This week we have a photo submitted by Jenni who was playing with manual settings on her camera while her son played on the slip and slide. This image was shot with a Lumix G7 and H-H025 lens.

Critique today comes from Erika, Jenny, and Carrie.

Erika: First, you did a great job nailing the exposure in this image. Direct sunlight is not always the easiest thing to shoot in and you did a great job here. Also, I really love the simplicity of this composition. You found a clean, uncluttered scene and took advantage of it. The gesture we see here from the boy is also good. We probably could have seen a more dynamic gesture while the boy was first leaping onto the slide but this is good; we see the limbs outstretched and can feel the movement across the frame. I also like that we are able to clearly see the hat for what it is, a dinosaur. While I really appreciate the care taken to make sure the fence posts in the back were straight, I do wish you had squared up to the water slide as well – though I suspect perhaps you were following the boy with your camera as he slid across the scene? Instead I would recommend setting yourself up in a static position with the slide running straight across your frame and then clicking the shutter as the boy moves across the frame instead of following him with your camera. You will still get multiple images to choose from but with a stronger, more graphic, composition. Lastly, when choosing your stance, I would suggest making the decision on whether to include or exclude the end of the slide. Here we get a hint of where the slide is ending because we see the blue trim but it’s clipped by the end of the frame. I would have preferred to see the entire end of the slide in this instance.

Jenny: Firstly, well done on making this image in full sun, near water and with a new camera! It screams summertime as a kid to me – the sprinkler, the slip and slide, the dinosaur hat, and the hours of fun to be had! I think your exposure looks great and I really like the movement you captured of him sliding, but I wish I could see a bit of his face to see his expression, even if it was just a hint of a smile or mouth open screaming and laughing. I think you could’ve caught that if you had squared up to the slide and shot it straight on by just waiting for him to slide by. I also would crop it a bit tighter to get rid of the top of the fence as the water isn’t going up that high and it’s not adding anything to me. You could do this by getting down really, really low to his level, to the point of laying down in the grass so the focus is really on him, the sprinkler and the slide. We don’t need to see the whole slide to know what is going on. I shoot my kids in the sprinkler and at the beach a lot without any kind of underwater housing so I know it’s what like having your camera near water, but don’t be frightened by a few splashes. Don’t go dunking it in the water or anything, but a little bit of water splashed on it won’t hurt it. Great job and enjoy your summer capturing a lot more images like this!

Carrie: What a fun image that makes me excited about summer! You did great with properly exposing in full sun with a subject wearing a white shirt that could’ve easily been blown out. Composition wise, I did have to study the image for a bit to figure out what was going on with his R arm. The fact that I can’t see his hand gives the image a slightly uncomfortable tension. Sam Abell says that a good image consists of setting, expression, and gesture. You’ve established the setting nicely. I do feel the image would have greater impact if we could see a bit of his expression. Without seeing any expression, an image needs to really make up for that with a HUGE gesture. You have a bit of a gesture with his body but not quite enough to make up for not being able to see his expression. Like the other ladies, I think squaring up to the fence would be better than shooting slightly diagonally to it. So select a composition, don’t move your frame, and let the subject come into your frame. It takes a lot of patience but this is a great kind of activity for that exercise since he’s repetitively doing the same activity! I love the bright colors and your clean edit here. Keep on shooting!

*****

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