First Pumpkin

[henryrabbit]

This is my son's first Halloween, so I was trying to capture an image of his hand on a pumpkin. The day was hot, and both my kids were rather cranky, so I didn't have much time to set up a good shot. This was the best of the bunch. We are going out again in a few weeks when it gets cooler, and I hope to have more time for setting up some good shots. I'd love some feedback though, so I can try to incorporate it into my next attempt.

Thanks in advance!

[MB1]

This is a cute idea and really not a bad image at all. I might crop off everything to the right of the stem of the pumpkin as I don't much care for the glare on that side of the image.

[henryrabbit]

Thank you for the advice MB! I did what you said, and you're right, I think it does make a big difference. Here is the cropped shot. It draws the eye better to the hand too, which is one of the problems I had with the original image. Thank you again!!

[GB1]

I like the crop, but the colors are sooo bright, and the kid's hand (and the railing) being that color makes it seem like the image was PP'd to add orange (not saying that this was done, but that it just seems like that). So I'd tone down the saturation. I'm also curious why there's such loss of detail on the pumpkin? Seems like a digital photography issue (?) But what do I know..

G

[henryrabbit]

Thanks for your input G. The picture was taken under a large tent, which is why everything has that orange tinted hue. I tried desaturating it, and sharpening it a bit. Not sure about the loss of detail on the pumpkin, as far as being a digital photography issue. Do digital images in general show less detail? I never knew that!

Thank you both so much for your input! I am really learning a lot from this forum and I appreciate that so much.

[photophorous]

The glare on the right side is what is causing a lack of detail in the pumpkin. That's not necessarily a digital photography issue, unless the shot is overexposed in that area. You might be able to adjust the levels or just burn that in to bring back the detail. Or, you could reshoot using a polarising filter, which would have a bigger impact on the photo.

The rest is just my opinion: My first thought when I saw this shot is that it needs more baby. But, if you were going for a "small hand on the big pumpkin" kind of shot, personally I would prefer to see a tighter crop taken more from the perspective of the baby. Otherwise, I'd like to see the whole baby and his/her reaction to this strange gigantic orange thing.

Hope this helps.

Paul

[henryrabbit]

That helps a lot Paul. Thank you very much. I did get some other angles, but they were not as good as this one. The baby was not totally happy, so it was hard to get him to cooperate. And it was hot and bright, so I couldn't really get any outside of the tent, and inside the tent had too much going on in the background. I am definitely going to try some different poses next time we go, and I agree it will be better more from the baby's perspective. Hopefully the weather and the baby will cooperate better!

I am still a novice, using just a Canon Powershot, so I don't have any filters or other lenses. I would love to learn how to use them though. I have a lot to learn and I am really excited to do it!

[GB1]

Amanda - My dig photo comment was just my own observation that digital seems to has more washed out areas than film does. It's an unscientific observation, regardless.

I personally like the small hand reaching in. However, the shot is still about the pumpkin, and since the glare causes loss of detail I find myself wanting to see something more. But nice crop anyways........

GB