Chapter 5 -- Composing Photographs

[ganagr1]

Quoting from the text....."the point of composition in portrait photography of children....is to draw the viewer's eye naturally to the child---plain and simple." (p. 86)
Little Clara's innocent smile and wonderful disposition did just that, and drew me in to capture her image.

[goldcoastgolfer]

That's a beautiful capture.  Do you do any post processing at all?

[ganagr1]

Thanks for the compliment....but no, I don't do any post processing......I don't know how!!!!!  I need someone to show me how to get started.  It took me forever to change from film to digital......I guess that I'm 'old school.'  Part of me is a 'purist' where I don't want to change the image in any way, but I'm beginning to see that a little tweek here and there can enhance the picture.
  Thanks for all your feedback to my images!!!!  It's appreciated.

[goldcoastgolfer]

It may be something you want to get into and it's not as difficult as you might think.  I bring it up because you could brighter her eyes in this photo which would really bring the photo to another level.

I've found Adobe Lightroom fairly easy to use for post processing and they have some great online video tutorials that make learning easy. 

I also participate in another forum - Cambridge in Colour (http://www.cambridgeincolour.com) - that forum is a lot more active than this one and they have a number of post processing experts so you may want to check that site out as well for more learning

[ganagr1]

Thanks for the good leads.....I will surely look into them.

[Ginny Felch]

I think you did a wonderful job carrying out the assignment.  If you start getting in to brightening the eyes, just be careful to be OH so subtle.  I think it is often overdone.  I use Photoshop to refine very subtly so that it doesn't look "Photoshopped.". I think you will appreciate that since you are converting from film.  I always like to remove the under-eye-shadows in a layer and then fade the adjustment until it is just right.  That has a way of drawing more attention to the eyes without over-doing it.  I always think of Using Photoshop to make up for what is sometimes less than ideal lighting in the environment, as you would be able to create in a studio.