Nikki C's Image Critique

First off, I want to say thank you for all the heartfelt well-wishes for my family concerning the death of my Uncle. It has been a very rough week. But, sad as we are, we are doing well.

Secondly, I missed my “First Friday Photos” last week because of everything going on. I’ll be posting them this coming Friday instead.

Now, on to this week’s image critique. The image comes to us from Nikki C. She’s submitted a picture of a baby wearing a Santa hat and a reindeer necktie. So lets get into it…

Lets first look at the lighting. The lighting is okay. Its well executed, but nothing to tell your friends about. It looks to be around a 1:3 ratio, suitable for this type of image – very safe. I do have a bit of the issue with the vignette though. Now, I am a huge fan of vignettes, using them on a majority of my images. But it has to be done well to work. A vignette is supposed to focus the eye towards the center of the image. But when it begins to overlap the subject, it simply doesn’t look right. The problem I have here is it bleeds too much into the subject. Notice the white ball of the hat and the baby’s foremost foot. They’re grey, looking unlit. And that bugs me. The band on the hat is nice and white, but the ball is muddy grey. Same thing about the skin. Most of it looks good, but that one foot looks like it has circulation problems (and if that’s the case, um… yeah, sorry ‘bout that). This image simply doesn’t need the vignette.

Next lets look at the green/red background. I get it. It’s a Christmas thing. But, ugh, really? To me this is in the same boat as selective coloring. The only time we should see this kind of stuff is many years in the future, when we open a time capsule from the 1990’s. Just sayin’. The thing is, good lighting on a cute kid is enough. We don’t need the nifty green and red to make it more than it is. He’s already wearing a cute Santa hat and reindeer necktie. What more do we need to say “this is my Christmas portrait?” Leave off the vignette, use a pure white background, and it would be a much stronger image.

The last thing I’d like to discuss is the baby’s pose/expression. Photographing babies and young children can be a very difficult. I’ve spent nearly 20 months shooting literally thousands upon thousands of images, trying to become better at photographing children - not coincidentally my daughter is almost 20 months old =). Capturing that perfect expression is hard to do. So anytime we get a good expression its a victory. In this image, the baby’s upright and alert, and the expression is pleasant. It may not be the perfect expression, but it’s a victory nonetheless.

The last thing I want to mention about this image is, well, I’ve seen it before. If you were going for cookie-cutter lower-end portraiture, then this image nails it. But if you want to truly excel at children portraiture, you need to figure out how to get to the next level. Why has Anne Gedes been able to build a multi-million dollar business? Simple - what she creates is not run of the mill baby pictures. She broke the mold, pushed the envelope, (insert cliché here). Nothing she creates is cookie cutter. I enjoy her work because its different, intriguing, enjoyable. Should we aspire to photograph babies like her? Not at all. Quite the contrary. If you are into photographing children, do so in your own unique way. But you must push past mediocre. Force yourself to become better. Strive to try new things. Break away from the status quo. Do something different. That’s what Anne Gedes did at some point. She decided to try something new, and now she’s selling books of her work with Celen Dion Cds inside. How could that not be a money maker?

Well, there you go. Yet another pair of my pennies. Thank you Nikki for sharing your work with us! Anyone else have anything constructive to say? Post a Comment below.

Now, go out and shoot something!