A lovely portrait, well lit and with such wonderful expressions. I do dislike the hands at the bottom of the shot which I find awkward and distracting. Crop the bottom quarter off for a much stronger shot that concentrates on those fascinating faces.

Ken.

I too think that the orange and blue are distracting and too dominant in the picture. If you can desaturate them then the torso with the red sponge will become the dominant part of the picture and draw the viewers gaze. Then they will see the eye staring back and get a stronger impression of being the voyeur.

Ken.

I have uploaded a mod where I have adjusted the highlights and midtone contrast. Also applied some unsharp mask which helps with the softness.

Ken.

I have to say you have done well here to capture the moment. The 'expression'on the ducks face is priceless.

A little more depth of field at F8 would have brought more of the subject into focus, it is slightly soft around the eye, the most important area in a portrait. If you hand held this you did extremely well.

The background is rather bright and you could try toning it down. A good composition with room in front of the duck for him to leap into.

Ken.

I'm not sure there is anything to criticise here. the lighting is spot on. The background is is a little bit intrusive but without lots of painstaking work you are stuck with it. Better next time to ask the subject to move to an area where there are no distractions. If I were to do any work on this it would be to darken the area behind the white rose, just to differentiate it from the background.

The young girls expression is key in this shot, she is almost smiling yet she is not connecting with you. Did you say anything to her or did you just take the shot. A few complimentary words as you work can make all the difference.

As for cropping, you would loose her wonderful hair. I suppose a little lightening of the shadow under her chin would help reduce the results of using flash.

all in all a very competent portrait in my eyes.

Ken.

When you are setting yourself up to take sports shots it is important to check the background before you start. Once the action starts you will have little time to worry about composition. Had you moved left you would have captured more of the pitcher's expression and set him against the darker background of the tree to the right. Review your shots during breaks in the game and if you can move to get better angles.

On the positive side you have left space in front of the player which is good and the exposure is excellent.

Have fun with your photography and have fun with Ephoto too, welcome.

Ken.

Hi Saif,

the right hand side of this image has nothing in it and draws they eye away form the main subject.
I have uploaded a modification where I have cropped the image to get the bee on the magic third. I also applied a bit of unsharp mask on Photoshop 7.

Hope you like the mod.

Ken.

Hi Nick,
from one greying snapper to another let me say this is a good shot.
However the sky does nothing to enhance it, crop it out. The trouble with taking pictures of 'empty' scenes is that the eye cannot settle one one point of interest. This makes it a little uncomfortable to view simply because our brains are programmed to find something. Have a go at putting something in under the trees, even if is only a white dot, and see the difference it makes.

The Mono version is much stronger thanks to the crop and the lighting adjustment.

oh and don't take too much notice of the judging, if you asked everyone who voted for your pics why they did so they would all give a different reason.

Ken.

Yes diffidently the colour version is best, for some reason black and white suits male portraiture best.
I love the skin tones and the smile, nothing wrong in a smile when the lighting is soft. And her the lighting is near perfect giving wonderful modelling on your friend's face without any harsh shadows.
You could try upping the brightness just a smidgeon to make the picture a little more vibrant.

Very well done

Ken.

Hi Judy,
I love this shot, a very natural portrait which portrays the vitality of the two girls.
Catch-lights? Do not get hung up on them, if you look closely you will see the younger girl has one feint one in her left eye. The other eye is too closed to have one, nothing wrong in that.

The depth of field is perfect, portraits of children often benefit from a slightly soft feel. Here the slight difference between the two reinforces the age difference and works extremely well for me.

Their skin tone and lip colour are good too, it tells me that they have been out playing on the beach, running around and enjoying themselves.

I do have one negative point, the younger girl has a slight bogey, once seen never forgotten ha ha,
Quick job to clone that out.

I loke the rest of your portfolio too, you have the eye as they say, keep up the good work.

Ken.

Shooting in Raw is the same as shooting in Jpeg. What is different is the resulting file size and the amount of information it contains. One of the undoubted advantages is that you can select parts of a picture and crop down without a huge loss in quality and definition.

After looking at the berries my eye then focused on a white highlight to the top left and then to the stem on the left edge. Crop or clone them out for a much stronger image.

Rambler.

I agree with Strokebloke that the pose is awkward, the angle you have taken it from brings the left forearm into the most prominent position whilst her feet recede into the out of focus region.
Try it again with a head on shot so that her legs cannot be seen and have her support her chin on her hands.
Don't be afraid to move around as you work, try out different angles both horizontally and vertically.
The tattoo is fine, you could even make a feature of it to give the rock chick title more impact.

Ken.

I think it would work better in portrait mode, rotate clockwise and add more space on the right hand side.