RYANby
mandyturnerComment by skief: Greetings from the Critique Club
This is a good portrait of your nephew. I do think you got 'him' almost exactly right. The eyes are bright and wide, focused and sharp. Skin tone is right on, with just enough softness to be smooth without plasticky feeling. Hair has great detail as well. The colors in his shirt also work well with his hair and eyes, good coordination with that.
Now to look for areas that could be improved on. Most of these have been mentioned in others comments.
1. Background/Subject: The way the photo is, there is a seeming competition between the subject (your nephew) and the background. While the boy is fantastic, the background being so sharp makes us want to look at it more than the boy. The detail in it is fascinating, including the leaf. In fact, take away the boy, and you will still have an interesting photo. This shouldn't be if this is really a color portrait.
2. Depth of Field: I think the DOF could be moved toward the camera just a little bit. This would give his chin and lips a little more sharpness to remove the sense of blurriness there. It would also blur the tree into the background a little more so it wouldn't be in as much competition with the subject.
3. Pose: Look at the line of his shoulders. Because of the way he is positioned, the shoulders slope out to the left and down. This gives the closer one a feel of being out of proportion with the rest of his body. It also leads the eyes out of the picture. A slight change in pose turning his body more toward the camera and moving him a little forward from the tree may help with this.
Overall Impression: I did not vote in this challenge, but had I voted, I would have scored this a 6. If the tree was not in such competition with the subject, would be bumped up to a 7.
If you have any questions about this critique, feel free to PM me.
Photographer found comment helpful.
