Critique, please (but be nice, I'm a beginner!)

[PMB Boston]

I love taking photos of children, but have to be honest....I really don't know what I'm doing. I'm going to take a class this year, so hopefully I'll get better. Your thoughts are greatly appreciated.

[walterick]

Hello

Welcome to the site!

It looks to me from these pictues that you've got a way with kids. That communicated through your pictures. I think you've got something here. Now, I'm not gonna blow your balloon up and say these are really incredible photos. But I do see that once you've gotten a few things down you're gonna be great!

I like bottom one the best. It is a very good photo. Nice, clean composition, no distracting background elements. It looks sufficiently sharp and in focus. The two things I would like to see in it are: his eyes, and the top of his head.

The top right one is my second favorite. I love the low, kids-eye view of the camera, and the fact that there's a lot happening behind the child as well. There's a story there!

What I don't like about these is the "grain." I don't know if you added the grain digitally or if it's in the pictures you took but it's way too distracting to me. If there's a few pieces of advice I could give you, it would be: 1.) don't give up! 2.) work on getting low-grain pictures 3.) keep working the low angle 4.) keep looking for the story around the kid to include in the picture.

Hope this helps!
RIck

[jcharris]

Hallo PMB ,

Welcome to this site !
I like all three of your photos .
The composition of all three are very good and like Rick mentioned about the eyes of the boy playing guitar , it could help if you could have him looking at the camera .
I also like the way you come down to the same level as the kids , to get them at their eye level . That is one of the factors that make a great photo of a kid if you are able to shoot it from the the way they are looking at it .
The noise or grain on the second photo is a bit distracting , but i do not know if you perhaps had scan the photo ? But that is a small thing to take care off !

Hope to see more of your work !

Regards
james

[Mando327]

I disagree. I like the look of the boy NOT looking into the camera. It gives the image a sense of being more natural, instead of frowning and shooting (a posed picture). Third one is a lovely picture, and the one that i liked the best.

Great Job!

Armando

[gahspidy]

Welcome, you do have a good eye for a shot and I feel we will eventually start seeing really great stuff from you. I like all three pics, with the banjo boy being my call for best of the three. Would have been even better had we seen his eyes, but still good. The top of the head being cut off does not bother me, as a matter of fact it seems to be the new trend. Grain can be a positive element, especially in shots like these, but there is a bit too much here. Good work, hope to see more from you.

[PMB Boston]

Thanks all for the warm welcomes and feedback. I'm glad to have stumbled onto this site.

The photos were not intentionally grainy. I've been trying to figure out what went wrong. I've been taking photos with my pretty new Canon Rebel for several months and they have never come out so grainy. The two rolls of film I took at Christmas time came out not only grainy but also a little bit washed out. It's the same film, same developer and everything else. I wonder if my battery is getting low... My developer puts them on a disc for me and I then can change them into black & white, sepia, etc.

Thanks again for your thoughts. In my little world, I am pretty much alone in my love of photography!

All my best,
Monique

[mtbbrian]

For your first images, I'd say you did well, particulalry on the aesthetic part.
The technical, exposure, etc, is OK, the images are exposed well, but are pretty grainy.
Make sure when you look through your viewfinder, you aren't cutting off stuff like feet, hands, the tops of heads etc..
Good Luck with your class, but make sure you check back here, you'll learn a lot here too.
Make sure you check out all the other forums too.
Brian

[livin4lax09]

what film speed are you using?

[PMB Boston]

Film speed 400.

I figured out what happened to the film (why its so grainy). It went through the xray machine at the airport! Ugggh.

[Arctirus]

Film speed 400.

I figured out what happened to the film (why its so grainy). It went through the xray machine at the airport! Ugggh.

Weird, I've always used a lead bag anyway but I always heard that ISOs below 800 shouldn't be effected in carry on luggage. Was this in carry on or checked? I do like the grain in this situation though.

[bobbythebandit]

Great start and i agree with most of the comments given here.Nice fresh approach to shooting kids.They can be brilliant when they are happy but never ever try to "force" them to pose.
Bobby

[Michael Fanelli]

Film speed 400.

I figured out what happened to the film (why its so grainy). It went through the xray machine at the airport! Ugggh.

X-ray damage would not look like this. For 400 ISO film, the grain is either from using cheap film, bad development, high correction for bad exposure, or poor quality scanning by the photo shop. Try another roll and see what you get.

[PMB Boston]

Thanks Michael. I don't think it was cheap film. I've been using the same film for several months and I've never had a problem. I also use the same developer, best place in Boston. The hard copy photos came out grainy and washed out too, so I don't think it was the scanning. I'm going to bring in the negatives to the developer tomorrow to see what he thinks, but on the phone he said it sounded like I took it through the airport xray (I hadn't even mentioned that I went on a trip). I think it went through carry on on the way down to Florida and then in luggage on the way back to Boston. I'll never do that again!

[readingr]

Are the negatives as bad as the prints/scanned film? It could be that the negs are okay and the process of developing the prints has gone awry.

I would expect xrayed film to have a fog on them not extra grain.

[walterick]

Hello Monique

There are two things that will cause grain to occur. If you underexposed your film, it will cause an increase in grain. Also, to confound things, if your printer tried to lighten the image, this will also cause grain to appear where it wasn't before.

I agree with another poster, x-rays usually cause fogging, not grain.

I'd say watch your shutter speeds an exposure. If you're into ambient light exposures (which it looks like you are) and not into flash photography then there's two things I would recommend you trying: 1) get a 50mm lens for your camera, if you are using an SLR. They usually are capable of letting in a lot of light assuring you will get good, sharp photos even in low lighting situations. 2) try even faster film - Kodak Supra 800 is a great 800 speed film that will probably have as little grain as the 400 you were using.

These are just suggestions - it depends on what you're trying to do! It looks like everyone likes your style, and most of us are more than willing to answer any question you might have about your camera or photography in general.

Good luck!
Rick

[PMB Boston]

Thanks Rick! I've been itching for a new lens and wouldn't mind trying the 800 speed film either. I appreciate the kind input.

Monique