What are you looking at...

[ShaneH]

This deer was walking through the neighborhood and I managed to grab my camera and get a quick shot of her before she ran off. So now I'm curious about how I might be able to make this shot better or more interesting. I'd didn't have a lot of time to try a different angle when taking the picture so I'm not sure about composition. I feel like I'm just winging it more or less when I'm taking pictures and am looking to learn to improve myself and my shots. In this picture should I have cropped trees out. Should I have been more cognizant about the rule of thirds?



Taken 7/24/11
Nikon Coolpix P80
Exposure .007
Aperture 5.0
Focal length 84.2mm
ISO 198

[Doug Sundseth]

First, I like the use of the trees as framing elements. They draw attention to your subject pretty well. That said, I think you could crop a bit tighter so that only part of each trunk is in the frame. (I'd crop a bit more from the right, especially.)

I'd consider dropping the brightness of the sunlit trees, as they tend to pull my eyes away from the center of the frame. Similarly, I'd probably push the brightness and contrast near the deer a bit, again to draw attention. (I'd probably do this by raising the exposure and brightness a bit and adding a post-crop vignette.)

I don't think you need to worry about rule of thirds issues. The eyes are the place I look immediately, and they're placed nicely to give a dynamic balance to the scene.

It looks like you nailed the focus on the deer pretty well, which is often difficult in complex lighting and vegetation scenes like this.

Overall, I like this portrait. It communicates a calm and peaceful sylvan scene.

[ShaneH]

Thank you for your critiques Doug.