A selection of various images

Great tones. Love the water droplets in the hair.

Can I be so bold as to ask to advice here, I'm the last film user in a camera club, this was entered into a portrait competition and was slated, I was told that I took too much off the top which I did to draw attention onto the eyes, the image is pin sharp on the eyes, I'm planning to use this image again, should I, Paul

I say YES. The child is beautiful, the colors are beautiful and as you stated it is tack sharp in the eyes. One thing you could try is to crop the left side of the image in a bit tighter maybe up to the edge of the jacket and see if it gives a bit more of a balanced feel???

Paul,
I think this is very nice, but a "portrait" orientation may have made a stronger composition.

As a photograph I think it's terrific, but as a competition entry I think the judge might consider the child's jacket too eye catching and competing with the child's face.

Try looking away, turn the image upside down and look back see where your eye goes first. If it goes to the face/eyes that tells you something. If you go to the brightly colored jacket TEX mat be right. I also agree with Mopat Guy that is why I suggetsted cropping the left side of the image. That would get it out of the landscape perspective and closer to a square format.

Children can have a very round head. Barry may be onto something with a square format. Mary Ellen Mark has taken some great kid shots with a Hassy.

Thanks guys, it's great getting another set of eyes on these things, I've cropped the image hard and will print it to see what it's like, I like the idea of turning it upside down, Tex you could be right, I may just leave this as a image for an exhibition that I'm involved with in October, Paul

May I suggest you think about darkening the lightish area to the right of the subjects face, to approximately the same darkness (if possible) as the background on the other side of the face.

Then it's almost perfect for showing off the face.

However, if you can darken the brighter parts of the terrific coloured clothing, the part adjacent to the left cheek, to about the same as the extreme right shoulder, then you may have a quite outstanding print.

I don't believe the framing is a problem, I think it's more the lighter areas need tempering (darkening).

Printing this onto positive paper could be brilliant, the range from highlight to shadow looks like a close match to what paper can hold, and in this case, I think it would hold well.

Mick.