He's gonna be a stunt man!

[Tom Barry]

Our great-grandson jumped on his wooden Harley-Davidson during a gathering at his house and adopted this pose in an instant. I grabbed it while it was there - no time for deciding on anything except getting it. I was not square to the fireplace and in PP had to use DXO Viewpoint to make it look like I was, and DXO Prime to handle the noise at ISO 6400. I left the reflections as is; they might give some context.
Stunt2-web by tombarry975, on Flickr

[xpatUSA]

Splendid shot! As a Sigma owner, I sometimes envy the ability to shoot at 6400 ISO with a clean result like yours ...

[Shadowman]

Nice shot.

[Tom Barry]

Thanks, Ted and John, for the kind remarks.

[Manfred M]

I suspect every parent has grab shots like this one. It captures the moment but is definitely not going to win much other than the hearts of people that look at it.

With respect to the reflections, the question I would ask you here is "does it add to the story you are telling or is it distracting from it?".

If this were my shot, I would kill some of the reflections in the glass and tone down the background, as it is bright and distracting as well.

Too bad about the line from the top of the fireplace(?) running through his head.

[xpatUSA]

I suspect every parent has grab shots like this one. It captures the moment but is definitely not going to win much other than the hearts of people that look at it.

With respect to the reflections, the question I would ask you here is "does it add to the story you are telling or is it distracting from it?".

If this were my shot, I would kill some of the reflections in the glass and tone down the background, as it is bright and distracting as well.

Too bad about the line from the top of the fireplace(?) running through his head.

It may not be intended but I get the impression that quick family snaps are deemed inappropriate to this forum.

Tom said "I grabbed it while it was there - no time for deciding on anything except getting it." and yet comment is offered on composition (lines thru head).

[Manfred M]

It may not be intended but I get the impression that quick family snaps are deemed inappropriate to this forum.

Tom said "I grabbed it while it was there - no time for deciding on anything except getting it." and yet comment is offered on composition (lines thru head).

So far as I know, this is a photography forum and any image that one has taken is welcome.

When I look at my own postings here they vary from opportunist images, including family snaps to carefully laid out and planned studio shots. If I post them in the commentary forums I fully anticipate comments and constructive criticism.

For example, here's a shot I took and posted a couple of years ago. If I were shooting and processing it today, I would have handled it differently. My approach and style continue to evolve.



Kane


The reason I chose this shot in this thread is that I would have to describe my approach to it very much along the approach that Tom used. I saw a shot and took the picture. In general any shots with children tend to be that way and I literally had just moments to compose and take the shot.

My comments are very much in that vein. Tom did some PP work to correct things he viewed as flaws. When I looked at his image, I felt that I would have handled it differently as the reflections were pulling me away from the subject. The comment on the stark line through the head is that black on white high contrast area creates a noticeable distraction. If the tones were closer, then this would not be an issue.



One reason I shoot a lot of subjects against plain backgrounds like seamless paper is that this is one foolproof way of avoiding this issue.

[selig1656]

PP is essential in further creating an image,good capture that is not worth missing.

[Tom Barry]

Thanks to all for the comments and suggestions.

[DanK]

Tom,

I do LOTS of candid shots of kids--none of which I post publicly--so I sympathize with the problem of backgrounds. One has to take photos where the kids are--often, rooms with no good backgrounds--and the kids move so fast that it is hard to catch the moment.

However, in some cases--I don't think this is one--you can make the problem less severe by positioning yourself where the background will be better, or at least less bad. In addition, the exif says you shot at f/5.7. That gives substantial DOF on a crop-sensor camera like yours. You might try increasing the aperture. I use f/4.0 as a default with a FF camera, which is roughly equivalent in terms of DOF to f/2.8 with a crop-sensor camera. I then increase it if I need to. This makes it harder to get faces in focus--the kids move out of focus more quickly when DOF is small--but it will blur the background a bit more.

As Manfred says, you can sometimes lessen background problems in postprocessing. However, I find that some of the backgrounds I get are bad enough that I can't do much about them.

Finally, Manfred wrote that a photo like this " is definitely not going to win much other than the hearts of people that look at it." As my wife frequently points out to me, that's often the main point of photos like this. I do what I can to fix them up, but the fact is that I am often the only person who notices some of the improvements. It bothers me as a photographer, but it is a fact that an iPhone photo with an incorrect white balance and wide-angle distortion--if it captures what people treasure--is valued more than a technically good photo that doesn't. In fact, I recently took an iPhone photo that my son-in-law took, fixed it up as well as I could, and printed it because it captured a moment that people treasured.

Dan

What people really notice, and what they most value, are things like facial expressions and unique moments, like the one in this photo.

Dan

[Tom Barry]

Thanks, Dan, for the thoughtful comments. I do in many cases look for a suitably plain background. The shot I'm posting with this note was taken the same afternoon in the same house. This is in the kitchen, which is very large and has a space of clear wall, in front of which our great-grandson takes his meals - and very sloppily, too, which is what I wanted to catch here. The window light is soft but directional and since practically everything is white or nearly so, makes for good portraiture. I took about 20 frames and liked this one best:
Sloppy1-web by tombarry975, on Flickr