Dancing Happy!by
wetlandComment by ergo: Hello from the Critique Club :)
What can I say? This is candid photography at one of its better, if not best, moments. That kind of laughter and smile is precious, and as a previous commenter said, sheer and infectious. It's a great moment that was well captured.
The joined hands in particular grabbed my eyes and held them there for that telling extra moment. It's clearly a natural hand hold, something that has perhaps come out of some practice and comfort.
DOF could be slightly deeper, with the man in complete focus, but the woman slightly off. The shallowness is also evidenced a little in the back part of her skirt, where the blur pattern is clearly set off against its sharper surrounding patterned area. There appears to be a spare arm, perhaps that of a woman who has hers around the neck of her dancing partner (in deeper blue shirt) in the back of the primary couple, and given advanced edit rules, this element could have been cast out to preserve the uniformity and consistency of the background and further emphasize the primary dancing couple. Perhaps there's also slight evidence of "slight" oversharpening, particularly in the man's face, in his very deep and sharp looking laugh lines. There are also round spots on the woman's red shirt that are lighter in tone than the rest of the red color, and perhaps these too could have been brushed out.
Other than these minor and very nitpicky points, this is a very nicely composed and captured image, showing a great, infectious mood that speaks volumes about other things. I like particularly the sense of movement and freedom that get evoked by the shot.
Thanks, and I hope the above has been constructive. Please feel free to pm me if you feel I've not been so.
Photographer found comment helpful.
