What a great picture. The eye contact is great and the smiles natural! That is quite the skill for the age of these kids so good for you! The picture looks a little blue to me so I’d warm it up a little with white balance. I think the darks are a little too dark so I’d play around with curves (midtones and highlights possibly). Also, there is a spot that is really blue behind the fence. I am betting that was a blow out and you tried to fix it? If yes, i can see the border of your selection so I would try refining the edge of the selection so that it feathers and blends in better. This is a great picture. I would call it buddies for life. Oh, and love the holding of the little boy’s hand.

Oh my goodness, aren’t they precious?! What a sweet picture! Great job capturing what is probably a rare moment of good will towards each other. :)

I agree with the previous comment that the photo is a little “cold”… a little warming would do wonders for the boys’ perfect skin and really make that golden light in the back pop. I always add just a tad of sharpening to the eyes to make them pop, but that’s personal preference.

Nicely done! The composition is just perfect! I bet the parents are going to blow this one up and frame it!

Look at those smiling faces! You must have either two angelic children posing for you, or an incredible knack for capturing the still in the chaos :) My personal style is that I like to leave portraits quite roomy in the frame. You’ve nailed the shallow DOF, nicely throwing out the background – next time why not try shooting in landscape? Play with the composition. The boys are as tall as the fence, you could shoot the fence landscape (filling the frame with it) and they could be standing on one of the rule of thirds intersections.
PS I didn’t even see the blue spot that Christina mentioned until I looked for it – just go to show you how everyone sees something different!

Love the connection in this photo…both boys seem very relaxed and give you very natural smile. I do agree with others on the overall image being too cold. I would also leave more room around them to give an eye a break :) Also, if the mom wants a larger print/ closer crop- this photo might cut their heads/ hands off because there is no negative space around them .

Grrrrrr, I hate critiquing photos that are so perfect that I can’t find anything wrong with them!! ;) I guess maybe warm up the photo, as mentioned above, and zoom in a bit for closer, or zoom out a little to have feet included. Overall, well done!! :)

I love how relaxed the brothers look with the arm over the shoulder so the pose is fantastic. I think it’s a little on the cool side but the biggest issue for me is the chopped off feet. Maybe next time try to leave a little more space around the edges of the frame. The bokeh you got in the sky and trees above them is also very pretty.

The subjects are perfect, but the picture is way too blue. What I can only guess are white undershirts are even blue. I would just use auto WB using either of their shirts as the sample.
I would have used a higher f/stop and compensated with possibly a 400 ISO and even a 1/60 shutter speed. Depth needed was pretty small in this case, and it looks like the image was modified to intensify an effect that would have been better if it was done by the lens instead of with post processing.

Really nice photo! I agree with comments above about the white balance. I’m also a fanatic about sparkly eyes, so maybe brighten them up a bit. The only other thing that stands out (and I’m guilty of this myself) would be to move the boys to the right a bit so the post isn’t ‘poking out’ from the older one’s head. Congrats on a job well done:-)

Kasey, first of all… i congratulate you on freezing the moment! It’s hard enough to photograph one boy, but you managed to get them both in the picture AND smiling.

One of the things i would change is the crop. I would like to see more of the environment and the boys legs. Also, the image is a bit underexposed for my taste, but that’s just my personal taste. I would addjust a tiny bit of brightness.

The back light is gorgeous and you captured a sweet moment. Keep up the good work! :)

Look! They are standing still! Fabulous job! :) great job seeing most of the older boys arm so u don’t end up with a creepy hand. Other than the image being cool u may want to consider moving the boys off the fence somehow. Approach ur location by looking at the obvious spots, think about what u would instinctively want to do then change that thought into what ELSE could I do with it. I bet mom and grandma have this image all over their house and loved it! Making the client happy is what it is all about anyway, right? :) happy photographing!

I love the positioning!

I would have cropped it differently or gotten a bit lower when taking the picture so they aren’t cut off at the ankles.

Good job getting two young boys still and smiling!

