Taken at Porirua Mall, Cobham Court ... this is a couple of kids Akesa (8) and Demira (5) Tuiavii their mums works at the mall and they agreed to be my models for this fun shot!
Statistics
Place: 54 out of 244 Avg (all users): 5.9195 Avg (commenters): 7.2222 Avg (participants): 5.7117 Avg (non-participants): 6.1040 Views since voting: 1367 Views during voting: 328 Votes: 236 Comments: 14 Favorites: 0
Technical Qualities The shallow depth of field works well, and the main subjects are suitably sharp. This combines to separate them from the background nicely. The colour looks a little off - a bit too red looking at the eyes and teeth (good indicators) and the girls singlet, but it's only minor.
As someone already suggested, the eyes are a little dark - a more prominent catchlight from the camera flash would have put a little life into them and gave them a sparkle, but it would have to be subtle to not flatten the lighting of the shot.
Composition / Subject Personally (after reading your existing comments) I kind of like the composition of this shot - it has a holiday photo kind of feel. The green background frames the children nicely and gives an idea of the location they are in - somewhere nice and lush.
The children make a great subject - the shot obviously would not work the same with adults - and they both look like they are really enjoying themselves. I like the fairly agressive cropping - it's so easy to always include plenty of background but cropping in close really involves the viewer in the photo.
Border and Title I'm glad you didn't use a border - for this composition (objects and colours) I can't really imagine a border that would add any value to the shot. I like the title - it explains the shot (or at least the intention of the shot, based on your description), whilst being concise and simple.
Emotional and Challenge In a nutshell - It's a "happy" shot, and I really like that. Reading the description of the challenge I guess you deviated from the subject slightly... Rather than use a burst of colour you used several bursts of colour, and in fact separated them from an already colourful background. Having said that, some of the highest scoring photos in this challenge also included lots of colours in a similar style. To me, the colours in your shot all sit well together - a similar saturation I guess.
Summary I think this is a great shot, and it's high score reflects that. It's colourful and enjoyable and I'm sure their mother loves it. I would try removing a touch of red from the shot to see if that looks a little more natural, but it's difficult to say without actually trying it.
This feels like a snapshot - too staged to be candid, but too quickly composed to look like a portrait. If both of the kids were either looking at the camera or engrossed with something offscreen then the presentation would seem more relaxed. Cropping off half of the girl's shoulder makes the image feel a little cramped. A catchlight in the subject's eyes would have been a nice touch.
The color is a WoW :) Great composition and use of DoF for the background. the kids look great. (I hate trying to get all three of mine to look decent at one time for one shot) I might recommend a little fill in flash, turned way down... not to ruin an otherwise lovly lighting but to add a little more catch light in the eyes. All in all, a wonderful picture.
Very fun shot. I like the DOF and focus here. IMHO I would have liked to see more of a spontaneous/candid feel by having the subjects look away from the camera. Just my humble opinion, nice shot nonetheless.... 7
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