Best Smile in the Park

Contagious smile!

Happy and warm, makes me smile ! *R*

I'm not certain whether you've really captured her knitting, although you've certainly captured some of her vitality.

Nice subject, good exposure but I have to agree with the previous comment, it's a photo that happens to have knitting needles in it but thats about all. It doesnt capture the learning to knit title for me either.

furry))) mike

Nice candid photo. Very natural expression. I find light too strong but not bad anyway.

Nice candid as said, the light (sun i presume) is fine for me and the breeze creates an even lighter/softer ambiance.

The smile is wonderful, but hats off to you, the energy you captured is even better!!!

From an aesthetic point of view I thought "Learning to Knit" was a better composition than this one. With this shot the highlights are better, but the one place where you have a total blowout is in the smile which, according to the title, is what you found most striking about the image. Could stand to be darker so that the detail isn't lost there as I think there's enough light to keep the rest of the face illuminated. Try adjusting higlights down using levels if you haven't already (that'll also drop your midtones a bit, but you can bring them back up after dropping the highlights). I'd do that in an adjustment layer so that you can come back and change it later without losing data after a save.

This is a particularly dynamic portrait....I like it!

Thank you Linda, I appreciate the comment.

She really looks like she is having fun. Good shot.

Critising other people's work is a two edged sword. If you don't do it, people very rightly feel neglected and if you do, then you better have something useful to say! I had better limit myself to what I feel I understand the best which is portraiture such as this, because I know very little about the technical side of photography. What I truly enjoy (and I have already been through your portfolio more than once before) is when people are photographed as they really are, in movement, in speech or in some activity, and that is what you do very well. Some people imagine it is what is the simplest, but I do not think that is so, because it is so easy to appear threatening when one holds a camera. This is an interesting shot to me and says so much more about the young lady than if she had posed for you more formally. She is talking andcommunicating with the viewer.