The boys are adorable and I love that they are actually smiling (which is hard to get with kids). I would lower the blue saturation. The pond or whatever is in the right bottom is a bit to saturated for my taste. Otherwise it’s a good pic

I think I would crop the photo in, I would also adjust the white balance and warm up the color. It’s awesome you were able to get them standing still, kids can be tricky so great job on that. I love the fence behind them too. Nice work

I think this is a great photo and you have two super cute boys!! I love their faces, natural happy smiles and a great pose. I’m not sure if it’s my iPad but their faces look a little blurry I’d maybe have tried a higher appature (maybe 5.6) to get them both in focus. I’d also would like to see the photo landscape with the boys on the left hand third line to see some of that beautiful colours Behind them! But that second point is just because you picked what looks like a stunning location :), I like the leading lines of the fence to draw you into the boys!

Very cute picture! Great job with capturing the facial expressions – I love the matching dimples. To me, it felt like it was a little too closely cropped as my eyes keep being drawn to the right. I would love to see it in a landscape setting. I didn’t even notice the lack of feet or the blue spot until I went back and looked, which I contribute to the overall relaxed setting and pose. Love the hand holding. Can just picture them holding out a dandelion or pretty leaves in their other hands. Thanks for sharing a great pic!

This picture is very darling!! The fact you got 2 little boys to pose together and not look uncomfortable is commendable!! I have been working with kids around this age lately and boy do they have a lot of energy and very little sit still so you nailed it as far as posing in my opinion!!

However, I do notice the blue in the background to the right of the boys also. But like a lot of other people have commented the picture is all a bit blue toned. So maybe when you warm it up the water or whatever is on that side will be toned down and not be very noticeable. I am also a fan of doing the 1/3rds portioning I think it allows the eye to draw more to the subject rather than the background to start with :D

I really do love this picture tho and I bet that their parents were just thrilled to have a picture of them both looking at the camera and smiling and will care very little about what is going on in the background!! At this age getting one of them not moving is about as good as they hope for :D

I agree with other comments about warming the picture up. In which program did you do your editing? I think warming the image up and then using luminosity would add the desired effect you may be after. I also agree that taking the picture in landscape mode would be a good choice…that way you can include more of the fence and background to give the eyes a little break as well as to bring out the colors in the boys clothes, eyes, and skin.

Excellent subjects by the way!

Adorable photo! I love how they’re holding hands!
If it were me, I would have bent down a little more to capture a little more sunlight, I also would warm the photo up by changing the white balance, otherwise it seems as though it’s an odd mix of warm that sorta melts into cold.
What a great photo to capture & so sweet!!!

I love this picture! These little guys are adorable. :) I agree with everyone about warming up the image a bit – a little white balance can go a long way! I’d also think about cropping it in a little to get rid of some of the space on the right and draw the eyes more toward the subjects. You did a great job capturing these adorable expressions!

Great focus and DOF! I was going to comment on WB, but it looks like every else has already done that! I Think that the yellow in the back is a bit bright and a little distracting. I keep looking up to the corner. Also, the edges of the blue/green in the bottom background seems a little strange. Maybe the edge of some editing? Maybe pulling back to see more of the fence as a leading line would be nice, but I think that’s more of a personal preference. Great capture!

Great focus! My only critique would be that I feel as though for my taste, it is a bit on the cool side. Also maybe a tighter crop. Other than that, I love the connection!

I really like this image, the bits expressions are great! I think it justs needs some kind of pizzazz to make it great. I would warm it up and lighten it a little, maybe make the crop a little tighter. But I really love the posing and that bright yellow sun on the leaves in the background.

This is so adorable! What cuties!! Of course, as many have mentioned above, I would warm up the color a little. Another thought would be what if you had shot it horizontally and used the fence as a leading line? Otherwise, I love it and the Fall foliage in the background is lovely. :) Good work!

What adorable kiddos! I agree with the thought of warming the photo up a bit. I think it would look great if that same warmth that’s in the background could be carried throughout the rest of the pic. For composition – I would have maybe tried to pull back a bit at an angle, and used the fence for some leading lines. Love what you’ve captured here tho – those smiles are too cute! :)