I decided that over the next few months, I might share with everyone what I might have submitted as an assignment. So, today, we interrupt our normal presentation of Brazos Bend State Park to bring you this month’s assignment: Children at Play. This is the monthly assignment for June. Everyone will present their photographs on Tuesday evening.
I find this subject to be one of the richest assignments that we have had at our club. You cannot drive down too many streets without seeing children playing—baseball, romping in a sprinkler, diving in a pool, etc.
Today’s photo could have been taken when I was a small boy. Kids and tire swings are enduring. I think almost everyone has swung on a tire swing—and if they have not, they sure wished that they had. This old tire swing in our back yard is one of our grand children’s favorite toys, so it seemed very natural for my “children at play photo” to include it. While my grandchildren were taking turns in the swing, I decided that this would be a really good "children at play" photo.
This is not my normal “one-man-band” shot. I had a whole production crew for this one: granddaughter Chloe playing our child having fun, grandson Cole being my VAL (Voice Activated Light) holding the Nikon SB-800 and following his sister’s movements in the swing while asking “When is it my turn?” and Grandma acting as our power source for the swing. I never thought that my photograph would ever lead to such a giant production!
I wanted the photo to show the saturated greens in the trees and have somewhat “dreamy look.” I set my exposure to be -1.5EV and my flash to be +0.5 EV. I ran Kubato’s Deep Forrest A3 filter on the background because I have found that it adds a richness to the greens and browns in a scene and also seems to add that slightly out-of-focus dream look that I wanted.
I probably should have changed Chloe into a dress that was more complementary to the greens and browns of the background and also removed her shoes (those white shoes do grab your eye), but I really did not think about it at the time. The photo still needs some work, but I am not really sure what I would do next. Any suggestions?
Enjoy.
Camera settings: Nikon D700, with Nikon 28-70 f/2.8 with polarizing filter attached, shot at ISO 800, f/6.7 and 1/180th with a compensation adjustment of -1.5 EV and a Nikon SB-800 to the camera left with a flash compensation of +0.5 EV to the left of the camera.
Post Processing:
Lightroom—Set white and black points, added mid-tone contrast and adjusted hue and saturation of various colors.
Photoshop—applied Kubato’s Deep Forrest A3 filter to the background, sharpened the subject and the tire, and added a vignette by painting black at 4% opacity on a layer in soft light mode.
The colors are rich and beautiful in this image, but it does seem pretty dark with that edge and that does not quite go with a light-hearted-child-swinging sort of image to me.
ReplyDeleteCole did a great job of lighting! I really would like to see Chloe's face though, or at least her eyes. I also shot for this assignment and got only one child in my best images and then found out the definition is TWO or more children...that is much harder for me to capture for some reason.
I like this shot. I don't mind that the face is not visible. I agree with the Cindy, to me this was a hard assignment [I got skunked] and the "two or more" criteria didn't help.
ReplyDeleteIf I knew what I was talking about, I would be rich giving advise to major magazines. But,I think the issue is "what is the object of the image, child or tire."
ReplyDeleteIf the object is the grandchild, I go with Cindi. With a small child I want to see something of their personality, their face, smile, playful eyes, etc. If the image is about the tire and grandmother will give you permission, consider darkening or blurring the child, especially the shoes and legs.
Make the image the ring of the tire by highlighting the tire with white edging, etc. Brighten the tire to show any of its details.
The ropes and legs form a triangle leading my eyes to the shoes. If tire, keep the rope and darker effect. If grandchild, subdue the ropes and shoes by having more of a circle of light in the middle on the child.
Remember, I am not getting paid!
I am afraid that Cindi and Wayne may be missing what I think is your point, i.e., its the act of children playing, not the individual child that your image is trying to communicate.
ReplyDeleteI believe that there are certain speech patterns that allow you to use the plural and also include a singular of the particular noun. An example of this is in our on constitution where the term "people" also means each person. If you go to most stock photo sites and type "children at play" you will get both children and child at play photos. I believe that most people think that way. I will check with a few of my friends in the English Department to make sure I am not giving you false data about the use of plural words to also include the singular. If I am wrong, I will make a new post on Larry's website.
As to the photo, I do like the rich colors and I do understand why you tried a vignette to move the viewer's eyes to Chloe and the swing, but I think less depth of field would have done this much better. I would try blurring the background.
If your intend was to show "playing" then Chloe's face is not important and the fact that there is no face makes the photograph more universal and applicable to all children, hence reducing the question of children versus child.
You seem to have left a lot of questions unanswered in this one. which is different from most of your photographs. Was that what you wanted?
I hope I did not offend Cindi or Wayne with any of my comments. The last thing that I want to do is appear as a pontificating old professor!
The Professor
Very nice photo Patrick! I like the composition and rich color tones.
ReplyDeleteI went back and looked at the definition from the BAPC website after reading Cindi and Wayne's comments and I agree that the applicability may be in question. Here is the actual description from the website (mainly for the Professor's benefit):
"Photograph two or more children doing what children do best: playing. This would include, but not be limited to; children playing sports, playing on a playground, or just goofing off in their front yards."
Cheers!
Barry
I think I'd prefer to see the face. As much as I like the lighting and the colors and the vignetting, it just seems that the expression on the face is a big percent of what makes it an "at play" image. As far as whether it should be one or two kids - that's why I won't be submitting. If you spend your time hand-wringing over reading into the assignment or trying to guess how a judge will interpret this - doesn't that just ruin the whole thing? Ironic for what should be a fun image...
ReplyDeleteDifferent ideas are never offending! What the world lacks is enough ideas and tollerance for them when they are not the same as your ideas.
ReplyDeleteRemember, having a different idea or approach does not make you right, just different.
You obviously did not read the instructions. No surprise here. The photo has a lot going for it, but light-heartedness is not one of them. It seems a little moody. I am not really bothered by not seeing the face, but I do wish there was a little blur to show motion.
ReplyDeleteAnne
I am so glad I checked back to see what others have said about this image, I rarely remember to do that. No, Professor, I am not offended in any way by your interpretation of the assignment --- I interpreted it as a single child or more, but since we have just begun to clarify the assignments I do feel like I need to go with what was written for us with my entry. If I had an outstanding image of a child at play I may have chosen to ignore the clarification and submitted it anyway. But I do still want to see the child's face here, mainly because she is facing us and I think like Steve that the expression has a lot to do with the feel of a "child at play". If this was the back of a child then I wouldn't expect to see a face or an expression. I also agree with the Prof on using a wider aperture to blur the background and make Chloe pop off of the bushes, and I also love the idea of motion blur that Anne suggested. LJP really opened up a good dialogue with this post!
ReplyDeleteAlso, even though I did not capture a fantastic image of children playing, I do the assignments to push myself in areas that I either don't have the experience with or am not comfortble with shooting and I really enjoyed the process of shooting for this assignment, no matter the result.
Seems like you got everyone going on this one. The photo is interesting, but it does not fit what the write says it should be. Whether faces are shown or not, does not matter much to me. I like the colors, the tones and the feeling I get from the photo. I did enjoy everyone's comments because I learned a lot.
ReplyDeleteDebbie
I like all the discussion but I think it boils down to two separate questions. Is is a good photo? Does it depict children at play? I like it as photograph. It is very dynamic with rich colors. I do not think it is a very good image of children at play.
ReplyDeleteTed
What about making this black and white and taking it in more of a fine art direction?
ReplyDelete