A Child In a Crowd, a photo from British Columbia, Western

Photographer's Note

This kid walked into my shot during this weekends "Word on the Street" Book Festival. Luckily, it is my policy to hit the shutter automatically when this happens!

I don't know what was wrong with the little guy, but I hope everything worked out ok!

Post-pro: levels, curves, blur (applied to background), colour saturation reduced, noise added, crop.

Cool-ice, Enia has marked this note useful

Critiques | Translate

smil (566) 2004-09-28 9:10

This little boy has, effectivly, a strange but expressive face. I was tempted to write that I found this pic noisy, but I just read you added volontary noise... OK !

Cool-ice (5289) 2004-09-28 9:20

A strong eye with just the perfect light on it.
For the composition, I just would have preferred that we don't see the face of the boy in the left background, as for the other characters. The contrast would have been still more impressive with the main subject.
But it's a real good portrait, even like that.
Congratulations for having catching this moment, Alex !

Benedetto (437) 2004-09-28 9:53

Great look!!! Beautiful photo!!
Regards, Benedetto.

piozac (2065) 2004-09-28 11:03

Great moment you cought here Alex! This face is very interesting and very well lit. Which contrasts nicely with dark background.
I really like your extraordinary style..
All the best!

Bos (628) 2004-09-28 12:52

good colours, nice composition, and the added noise gives a nice effect.

merpb (2001) 2004-09-28 13:24

What a great quizical face you captured Alex,
I love the low PoV and the rank of characters as a backdrop is great.

ninadev (5377) 2004-09-28 21:24

We really wonder what he is thinking, he looks worried - maybe scared of this strange guy taking a picture of him. Great capture and I like the noise too.
I find the background a little disturbing with all the head missing except for the boy on the left, I made a WS.

[workshop] [compare]

MKING (3054) 2004-09-29 23:43

Nicely caught-- the lighting on his face the the shadowed kids behind him is excellent. I suppose you could crop a little from the top-- to remove just enough of that kid's head as to render him anonymous but it's a well executed grab shot as it is. A fleeting expression that seems to encapsulate some people's opinions about street photography-- at least, that's the look I get from my friends when I tell them how I spend my weekends... ;)

agelaste (533) 2004-09-30 2:35

what an 'accident'~ and this serious expression on the boy's face looks unusual and a bit humour for his ages~
and i agree with Ninadev that the legs hanging at the background is some distrubing,but crop all of the people ,only the kid left can't give us the whole impression of the circumstance,so
i crop it a little,and blur the background,then add two darklines both the edges of the photo....
i hope u would like it!

friendly,
Xu

[workshop] [compare]

mdchachi (1612) 2004-09-30 17:25

I would prefer shallower DOF or more blur in the background. The headless bodies don't add much to the shot and the kid in the back is distracting. Also consider cropping it into a vertical composition.

Enia (365) 2004-10-01 7:26

Hi Alex,
I think you managed to capture a very intimate and a very honest feeling....lucky you....very well done.
take care
Eugenia

joseelias (0) 2004-11-05 12:24

Great use of light, because it permitted a very successful brake of the 𩂈ules� with the centered main element. His suspicious expression is also very nice! :-)

Good DOF. Just miss a bit more sharpness.