A Beach Boy

please rate and critique

I am not the most indicated to give you some comments but I really liked this photo. I have not rated you better because I saw some of this kind of picture many times - but I still like them. For me if you could be more far from the boy it will be much better and if the boy were a little to th left because the "third rule". But is only my comment and I am still learning! Sorry about the bad english here!

 

Right Bottom, but this one has a mre interesting appeal to it. But I think it's too bad the boy is the same height as he water here.

beautiful. gives me a real sense of sitting back and watching this kid play on the beach.

First, an explanation of my ratings:

 

A = 7

O = 5

 

I give the rating of 7 for aesthetics because subjectively I find the beach scene to be a pleasing one and because I have a soft spot for *any* beach. Im having a hard time being objective here. Since you do not include any clues as to what your intentions were, what it is you hoped to convey with this photo, I can only guess at the obvious.

 

My assumption is that you want the viewer to feel as if he is there, watching the child playing on the beach. If this is your intention it *almost* works for me though I cant put my finger exactly on why.

 

I like the contrast of the intense colors in the boy against the washed-out colors of the beach. Also, the depth of field works well for me but the background seems almost * too * blurred and since there is so much of it; it keeps dragging my attention away from the boy to the fuzzy beach and waves. Thought the beach does not suffer too much from focus issues :-)

 

Also, I think that the amount of sky in this photo works for the subject. When you sit on the beach and look out towards the sea that is the effect you get. I wouldnt worry too much bout the rule of thirds here. Its for renaissance painters anyways :-)

 

As for originality, first my new standard disclaimer:

 

Lets face it in this media driven world it is *hard* to be original. For this reason I *automatically* start everyone off at an even, in the middle, five. To go up from there the picture has to be something that *I* find to be unusual compared to what I have experienced photographically in the past (this is in direct conflict with my basic philosophy of photo critique, but it is hard to rate based on any other criteria that I have been able to think of to date). Obviously for a higher originality rating it must be something I have not seen before or something one does not typically see often. Also an unusual, oft-not-seen perspective will start moving the needle up the scale past a five.

 

And now you know why it is I gave you a five for originality.

 

:End Disclaimer

 

 

 

I suppose you could crop it down, reduce the sky, and get the panoramic effect. My dad got a Canon Elph so Im kinda hung up on panoramic views at the moment :-)

 

If the surf were not so distracting to me I would have rated it an 8 for esthetics. Again that is a wholly subjective point of view I know. I think . . .

 

On a technical note, Im guessing you metered off the boy which is why he is so vibrant and everything else seems almost underexposed? But again, that adds to the effect of bringing the boy out more distinctly in the shot.

 

My thought is that if you had used maybe a UV, or better yet a Skylight A1, or even better a Haze filter that you might have gotten just a bit more detail in the background. Enough at least to make it less distracting, again IMHO, so that it wouldnt keep causing my eyes to wander so much.

 

I say this because there is generally more UV at the beach especially when overcast, that can cloud the shot. Like when up in the mountains. Just go look at the first pic I posted to the circle :-)

 

What beach by the way?

 

Daniel

 

The colors of the ocean blend perfect. Excellent colors

I stopped at several beaches througout my adventure around the cape.

Simple,not original,....who cares,i like it ;-)