Not for the squeamish: exposure advice

[ggoldthorpe]

Canon 50D
EF100-400mm lens
Ap: 7.1
Shutter: 1/400
ISO 200

I am really happy with this shot and it has been through the minimum of PP (crop and contrast) but I'm a little unsure about the composition.

Any comments welcome.

G

[zona5101]

i think the composition is fine...it tells the story. It is underexposed. It would also be nice to get a little more separation between the subject and the background. I assume that is grass, a green filter adjustment (or it's complement) should allow you to adjust it's brightness relative to the animals.

[LeeR]

Let's be honest, this is not a composition; there are no lines of movement, no repetitive elements, no rhythm, no careful manipulation of tonality, no balance of shapes or spaces. It's a snapshot. It's in your face with, "This is gross, isn't it?" and that's OK. It's like a shot from a newspaper; it tells a story.

I went to school with a fellow who is now the head photographer for a major newspaper. I know for a fact that he does his best to compose every image he takes, but he also knows that at the end of the day the priority is on the story and not the composition. (He would also tell you that editors rarely choose the best composed image. "My best work," he is prone to say, "is often left on the darkroom floor!")

[ggoldthorpe]

Thanks Leer and I do appreciate your honesty. I would just say, however, that your critique seems to me to be one primarily of semantics. No, this is not a composition in that I did not position the donkey or have a trained dog stand in exactly the right place and pose for a contrived shot; this was never my intention. I consider myself primarily a (very amateur) wildlife photographer and so there is nothing in my images that is contrived. I would also challenge the statement that this is a "snapshot" as (and this was what I was alluding to when I asked about composition) I did actively position myself in such a way as to make the most of the real-life event occuring in front of me. A snapshot is taken with no thought of such things, in my view. But, I do very much like what you say about the story-telling quality of photography and this is what I hoped to achieve here (as well as, to return your honesty, add a little shock value).

[ggoldthorpe]

OK - after giving Leer's comments some more thought I went back to my original shots and looked for something with a bit more going on - something with a bit more composition (?) but I'm still struggling with the exposure/contrast.

So, now I'm looking for critique fo composition (if there is any) and contrast.

Thanks,

G

[LeeR]

As much as I hate to admit it, this is a much better composition. Near-to-far is a common compositional device and the dead body and the dog suggest a line that leads our eye, thankfully, into the distance.

Do you have Photoshop or Gimp? Both of these images suffer from a lack of tonality that would be an easy fix with either program using "Levels."

And one last thing; the next time someone tells me their dog is almost human I am going to show them this shot!

[ggoldthorpe]

Hiya Lee - thanks for that and I think I now see what you meant about composition in your last post - giving the eye something more than just the main subject to take in and, most importantly, leading it around the image.

I particularly liked the horse in the background giving the whole thing some kind of life-cycle balance :-)

Don't forget, in some parts of the word humans eat donkeys too ;-)

[PSPhotos]

I assume you are trying to tone down the gore with the black and white format but I am not sure there is enough contrast between the ground and the dog to do that in this shot.

[sinophilia]

Originally Posted by ggoldthorpe

Don't forget, in some parts of the word humans eat donkeys too ;-)

donkey (and horse) meat is a classic here in Verona (northern Italy)...

[ggoldthorpe]

Originally Posted by PSPhotos

I assume you are trying to tone down the gore with the black and white format but I am not sure there is enough contrast between the ground and the dog to do that in this shot.

Not really - I just thought that B&W would make it less of a snapshott and convey more of the rawness of the scene.

Any ideas how best to increase the contrast without losing the detail?

G