I'm trying to broaden my horizons a bit from landscape photography. I took my NEX-7 to a local Renaissance fair yesterday. I was wanting to get used to setting a relatively fixed focal length (35mm) and, in this case an aperture for minimizing focus using hyperfocal distance, i.e., quick pre-set shooting.

The setting was good for eliminating distracting modern elements from the frame. A lot of shots were black costumes in the shade with bright backgrounds. I was setting exposure comp up to try to ensure some detail. I ended up not paying enough attention to shutter speed, so there is a lot of motion blur in my results.

This was charming opportunity. The boy was very intent on playing the board game and his sister was every bit as engrossed and sidling onto his lap.

Comments...recommendations?
#1543692

My only concern is the cut off heads of the adults in the background. It's a bit distracting. #10837511

Like the story you've captured here but think exposure wise, you could adjust the levels mid-tones to open it up a tad. Then to minimize the onlookers issue, you could apply a gradient blur to the background and darken that area after selecting the children and the docent. #10837697

Ironic crop suggestion, Jeff. This was my original crop. As I reviewed the set of pictures, I realized that I had focused Renaissance portraits and scenes, but had not caught the spirit of a fair. So I eliminated the crop to include more of a sense of a marketplace or fair.

The audience for these images is the local community services department, the sponsors of the event. The local photo club gets access to the community center meeting rooms in exchange for event photography. I realized that that my images probably didn't meet their needs. IMO, the uncropped version is at least a little closer to the intent. #10839019