Don't Tell MoM

Always a pleasure to view your work,Verna. This photo is precious...without that strained feeling of contrived "cutesy-ness",if you know what I mean!

Great picture!

Love this portrait Verna, not because it is is a child 's one ( I usually like them ) but for the expression you caught, the composition, the light on the blonde hair, the B/W choice..Anna

This portrait is no doubt precious. The only thing I would change on in would be the backgroud, the light areas are a bit distracting and the lighting on the right side of the face seems a bit "hot". It looks like one of his eyebrows is darker than the other and the face itself seems washed out.

 

Other than those two things (which are easily corrected in Photoshop, or at least so I am told) I absolutly love this shot. :o)

You caught a very natural pose on this young man, introspective and thoughtful. My personal preference would not be to crop so tightly, and to use natural light, not flash, correcting in Photoshop. It's a personal aesthetic choice that of course does not affect the quality of this print. I am sure his mother loved it!

Very nice and natural. I wonder if you might want to crop out the very bright areas at left, or perhaps clone them. Also, I might tweak the levels a bit on his face (if you use Photoshop) - it has a bit of "flash" look. Just suggestions...

Love the lighting and contrast.

...my first reaction was that this seemed to have a bit too much contrast, but on thrid viewing, I realized (at least I think) that there's a fairly strong directly from the camera fill flash (nothing wrong with that) but the shadow right behind the hand and the harshness of the shadow below the jaw we what gave it away (if of course, I'm not completely off) I'd personally like to see a more diffuse light from our right, and a little bit of a rim/backlight to just sillouhette the left side of his face. I like using DOF to bring the forground up, but wish it was a little stronger to make him pop a little better (maybe a little darker back there too)

 

So... with that, I'm curious, what did you use for lighting? was I completely off base?

This is very nice indeed. The lighting is very good for an on camera flash. I see detail in all the face without any blown out areas. I like the crop and the expression is great. As previously mentioned, I think that the sun coing through the leaves on the left hand side is a bit of a distraction that could be burned in a bit. Very nice image.

I think the pose really works well here. Compositionally, very well done! The more I look at it, the more I like it. Very sharp! Good job Verna!

Excellent aesthetics, a boy in his natural habitat...close to a tree, whether he is climbing up it or not...I love the 'seriousness' of his expression.

Very nice, tack sharp and nice DOF and catch lights.

Nice pix Ansel Adams would be proud of you

You get some remarkable expressions out of these kids Verna. This is fabulous also.