Is it me or my wife ? How "good" is this image ?

how's this in square B&W format

rffz.jpg
 
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meleica: the new format, that's what makes it 5 for me instead of 4.
I thought of telling you why i think it is not perfect, but suggesting a crop would have sounded ridiculous, especially from an(other) amateur like me.
 
The square format is deffinitely preferable. I prefer the original with flatter tones to the specific "lightroomed" version above, although I agree that a bit more post-processing would help it. I have no problem at all with sepia tones, and think their warmth enhances the overall feeling of the photo. As to quality, for a portrait of an infant I would give it an A-. I would prefer a bit more depth of field to make both eyes and the facial plane sharper overall.

/T
 
I think the picture is very well done, but I'd give it a better-than-middle value because it's shot a bit too tight for my taste. I think I'd like to have seen at least most of the shape of the head. A bit too macro, but that's probably just me. I like the other child photo very much. Keep at it!
Vic
 
I think it's a good photo. I like the tight crop, intimacy works good with baby shots. I'd like to see the eye-line out of the center of the photo and positioned along the top third. There seems to be a bit too much on the top, so I agree with Nick's assessment and the "infinite forehead" theory. :) Thanks for posting it.


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Hi Dan,

I like it. I really like the square without the sepia - tonality is great, too.
Whoever are the parents will be very proud.

Roland.
 
Robert Price said:
I love the photo. I would give it a 5 but I would have shot it at f4 to get a little more sharpness out of the foreground. Beatiful child, great moment captured!
Click to expand...

Ditto. IMO when you are that close-in, any foreground OOF is really distracting. But who am I to offer criticism? I wish my kid pics looked this good.

As others have said, parents pay really good money to get baby mementos of this quality. Print it out as a ziatype and you could charge whatever you wanted.
 
I too like the 2nd version. I like the train photo (I grew up around steam engines), but the ties in the lower left foreground detract a lot for me.
 
I'm interested to know how you and your wife differed on this (just to refer back to the original post) . . . was your point that a community of photographers would agree with your take on the baby picture? Have the comments above suggested that that is so? BTW, I think all of the pictures you posted have some merit. My mother in law (who is a great mother in law, thank you) and I disagree on pictures of my kids. I tend to like pictures of them in the moment, engaged in whatever they are doing at the time. She likes pictures in which there is eye-contact with the viewer/photographer and smiles, lots of smiles. Over time, I have made sure that she gets her supply of pix that make her happy and that she can distribute to family and friends. Got to keep those wheels greased, boy.

So what was your wife's critique?

Ben
 
Benjamin Marks said:
So what was your wife's critique?

Ben
Click to expand...

She said it was "ok."

I said, "you're nuts."

"Its much better than just, ok...."

"I'll prove it....."

hence the post on RFF.

She thinks this photo
mmm5.jpg
is gorgeous ( even with the distracting background ). Me too.... Only one we agree on.



The baby photo and the train are just "ok" to her.... ( which really means she doesnt care for them)....I ask why, but get no good constructive criticism - its always her "gut" reaction.

Thanks for all the replies - a fun post for me !
:)

Dan
 
The baby photo is too close. The image is pushing off the edges and screams for more room. In b&w it is better as the shading pulls the image back into the frame lines, centering it more. As for the train it is competent. (See Winston O. Link train photos & read his tragic life story, just an aside.) The young child is the best as it captures a particular moment that is not strained like photo studio/school pictures. (I anwered this question trying to avoid reading which your wife & you disagreed on but gave my own opinion.)
 
I actually like both formats of the baby picture and I think, like others here, that it is a 5... well done. As a new grandfather, I'm a sucker for baby pictures. Unfortunately, there's quite a bit of geographic distance between my granddaughter and I so the opportunity for pictures is somewhat rare.
 
Final Version

Final Version

With all the good advice, I have a final version I like....I think.....


willbw.jpg


thanks again !
Dan
 
Meleica said:
With all the good advice, I have a final version I like....I think.....


willbw.jpg


thanks again !
Dan
Click to expand...

It's an excellent shot. The comments about DOF are valid, of course, but I'd give it a 4.5 out of 5. I like the tight crop and the composition. The sepia version doesn't bother me, but I might prefer the B&W version.

I don't have a PhD, or even an MFA in Photography, so I realize my opinion carries little weight on the RFF. But since you asked....
 
As a father and a baby lover in general I think it is a great capture, and as others have said, one that any parent would be very happy with.

In terms of composition I would have liked to see some of the person holding the baby to add that extra human interaction. No doubt you took some of those too.

I've always been a sucker for those shots (usually in B/W) of the contrast between the grizzled old man's weathered face up against the babies soft, unmarked skin. The old Grandpa and bub shot. Or the hand in hand shots. Cliche perhaps, but it works for me.

I also like the B/W best. Well done.

John
 
I like the one in post #22 best, I find the cropping just slightly more dynamic than in your "finished" version. The version in post #18 loses the luminous, transparent quality of the eyes, they become beady black circles.

The locomotive shot is dramatic. What makes it for me is all the steam pouring out of "the beast" and the figure of the conductor, which gives a sense of scale to the locomotive.

The photo of the little girl is cropped in a more pleasing way in post #35 than in the larger version above that. In post #35 you took out that dark, out of focus thing on the right in the background. It helps a lot to get rid of that - the head works much better within the frame. She looks a little self conscious but maybe that's part of the charm.

Very nice shots.
 
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