Mikey

[merlin1027]

A few photos of my son.

[Donald]

Scott - Always be thinking about your backgrounds. As you'll maybe agree, the background in both of these is pretty cluttered and busy.

Obviously in the first one, the camera picked its focus point from completely the wrong place. I'm sure the jacket and the shoes are very nice, but I don't think they were meant to be the main subjects.

[AB26]

Hi Scott.
It will help a little if we knew what camera you use (P&S or DSLR), I can see no exif data.

Have you been reading the tutorials in CiC? I will recommend you do read it. Try experimenting with the camera while working trough the tutorials, it will help you a lot.

Forget about working in PP software for a while and attempt to master the settings on your camera first.

Practice makes perfect.

[rpcrowe]

Regarding a critique of the images of your son. I am hoping that you posted them for critique...

Sometimes a photographer can be so intent on the subject (especially when there is an emotional relationship to the subject) that he or she will disregard anything else in the image. That is sort of tunnel vision and using live view will increase the chances of missing significant errors in any image because the LCD on which the image is being viewed is relatively small.

Two facets which (IMO) separate higher quality images from total amatuer snapshots are: the backgrounds and the sides of the images.

Backgrounds which are cluttered distract from the subject and backgrounds which are in focus while the subject is out of focus are really bad photography.

Images that have unwanted distracting elements (such as portions of people) protruding in from the edges also distract from the subject...

However although we, on CiC care about photographic techniques; everyone doesn't have the same view of photography.

If the first image was a shot of my sister-in-law's grandson, she wouldn't notice that the child was out of focus and that the background was cluttered. All she would care about is a recognizeable picture of the boy and she would cut off her hand before she would ever erase it. Her computer is a cluttered "shoebox" full of bad images with which she will never part.

Without someone she cares about in the image, she has absolutely no interest in any photo. However, if she can recognize the subject as someone she cares about, she likes the picture; despite its technical and/or artistic faults. Unless she is in the image and then she hates it!

Yesterday, at my computer club, I was forced to sit through a slide presentation by a member who had just returned from a National Geographic tour to Central America. The images were so bad that I was regretting having chosen a seat in the front of the room. I could not politely leave without insulting the presenter. However, there were people in the audience who seemed not to notice how bad the images were and told the presenter what a good photo job he had done.

[merlin1027]

Im always open for constructive critiques. Its the best way to learn and refine what you intend to do. Reading these posts and the articles in the tutorials, the concepts are starting to make sense.