Photoworkshop Forum

Taking some shots of my 8-year-old playing with his new RC truck today.  I wanted the truck in focus and my son just blurry enough to be out of focus but still in enough to see that he's smiling about his new toy! (although at 30mph, it's hardly a "toy"!)

canon t2i
39mm
f/5
1/80 sec
ISO 100
Single point manual selection focusing to select the focus point on top of the truck

I like what you've done here - I think you've got just the right DoF for what you're trying to achieve.  My only comment would be about where your son is standing in the photo.  I'm not sure if you've read the chapter about the "Rule of Thirds" yet but you may find your image better balanced if you crop some of the right of your shot so that your son is more on the right side of the image to balance out the sharpness of the remote control car.  You can probably take some of the sky out a bit to as  it doesn't add too much to your shot.

This was actually a horizontal composition that I decided in post looked better as vertical.  But when I went to crop it, I decided I liked the shadow of the truck and everytime I cropped closer to my son to get him at the 3rd line, I didn't like what it did to the truck shadow.  I should have done a better job of composing it in the parking lot and then I wouldn't have been fighting it in PP...but I didn't pay attention to the truck shadow until i saw it on the screen and liked it.

Anyway, here it is cropped the other way and I do like the position of the truck and my son more but I lose part of the shadow...maybe it doesn't matter as much as I'd thought and it's better to compromise on the shadow in this one.

Yes, you do lose a bit of the shadow which is a shame.  At least you have the idea for it - nothing stopping you from doing it again and being more deliberate about how you want it composed :)