Doing laundry: This little girl is doing her own laundry (note the small pieces of soap on the step). She is a Chachi child on the Rio Cayapas in northwestern Ecuador. This was taken...

AzPicLady Loc: Behind the camera!

This little girl is doing her own laundry (note the small pieces of soap on the step). She is a Chachi child on the Rio Cayapas in northwestern Ecuador.

This was taken with a borrowed camera that I really didn't like and I had no idea how to control anything! This is a 4x6 crop of the original 10x capture. Ran it through LR3 for clarity, upped the blacks a bit and recovered detail in the water a bit.

I loved the fact that she was all alone by the big river with nothing around except herself. That's sort of the way life is in that part of the world.

Doing laundry

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Nightski

Your subject is fabulous. The impact is diminished though because we can't see the child's face. If you had been at the shoreline of the river, you would have had a nice leading line, and you could have captured the expression on the childs face.

The lighting wasn't optimal, but that could have been overcome with a better composition and some selective sharpening and contrast in post.

Country's Mama Loc: Michigan

I love the subject and I am not as bothered by not seeing all of her face. I can see enough of it to know that this is a serious chore for her. Maybe she is looking out at something wishing she didn't have to do the laundry. The mother in me wants to stick around and make sure she doesn't fall in.
Since you cropped this down I think I would crop with less on the top and more on the right. The top adds nothing and giving room on the right would give her more to look into.
I think you did a good job with the PP. There is detail in the water and her skin tones are lovely.

AzPicLady Loc: Behind the camera!

Country's Mama wrote:

I love the subject and I am not as bothered by not... (show quote)

I didn't actually "crop" the image. I simply made it smaller. The original image as shot comes out to be a 10x. Since I have trouble uploading large images on this site, I've been given the instruction to make them smaller. Hence the 4x "crop."

Do you think there's too much water? The river totally controls the life of these people. I guess that's why seeing her with this large background of water was poignant. Am I wrong?

AzPicLady Loc: Behind the camera!

Nightski wrote:

Your subject is fabulous. The impact is diminished though because we can't see the child's face. If you had been at the shoreline of the river, you would have had a nice leading line, and you could have captured the expression on the childs face.

The lighting wasn't optimal, but that could have been overcome with a better composition and some selective sharpening and contrast in post.

I thought about that. However, clamboring down the mountainside to the river would surely have attracted her attention and she probably would have run away. So I decided best to take what I could get. I liked her looking out into the river instead of me. Do you think I'm wrong?

Country's Mama Loc: Michigan

AzPicLady wrote:

I didn't actually "crop" the image. I simply made it smaller. The original image as shot comes out to be a 10x. Since I have trouble uploading large images on this site, I've been given the instruction to make them smaller. Hence the 4x "crop."

Do you think there's too much water? The river totally controls the life of these people. I guess that's why seeing her with this large background of water was poignant. Am I wrong?

For me the large expanse of water at the top is too much. By cropping some of it off I think you focus more on the little girl, but still leave all of the background water. But also remember that this is your image and if leaving the water alone tells the story better for you than you should leave it. Everyone is going to have a different take on this. Maybe to convey the total control of the water have even more water in the picture. Have the little girl only occupy a quarter of the image and the water the rest. I would put her in the lower left corner with a landscape crop. This would have her peering out at a large amount of water. I realize the this would have had to be done at the time the image was taken or spend a lot of time recreating the picture.
I do like this image as is. It still tells a story.

Nightski

AzPicLady wrote:

I thought about that. However, clamboring down the mountainside to the river would surely have attracted her attention and she probably would have run away. So I decided best to take what I could get. I liked her looking out into the river instead of me. Do you think I'm wrong?

I would never say that any photographer is wrong in the choices they make during a shoot. Only the photographer knows the conditions that existed while creating an image. I simply gave honest feedback on an image that was put up for critique.

I still feel it would be a stronger image if it had been shot from the shore of the river. Whether or not that was possible was not information that was available to me when I critiqued the image. In an image like this, where you may not have another chance, it is best to get the shot you have, and then you can try to get in position for the better shot.

I do like CM's suggestion of cropping. You did expose nicely for her.

pelirrojo Loc: Duluth, MN

What a wonderful image, to me, youve captured the loneliness of the pretty little girl. My personal preference would be to crop some of the water as CM has suggested.

lighthouse Loc: No Fixed Abode

Its OK, but the main thing I notice is that it is a weak composition.
And the lack of eyes troubles me too but we can't fix that now.
If the image was cropped behind her, at the exact spot where the bottom step meets the top step, and the distraction in the bottom right corner was cropped from the bottom, and the top was cropped to keep the 3x2 ratio, it becomes a much stronger image, with her looking into the photo, but still peering out into the distance.
This would bring the feet down a little closer to the bottom, and would place her on a much more pleasing line of thirds.

AzPicLady wrote:

This little girl is doing her own laundry (note th... (show quote)

christofras Loc: Gold Coast Australia

AzPicLady wrote:

This little girl is doing her own laundry (note th... (show quote)

Think it needs a bit cropped off the water, and a bit cropped off the right side

waltchilds Loc: Central Florida

I like this shot as it certainly tells a story and allows us to experience the world of this little girl. Since you were not able to capture her face and eyes, I agree with CM and Nightski's take, cropping would have made it much better, especially since the exposure seems to be good.

Algernon Loc: Milwaukee, Wisconsin

Reading these responses reminds me how much beauty is in the eye of the beholder. We all have wildly differing opinions.

I prefer the fact that she is not looking at the camera.

I like the negative space created by all the water. It creates a greater sense of solitude.

If I were to experiment by cropping this any differently, I'd simply crop off on the left (moving the girl more to the left in the resulting image) to give her more "space" to be looking at. To retain proportions though, then I'd also have to crop off some of the top.

Mormorazzi Loc: Temple, Texas

I don't hang out in this section very much, so I'm not sure if it's okay to post changes, but I'd like to share what I've learned this week about cropping:

The subject is vertical, so the orientation should be vertical.
She's looking to the right, so she needs space to look into.
Following the "rule of thirds," her laundry, an important part of the story, is now on the bottom left cross-mark.

I also increased the contrast on the water and lightened the laundry. (I'd rather do this kind of laundry than the sort in my laundry room right now!)

Thanks for letting me apply what I'm learning! Great photo!

AzPicLady wrote:

This little girl is doing her own laundry (note th... (show quote)

Country's Mama Loc: Michigan

Mormorazzi wrote:

I don't hang out in this section very much, so I'm... (show quote)

Posting second images is against the rules, but I like that you explained what you did and why.

AzPicLady Loc: Behind the camera!

Thanks, everyone. I'm playing around with some of the crop suggestions offered.