Your Photo: Our Critique

This photo submitted by Greg Kendall-Ball is pretty good. Although we see similar photos all the time this one is particularly interesting. The strong eye contact of the boy in front and the out of focus boy in the background is really engaging. I like the sepia tone color. It adds a nice element to the photo. The exposure is well done. There is plenty of detail in the mid tones and shadows. The highlights are slightly blown out on the boy’s arm and his bear. One suggestion I have is to crop part of the left side of the photo so there is more emphasis on the boy and less background.
—Linzee Karasik
Pop Photo

This photo gets four stars on the PopPhoto Flash rating system.

The PopPhoto Flash rating system.
*= This part of the camera is called the lens
**= Don’t quit your day job
***= Good, but not yet great
****=So close you can taste it
*****= Yes, a thousand times yes!

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Comments

[Pickles]

Blech! The subject is almost as overdone as kittens or zoo shots.

"Oh, look, a poor kid in a third world country!". Meeehhhhh ...

+1 star for getting the eyes. +1 star for the pose and focus. +1 star for the background blur, setting context but also subordinating it. -1 star for the extra wide format (too much wall at right). -1 star for the emotional baggage that I am carrying regarding the subject. +1 for recognizing the potential of monotone. -1 for not increasing the contrast using monotone.

I say that 4 stars is about right.

[Alex]

what's wrong with this picture? I think this is as close to national geographic or CNN journalism as it gets. I think the photographer did a great job of capturing the subject with his little teddy bear, which i presume in those countries is like an Ipod of a toy for an American kid, since they might not get around those as easily or cheaply.

Frankly, I really like wide angle. I think leaving it like that is a matter of personal preference. The wall on the right shows really great texture and helps define where and how the kid lives. I really like how the eyes on the main subject stand out; it looks like something out of Resident Evil 5 or something.

I give this shot 5 stars.

[Luca]

I also go with the 5 star and I agree with Alex's assessment. The extra part of the wall help define the location, also it created an environment for the kid hiding. The depth of field is perfect, enough to separate the subject and to still make the background be noticed. I'm willing to forgive the slightly blown highlight, this is very much a photojournalism photo and the value of the message is more important than having a perfect, suitable for framing, technique.
As for Pickels's comment about the shot being overdone and for Linzee seeing similar photos all the time (I doubt it) I still have to see anything like this in this blog. Wanna point me to them?

[Pickles]

Luca,

Alex called out two places where you see a lot of these images - CNN and National Geographic. I know some African nations better than some U.S. states.

If you got to the CNN website and type "Photo African Boy" in the search bar you get 292,000 hits. A search for "photo kitten" only turns up 192,000 hits.

- and that's why a photo of some kid in Africa has to be pretty darn special.

[Luca]

Pickles,
I recall agreeing with Alex, unless I can't understand what I myself wrote.
I also asked where in this blog there is a similar photo. Because if we're talking about photos published elsewhere then every single photo critiqued has a similar one available in the millions.

I don't understand what you mean by "Pretty Darn Special" - this is a blog photographic critique. It's main job is to critique the technical qualities of the photo. Originality surely is great but if someone send a photo here that person wants to know the merits of their photo, I'm pretty sure they know if it's original or not.

[Pickles]

Well, I am trying to give meaningful feedback to the photographer and further explanation here is beyond the scope of that purpose.

[Marcos24]

Just one critique, to the editors:

The boy in the background (out-of-focus) is actually a ... girl. Just look at what she's wearing.

Regards.