Son and father - Dorze village in Southern Ethiopia

[Manfred M]

A very proud father and his young son in one of the villages (Dorze) that we visited in Southern Ethiopia. I just loved this little boy's wide eyed look. I shot wide open, focusing on the child's eyes and left the father a bit softer and slightly out of focus.




Part of the reason I chose to go B&W on this image, is that the young boy was dressed in pink. I had a number of "what a cute little girl" comments on the coloured version....

[Shadowman]

Nice capture and conversion.

[Jeffbridge]

That is beautiful! Excellent Shot!!!

[deetheturk]

Wonderful capture Manfred!

[bnnrcn]

I like it very much Manfred

[John 2]

That's good Manfred. The slight differential focus between father and son just gives this that little extra punch.

[Mark von Kanel]

Fantasic shot and brill for black and white, personally i find that the out of focus father draws my eye away from the child and id of increased the DOF accordingly but its horses for courses you either like marmite or you dont!

[Mike Buckley]

I've been wondering ever since you posted the photo what bothers me about the image and finally realized what it is: the father's eyes are so bright that they distract me from his son. Consider toning down his eyes. Once you've done that, consider whether the bright tones of his skin remain a detraction that also require being toned down.

[Mark von Kanel]

Great point Mike! That might just solve the problem for me as well

[bnnrcn]

I think white parts of the eyes look so bright because of their dark skins

[Manfred M]

This is the original coloured version of the shot.

[NorthernFocus]

Nicely done, Manfred. A perfect time for B/W.

My impression as a viewer is that the soft focus on the father and the razor sharp eyes of the child kind of make the father fade into the BG. It's up to you how that works for/against what your intention is with the image. But if I look at it with no commentary, I see a fine image of a little guy with expressive eyes. Nicely done.

[FootLoose]

I think Mike nailed the problem with this shot, too. The two heads are two big circles in the middle of the image, and the larger one, the father's, is slightly brighter than the child's so the eye is drawn to that even though it is slightly out of focus.

[bnnrcn]

I like both versions very much Manfred. Becuse of the colour of their skins, bright parts on their skins and whites in their eyes are more noticable . I saved both versions to my laptop and I decreased highlights and whites as a trial. It works . There might be other things which can be done with PP to improve the images but I think highlights and whites are main points