help critiquing picture and PS

[lukeo]

Hey all, I'm new at just about everything and I'd like a second set of eyes on this photo (or sequence of 5 photos) that I doctored in PS. Let me know what you think of both the composition and PS.

I feel that it's just not "popping". Thanks for your help.

Linky: http://lukeo.smugmug.com/gallery/8933189_pLZZa/1/#593063981_RVnsc-A-LB

http://lukeo.smugmug.com/photos/593063981_RVnsc-L.jpg

[Zerodog]

I feel like it would be better with the last one on the left side left out. So you would then have 4 images. It is almost completely symmetrical then. Maybe I am way off, but I like things that are symmetrical.

[TonyCooper]

Excellent Photoshopping skills. I think you're expecting a bit too much to expect the image to "pop". It's not that kind of scene. Too subtle, and that's good.

[lukeo]

I feel like it would be better with the last one on the left side left out. So you would then have 4 images. It is almost completely symmetrical then. Maybe I am way off, but I like things that are symmetrical.

Ah. Good point. I can either add one:
http://lukeo.smugmug.com/photos/593057664_KwhKa-XL.jpg

or remove one:
http://lukeo.smugmug.com/photos/594536053_E46Nb-XL.jpg

I think I like the one with 4 best. Thanks for the tip.

[lukeo]

Excellent Photoshopping skills. I think you're expecting a bit too much to expect the image to "pop". It's not that kind of scene. Too subtle, and that's good.


Good point. Maybe "pop" isn't the end goal, but it feel a little bland in the end. After doing the sequence, I still felt drawn to the single shot:

http://lukeo.smugmug.com/photos/593058033_fQMWm-L.jpg

[TonyCooper]

Good point. Maybe "pop" isn't the end goal, but it feel a little bland in the end. After doing the sequence, I still felt drawn to the single shot:


I guess it comes down to what you mean by "pop". To me, an image pops when there is something in the image that jumps out at you because of the position, color, background, contrast, etc. There's something that grabs your eye and makes the rest of the image background.

Desirable in some images, but not in all. When you have multiple subjects (as you do here) or a scene where everything in the scene contributes to the image, you really don't want it to "pop". You want the eye to take it all in.

For a single-figure shot, I'm enough of a traditionalist in composition to want the figure to have space in front. In this case, the child just starting on the right-hand side rather than finishing on the left-hand side.