm lens, but I couldn't really get a nice shot of anything... perhaps due to my positioning. So I decided to change to a 55-250mm lens and try to shoot some unknown subjects. These are some of them.


Setedesetembro_012_07092012.jpg por RLanna, no Flickr

I really liked this one. I've tried to highlight dad-little girl on post-processing.


Setedesetembro_074_07092012.jpg por RLanna, no Flickr

Did a little cropping so that lieutenant colonel would be a bit more on the right side.


Setedesetembro_073_07092012.jpg por RLanna, no Flickr

I was almost leaving the place and I saw this amazing 'caracter'. No idea of who he is. He was surely overdressed when compared to the audience there, but he had so much - how can I put it - texture, like wrinkles, the silk tie with a golden pin, the linen suit... So I've tried to go down on exposure and higher in contrast during post processing, trying to pop all those textures...

So, C&C please!!

[Donald]

A good set of street photographs.

I can see the idea on the first one. However, I wonder if the yellow on the uniforms of the firefighters draws too much attention from the man and the child. If they had been more into the image instead of at the bottom left corner, they may have been more prominant. As it is framed I think it feels more like the firefighters are the main subject instead of the father and daughter.

I think the second and third images are very good portrait shots. The lighting is good in both of them.

[Geoff F]

For me, Rodrigo, the first shot does work, inspite of Donald's valid comments, because the angle of the child's gaze is diagonally across the scene. Any other angle would have caused problems.

But I would consider a little selective adjustment (with a layer and mask) to slightly tone down their helmets.

My only other thought is whether the last image could be cropped to a portrait size, maybe 4 x 5 ratio or square. But not if it looks too tight. Something to try then decide I think.