Despite knowing that my nephew Samuel and niece Abbie were visiting this weekend I had pretty much decided that I wouldn’t blog a photograph of them – I wasn’t even sure I’d have the camera out during their visit. However, the photograph you see above turned out so exactly as I had hoped that I just had to share it. Because, to my eye at least, there is lots that works with this image, and very little if anything I would change. So with that in mind, you’ll hopefully understand my change of mind about blogging a photograph.
So what is it that works about the image for me and why, at a technical level, do I think it’s quite a strong image?
Compositionally the subject (Samuel) is positioned in the frame so that his right eye is at the intersection of two lines that divide the image horizontally and vertically into three, meaning it adheres to the “rule of thirds” which, if any rule can, tends to make for pleasing compositions all by itself.
There’s more to the composition than that however – the spiral of chains surrounding the subject draws the viewer’s eye into the centre of the image, or rather the off-centre due to the aforementioned adherence to the rule of thirds. There is no doubt as to where the viewer is supposed to be looking, but the image does everything it can to get you to look there even if you weren’t sure.
Another technical aspect that works is the contrast in colour and tone between the background and the foreground – it helps that Samuel is brightly dressed (as he often is) and his light skin tone against the dark background means he stands out visually.
The image is lit by nice, soft, even light which is all ambient light courtesy of the overcast sky. That overcast sky is effectively a very large light source meaning that not only does the light wrap all the way around the subject, giving a very suitable light for a baby’s face like his, but also gives a subtle but effective highlight on the rubber swing on which he is sitting.
Finally, the focus and depth of field are both crucial to the image – I shot the image at f/5.6 to give me a little bit of leeway with the focus on the eyes, important with a subject like this who is constantly moving, but knowing that it was shallow enough to throw Samuel’s lower half slightly out of focus.
The lens I used for this shot (the only one I brought with me to the local playground where it was taken) was my 50mm f/1.8 and for the next frame, shown below, I tried a shot wide open at f/1.8.
The wider aperture did isolate Samuel’s eyes even more, but the framing isn’t as good, with his left leg and hand being cropped at the edge of the frame. In this second image the depth of field is perhaps too shallow too, as some of the detail in the background that helps the composition of the first frame is lost, as is that leeway with the focus which I think I needed.
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