Sleepyby
lauraodomComment by digitalknight: Greetings from the Critique Club!
Well this photo is working for me on all kinds of levels. First thereâs the yawn, and the warmth of the colors that make me yearn for the comfort of a warm bed where I can yawn and enjoy the comfort of that place. Then thereâs the dad in me that remembers when mine were this young, and how they felt, and smelled, and actually wanted to be held. What a magic time to be a parent.
So right our of the chute you have reached me on two emotional planes with your work. What more could you want? I call it a success from there.
However you asked for in-depth, so letâs look at some more details hereâ¦
Composition:
Great composition here â I love the tight crop, and the action of the partial kiss of motherly comfort as the baby is obviously giving into the sleepiness that is coming over him (itâs tough being a model!).
Faces are so nice for forming angles and lines to lead our eye around. With two faces that close there are plenty â First the moms jaw line leading our eye to the yawn, her nose tends to give us another nice line to follow. Youâre lighting here is nice in that it accents this line with the light/dark contrast.
I like the eye lines meeting at right angles, in a perpendicular way. I donât know what that works so well for me, I havenât ever considered it in my own work, but the geometry there is really neat.
Lighting:
Iâve already mentioned this above. I think I would want more of it so you could stop down a little, stretch out that DOF a little so the babyâs left eye is sharper.
Hmmm, you might have tricked my eye with that âa little gausian blurâ. F/5.6 should be plenty for DOF in this tight of a portrait â
Iâm going with - I really like the lighting! I now think your DOF is fine, but the added softness tricked me for a minute. Did I get it right?
If it were a perfect world:
At least according to me, I might have left it sharp. However, this simply would have made it different, I donât think it would have made it any better. Again, back to my original impressions of this work â itâs great on several levels.
Your comments donât mention whether you are related to these two or not. Itâs such an intimate portrait I almost feel like I am! This is very nice work â congrats on a great capture.
Feel free to contact me with any questions regarding this critique through the message system here on DPC.
Regards,
Doug
Message edited by author 2006-10-12 22:49:47. 
Photographer found comment helpful.
