Beach Bum

[mattroth54]

Once again, please hit me with both good and bad.

[Corpsy]

Is it my imagination, or does it look like that kid has a miniaturized adult torso with baby parts attached? He's posing like a body builder.

The photo is good, but seems somehow depressing. The kid is off to the side with his head bowed down, and in front of him is what appears to be empty beach with gloomy clouds in the distance. Is he a sad baby?

[mattroth54]

Yes, he was upset that a day of fun at the beach was quickly coming to an end with an out-of-the-blue storm. That being said, he is almost always a VERY happy baby!

[Corpsy]

In that case, I guess you captured the event extremely well. Most people probably don't remember much about the day their beach photos were taken just by looking at them, but if you were to look at this image 15 years from now you'd probably very quickly recollect the events of that day. Definitely a keeper.

[Luxowell]

again... a tad bit of noise.... be we know that already.

It has an awful lot of saturation to it... which depending on what you're going for, is either a good, or bad thing. Now, as Corpsy stated, the little guy looks kinda low, and is posed in an unusual (but not bad) way. Try dropping the saturation on it... hell, maybe even take it all the way to black and white. Cutting a color picture with noise down to a black and white is a cheap and easy way sometimes to make a noisy picture just look kinda artsie

[mattroth54]

I dropped the saturation a bit. I didn't want to lose the pretty light blue water by going b&w. I'm from the midwest; the only water I see here is green or black. Would you go any further?

[Luxowell]

nope, i think thats about right if you're going color with it... good job!

and yes, us mid-west guys have to long for blue water.

If i see any more corn, someones gonna get hurt... badly.

[Aumma45]

Hmmmm, of its kind.

[berto]

its nice except the horizon is wayyy off.
thats kinda what separates it from just being a snapshot to making it a Great photo. the details.

[Carskick]

I find the composition good except that it feels disorienting. I found that if I rotated it to make the horizon level, it seems much more effective for me as a picture. However, unless your original was a crop, it may be difficult to maintain some outer details since the rotation was a large 9 degrees.

Edit: Actually you may only want to rotate it 8 degrees, mine is slightly off in the other direction. Some people find the crookedness adds effect, but this particular seems more pleasant upright.