Boy on a Tractor

[Jaedon]

It's been a while since I posted anything for critique. I decided to work on my composition before posting more since that seemed to be where I got the most criticism (not a complaint.. you don't know what you're doing wrong if you don't get negative feedback along with the positive)

Anyway here's a shot I took this fall at an apple orchard called Chudley's located just outside of Toronto Canada. The lighting was off due to the sun being behind the subject but that couldn't be changed as the tractor is about 100 years old and there only for kids to play on.

Photoshop corrections:

Dodged the face a bit to bring it out of the backlit shadows - 20% dodge (my flash for some reason did not fire on this one)
Upped the saturation +7
Adjusted the contrast to blend the dodge on the face a wee bit
a slight crop to remove some distractions from the right side of the image.



C&C most welcome

**Looks like theres a bit of extra distortion from the re-size for posting over the large format. Make my dodging looks really faded.**

[drg]

This is nice.

Peering through the steering wheel makes for a nice composition.

A few minor issues:
- there's an unsightly 'hot spot' on the tractor that a minor crop would remedy.
- the front of his jacket could be brightened
- his hair is a bit hot(bright) on top
- there are some color reflection issues but they could get complicated to remedy

Think about even cropping out the exhaust stack? It is blurry. It does provide some balance and context, but I'm not sure it adds enough with the strength of the rest of the photo to be needed.

A very pleasing image, Thanks for sharing.

[Jaedon]

Ok I made corrections:

Re-dodged teh face to make it look more natural (personal edit)
Removed the exhaust stack and the hot spot on the tractor with a minor crop adjustment
Burned the hot spot on his hair
and lightened the front of his jacket.

I also made a slight hue adjustment to attempt to remove the color reflection on his face but the more I adjusted the more work it would've been to bring it back to a natural look .. so here is my adjusted photo.

[veggie]

Love the tighter crop, that makes a huge difference. Also the adjustement on the top of the head is big!

Great shot

[EOSThree]

The second post is much better. On your first post I immediately saw that work had been done on the face, the second is much more natural looking. The tighter crop also works much better.

[Frog]

Great shot. The second is improved but I miss the exhaust stack

[WsW-WYATT-EARP]

i agree with frog ... i think the exhaust stack needs to be there ... much better on the touch ups in the 2nd post !

[Jaedon]

just goes to show.. you can't impress all the people all the time lol. I knda liked the stack in there too but it made it difficult to crop out the hot spot on the tractor without taking it out and stay with a 4x3 crop. It was either leave the hot spot or take out the stack since th wasn't much crop room to play with.

Thanks for all the comment folks.. seems my working on composition has pushed my shots in teh right direction.

Jay

[drg]

Second image is a definite improvement. Nice processing work.

I think this a very good photograph!

I'm still ambivalent on the smoke stack. Without it this is a different photograph admittedly.
However, I believe it to be just as strong.

I do hope you have this printed on a suitable media and framed. This is one to display proudly!

[Jaedon]

This one is going to be printed and framed and hung with care as a christmas present for mommy =)