Photo Assignment Results #2 (part II)

This part two of photo assignment two.

Tractor Boy:
-Photographer's challenge: getting ahead of oncoming tractor and taking photo without getting run over by 5-year old driver!

I think this picture is better than you give yourself credit for! The little bit of tractor that is in the picture helps to tell the story of a happy farm boy. This type of photography is called photojournalism. If you were crop it down to just show Wyatt, with not much more than the steering wheel, you would take away the context of the picture. The lighting on his face is really good and the patches of light you mention on his face really are not very visible. His hat is in the sunlight and and that is a bit washed out, but otherwise, not bad at all. The only other thing that I can suggest to make this photo better is to expand the picture to include the full roll bar of the tractor, placing it with just a little bit of space between the edges; the left side is about right.


Big Eyes
- Photogtapher says, "It looks like you can reach out and kiss him; big eyes"

Good job stepping out of your comfort zone and trying new settings!
I like the spontaneous and candid expression in Wyatt's face. The chin resting on his arm adds to the charm. The eyes are in focus and the detail in the face is good. I like this picture. I'll let you do the reaching out and kissing though. :D

I suggest stepping back just a little. When you are up close like this, you get a little bit of size distortion in the closest objects, in this case his nose. I would also zoom out just a hair so that his ears and fingers are not cut off. Taking those couple steps back would probably correct it as well. About the blue tint, change your White Balance (WB) to cloudy. That will compensate for the bluish tint by adding a bit of orange tint to warm it up and make it look more natural,

Mom

You mention the tree is more in focus than you mom's face. I can't quite tell due to the low resolution of the photo. I don't know if you shooting low res or if the photo size was reduced when you sent the email. Assuming that the tree is more in focus than the face, try this. Change your focus point of your camera to the 12 O'clock position (if the camera is upright) so it will automatically focus on the subject. Another option is to press the shutter button halfway (with the center as the focus point) onto your subjects face and, while continuing to hold, shift the camera so your subject is framed the way you want and press down the rest of the way.

The lighting is good in this picture. I agree with you that the highlights in the hair are a little on the bright side. To fix that, make note of the ISO, f/stop, and exposure time embedded into the picture. Next, change the camera to manual mode and make sure the settings match the details you just noted, and make your shutter one or two settings faster. This should help darken the highlights with out making the picture too dark.

I would also adjust the placement of the subject within the frame. In this position shift the camera over to the right so she is standing on the right 3rd line and her arm is not cut off or touching the edge. Since she is off to one side of the picture I would also have her look to her right (your left) just a little bit.

I have also added a cropped version of this picture below to help give you an idea of a good cropping point. If you need some extra instruction on the specific details for the tasks mentioned above, just let me know.