Photography forum image of the month — February 2012

Every month on our pho­tog­ra­phy forum mem­bers nom­i­nate images that they like. Then at the end of the month I choose an excel­lent image and talk about why it rocks. The photo I choose is not nec­es­sar­ily the best one of the month. I’ve come to real­ize it’s not really log­i­cal to pit images from totally dif­fer­ent gen­res against each other. That’s why there are cat­e­gories in photo con­tests. I just choose a photo that has extremely strong ele­ments that we can learn from.

Jump — behind the shot by Richard

This month’s choice is Jump — behind the shot by Richard

I chose this image for sev­eral reasons:

Colour — Light­ing — Expo­sure — The cool colours in this image work extremely well with the sub­ject mat­ter. I really like the bluish qual­ity to the light­ing in this image as it is in sync with the with colder sea­son. The over­all light­ing which Richard gra­ciously explains is also well done and I like the hues of the gelled speed­lights. The speed­lights high­light the child’s move­ments very well and cap­ture an excel­lent ges­ture. In terms of the expo­sure, Richard con­fesses to to using an ND fil­ter over the lens to bal­ance the strobes and ambi­ent light and this makes the shut­ter­speed longer. This was a very smart move that allows us to see a hint of blurred move­ment in the feet and dif­fer­ent posi­tion of the hat.

Ges­ture and Story — The child is caught in mid-jump, play­ing and smil­ing. Even though the child is basi­cally told to jump, Richard catches a moment that looks com­pletely nat­ural. For me this is a suc­cess­ful image of a child hav­ing a great time just being a child.

Post pro­cess­ing — the added wisps of smoke in the post pro­cess­ing are a lovely touch and blend in really well with the image and the intended con­cept of the image. The vignetting keeps our eyes well focused on the child and the child’s activity.

For all these rea­sons, this is my choice for image of the month. Since we all have opin­ions, some mem­bers may dis­agree with my choice. That’s cool but THIS thread is not the place for debate over my pick, NOR is it the place to fur­ther cri­tique the image. The pur­pose here is to sug­gest strong ele­ments in the photo that we may learn from.

Con­grats again Richard for cre­at­ing this won­der­ful image!