Theme parks good for candids

[guy_mansford]

Hi, new to forum (hope I can upload a photo). I find theme parks a

good place for candids. This was taken on a very sunny day at a theme

park in England(yes we do have them) hence the print film. Mum's are

too anxiously engrossed in their kids antics to notice photographers.<div></div>

[emre]

I like the contrast between the expressions on the women. At this moment, the mother looks more pleased than anxious. I would also like to see more of the man, but expanding the DOF to include him would cause other problems, so perhaps he should stay that way.

 

You may disagree with me, but I feel that neither the color, nor the light was on your side. Red is the color people are most sensitive to, so it is unfortunate that just about the least important element (the staircase) happens to be stark red.

 

What do you think?

[guy_mansford]

thanks for comments. Yes, theme parks may have good opportunities but they're full of primary colours that make very poor backgrounds. I didn't crop out the stairs as I'd have lost the man looking back which I thought added interest. Midday bright spring sunshine is a challenge though !

[fotografz]

Guy,

While I to primarily favor candids of people , I also found all the

colorful backdrops to be very difficult to work with when

accompaning kids, and killing time by shooting...until I began

doing a series of graphic studies that used the colorful primaries

at theme parks. Kids love the big colorful prints all framed up for

their room. These were shot at the Santa Monica Pier in

California using a polarizer to deepen the sky and cut the harsh

reflected sun at midday.<div></div>

[ronald_duren]

Good shot but I think that a different film would help in rendering a high contrast scene like this in the future. We have plenty of sunny days in New York and I use Reala or NPH under these conditions. I played with your shot in photoshop cropping off the top third and desaturating to B&W, the strong colors really don't add anything to this composition.

 

Keep shooting,

 

Ron

[guy_mansford]

Ronald,

yes thanks for this. I have certainly have had better results with Reala and will probably stick with that. I usually shoot provia 100F but the weather was better than expected and kodak 200 was all I had

[chris_tennyson]

I agree, that i would crop out the background... I like the idea you had with the guy looking at them, but hes just too out of focus, the eye doesnt even pay attention to him, which means the entire top half could be cropped out, leaving a much stronger composition of the family... as for the contrast.. nothing you can do about that really, other than as they have already said, using filters, and different films... but live and learn... I always try to take a little of everything as far as film is concerned.. Living in California, the weather is always unpredictable... I get a laugh listening ot the news weather men.. they haven't a clue what to expect!!!! so i take a couple different speeds with me...

 

I liked the desaturate idea someone mentioned.. see what it looks like in B/W!