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Portraits are not my strength, actually very little is my strength I think, but I was going through some older shots and came across this one, a shot of my nephew taken in the Botanic Gardens in Sydney. For some reason I like it:



Edit: Corrected green tinge

Max my man?? WHAT??!? Portraits aren't your thing? Are you crazy? This is a fabulous portrait! Nice work! You say for some reason you like it, turn the table and tell me what you DON'T like about it? What would u have done differently (if anything) if you had the chance to shoot this again?

There's only one (not really important) thing I'd change. I would have attempted to make your nephew a little less nervous looking. Sure, it's a serious/contemplative look, but it's not one of freedom which should be evident in a kid his age. I'm not criticising his pose/composition - I just think if he was showing even a hint of a smile this shot would be on the money!

A great effort none the less! Did you pose him like that?

ADDIT: Some careful PS work and you could easily get rid of the bird pooh on the sandstone

I agree with Geoff. Max, this is a great shot of someone his age.
At least he sat still for a little while.
Regards Colin

Geoff wrote:Max my man?? WHAT??!? Portraits aren't your thing? Are you crazy? This is a fabulous portrait! Nice work! You say for some reason you like it, turn the table and tell me what you DON'T like about it? What would u have done differently (if anything) if you had the chance to shoot this again?

There's only one (not really important) thing I'd change. I would have attempted to make your nephew a little less nervous looking. Sure, it's a serious/contemplative look, but it's not one of freedom which should be evident in a kid his age. I'm not criticising his pose/composition - I just think if he was showing even a hint of a smile this shot would be on the money!

A great effort none the less! Did you pose him like that?

ADDIT: Some careful PS work and you could easily get rid of the bird pooh on the sandstone

You've given me some questions here Geoff. The shot, as I remember, was an off the cuff "candid" - there was no purposeful pose at all, just point and click, and it turned out well. I find portraits very difficult. Thinking about this subject, I have taken some memorable portraits, most of them candids, but I still find portraits the hardest photographic style for me.

What would I do differently? Yes, ask for a smile I suppose. He was, I think, a tad bored as we were several families with lots of kids and we were trapsing around Sydney in the heat...My nephew is a wonderful kid but he doesn't smile all that much, so in effect his pose is authentic.

If I had had the chance to shoot it again, I don't know, I think my off-the-cuff stuff is better than the meticulously planned shots.

As for the bird poop, it does distract I agree. For a print I would definitely clean it up (digitally that is...)

I would leave the bird poop in; it's a part of the location, and adds charcter to the image.

What I would change - and it's the only thing I'd do with this image - is to reduce the sharpening a bit; it's oversharpened a little, and that should be addressed.

Great shot max. Perfect lighting and well composed.

Excellent!

Superb

Excellent portrait. Natural looking pose, nice composition and technically flawless.

Alex

I like it too

Barry