Opinions on this pic..

Subliminal

Hi all, well with the spare time over the christmas, ive had time to go over some of my pics, and edit them if need be, wondered what everyone thought of this one? Any suggestions appriciated, but please no " Bin it " comments thanks. Any ideas, im only willing to hear them..

http://static.flickr.com/36/77698628_7300bdbce2_o.jpg

Thanks,

Sub

DotOrg

there are some interesting elements to it such as

- the texture of the woman on the lefts jacket and the beach stones vs the woman on the righ and her plain coat and the smoothness of the pavement

- the young to old relationship of the three main subjects

but some critiques:
- the light looked interesting but it's not being utilised
- the three other people on the pavement are very distracting, a much shorter dof would have helped here
- not seeing their faces means you need something pretty interesting happening to catch the viewers attention and i don't see it here
- the lampost (in sharp focus) is just another element that would have done with being out of focus
- the composition doesn't take any risks and is very central and much like a snapshot that somebody would have taken as a regular bland (though possibly emotive for that person) family picture
- i'd have suggested getting down to the kids eye level or getting up on the wall yourself to get something more interesting
- the best shot, i think, would have been if you could have seen the three faces

Subliminal

Cheers for the C&C DotOrg, yes, as always i only realise these things when its too late! You are right tho, the people on the right do distract a bit, but i didnt think overly so.. Def going to buy a decent camera when im in new york, its very hard to work with bieng able to only change aparature spped, and the camera doing shutter speed automatically. ( My excuse anyhow:) )

Thanks again.

Zombrex

Nice shot, but I would agree with what DotOrg said ..

The background people and the lamp post destract from the people. There is too much in focus background detail. When you first start off with photography you tend to ignore what is happening in the background when you are trying to capture something in foreground. This is because our brains can shut off interest in different parts of our vision when we are focusing on something specific (which is why you get side swiped in football if you focus too much on the ball and not look around). But with the camera it sees everything, and at the apperture you have it set on records everything at the same focus level. So a viewer will see the background people and lamp post in the same detail as the foreground people you want them to focus on. When you want the viewer to ignore the background it is a good idea to position the shot so the background has very little going on in it. Especially around bodies and heads you want to take a quick moment to consider what is actually beind the body or head, is it something distracting or man made with a lot of detail like a car or house. I was in Belgium recently and took a really nice snap of my friend walking away from me. It was only when I got into the dark room to develop the picture did I realise that I had a car a good 500 meters in the background driving into her left ear Another option is to use a wide apperature (f2 say) so the background becomes blurry.

A slightly closer up picture at a wider appeture (which would blur the background some what) would be better in this scene. Of course that might not be possible with the camera you have, and getting very close to people without them realising is tricky.

Also it looks like the kid might have an interesting face if you were standing just to the right a bit. It is always a good idea, if possible, to take multiple shots of the same scene from slightly different angles, just in quick succession moving slightly. That way you will come out with 4 or 5 slightly different shots that gives you a better chance of capturing the perfect scene.

Anyway, keep it up, you seem to be developing a good idea of composition and what scenes lend themselves toward interesting photos.

Subliminal

Cheers Wicknight, the people in the pic are actualy ( From left to right ) My sister, my Nephew, My mother. I really thank you for your comments, and more and more i think i should get a new camera. This one is very restricting, as i say, adjust Aperature, and the camera does Shutter speed. Its very annoying to try and take 30 seconds to get a spontaineous pic. My sister has been aproached about my nephew doing modeling, he seems to have the right face allright as you say. Have a hundred pics of him for my sister, but she wont let me show them...exept this one of course.

Thanks for the comments, given me loads to think about.

wideangle

If you knew the people in it why dony you take it again with more pleasing composition,and no distractions.I like it, its a quick shot.something you see everyday, maybe.