Special Autographby
sfmorrisComment by KiwiChris: Greetings from the critique club.
First impressions first... This pic didn't really jump out at me when I opened it, The exposure, color and focus are all OK, but I don't find it that interesting to look at.
What's missing for me is some sort of human interest or interaction. To make a candid interesting there needs to be interaction, either with the viewer/photographer or between the people in the photo. None of these people is looking at the camera, and although it's obvious what they are doing, they are not actually doing it together, if you see what I mean.
A better moment would have been when the ball player took the ball, and was looking down at the child, or when he handed it back, then we would have a connection, and possibly some emotion and obvious connection/interaction. Another advantage would be that we would probably see the ball players face, which would hold some interest as well.
Because I can't see any interaction, and I can't see any faces I find myself hunting around in the photo for a point of interest, and there isn't really one, although I am left wondering if the child on the left is doing up his shoe or not.
Technically the exposure etc is good, as I said, you've got the bright whites of the uniform well under control, and you've framed in around your subject tightly. The color is pleasing, and you can never go wrong with red elements in a photo, it holds the viewers attention well.
The only thing from a technical aspect that could improve is that I feel the depth of field is a little big, and the fence detail behind is a bit distracting.
You've said you're using F/10.0 at 1/640th. Not sure what mode you were shooting in, but for a shallow depth of field with your lens I would have picked Av Mode, set to F/5.6, which would have softened up the background nicely.
So overall, this is technically a good photo, but the moment just doesn't spin my wheels. :-).
Cheers, Chris Hellyar.
