Isabella Grace

[Matt]

This is my attempt to post a photo in a thread. I have posted in the competitions but I want to share photos and obtain reactions. So, here goes.

Our grandniece, Isabella Grace, made her First Communion last Sunday. Back at the house, her tomboy nature burst out as she chased and ran with her two-dozen cousins and friends, boys and girls. She paused for a quick moment near me, leaning on the back of a stool in the outdoor tent, and the little girl emerged for a pensive moment. Then, she was off again; I didn't even know I had taken this photo until I downloaded the memory card and it emerged.

[Donald]

Matt

This is where I moved your image to, so that more people will get the chance to see it and comment.

[Donald]

Okay, now that I've done that I can come in with a comment.

I love the pose and to have captured this in the brief moment between her jumping all round the place, is excellent

What aperture setting did you use? It looks as if was a pretty big one on the basis that her ear and hair at that side of her face is perfectly in focus, but I think her eye, nose, lips and hand seem soft; i.e. not in focus. Maybe you took your focus point from the side of her head instead of on her eye. Or maybe you just haven't sharpened as well as you could.

I'm no portraitist, but the one thing I've learned on here is that you have to get the eyes in focus.

[rob marshall]

Matt

Good shot, with a capture of an interesting moment of thought on the girl.

If you look at the levels in Photoshop you will see it's underexposed, with not enough whites on the right hand side. I did a quick edit, if that's OK. Also, that dark chair-back takes a lot of attention away from the girl, so I cropped it slightly to make the chair area smaller. You need to sharpen more when you output your shots for upload.

Well captured (even if you didn't know about it!)

[Matt]

Donald,

I had the camera, D90, on P since stuff was happening so quickly. The data indicate the following: ISO 360; 170mm; f/5.6; 1/60 sec. I don't have the sharp eye for the focus, but, as I look back at the photo now, I see what you mentioned about the front parts of her face being soft. What would have been a better approach? Use A priority? Use an f of 8, 11, or higher? I doubt I would have been able to do anything with Manual.

Thanks for the comments and encouragement.

Matt

[Matt]

Rob,

Thank you for your edit and comments; that's what I am looking for.

I use Lightroom 3 and thought I had sharpened it, using the preset on the lefthand side, but I couldn't see any discernable before and after differernce. So, either these eyes are fading more that I realize, or the present didn't work. How did you do the sharpening? It made a really obvious improvement.I really like the crop you did, also; it gives the photo more impact, I think.

Regarding exposure, the histogram was touching the right side of the scale, so I thought there was sufficient exposure, even though it was a very thin line reaching to the right margin.

And, now, how can I move the photo from CiC into L3 and pretend it's mine?

Thanks, again.

Matt

[Pohled]

Hi,

First of all, nice picture, Matt! You really caught an interesting moment of the girl in such important ocasion.

I'm no portraitist, but the one thing I've learned on here is that you have to get the eyes in focus.

I'm not portraitist neither, by the way, I'm a complete novice. But I'm wondering, and if your goal is to make the viewers feel that the person in the photograph was listening carefully to something? Isn't it be nice to focus moreon the ear than in the eyes? the same for a smelling, for example, if there was a plate with food too in the picture.

[Matt]

Jonathan, Thank you for your comment. In reply, I really didn't have much time to focus or think about what I was doing. The moment was fleeting and I just clicked the shutter and promptly forgot. It really was a quick grab shot. Matt