King Ivar and the Green Outline

[SwtHrt88]

After starting an account two years ago...and taking a two year hiatus for other priorities, I'm re-entering the world of DPS

This is a photo of my friend's puppy, King Ivar. He's a Wheaton Terrier. I recently bought a new camera, and this was one of my first shots. It's cropped specifically for a square frame, if you're wondering. In addition to whatever other general comments you may have, I'm looking for some specific advice: 1) For those of you who are Photoshop savvy (I'm learning!), I need some advice for getting rid of the green-ish outline around the dog; it's most evident around his ears. 2) The background seems too bright/over-exposed to me...any suggestions? Truthfully, it looks quite nice in the dark frame...but that's kind of besides the point

Canon EOS 7D
85mm (Prime Lens), Manual:
f/2.8
1/1250 sec
ISO - 400
No Flash

2011July_IVAR_003PS.jpg

Thanks for looking and for your comments!

[SwtHrt88]

I was trying to get the image itself to show up in my post...clearly, I was unsuccessful. I guess I need some thread-posting advice, too!

[karen_s]

I think it pretty nice overall.

To your fist question, I'm not too sure exactly what to do so these are things I might try ...

The photo over all looks a bit to the green side on my monitor (monitors vary) so I'd start with the White Balance and see if a general adjustment would take care of it. If that's a fail, I'd try selectively lessening the saturation on the edges. I'm thinking there are many ways to go about this but I'd probably start with duplicating the layer, desaturating that layer just a bit, then selectively erasing (with a fairly big soft brush) the areas that you don't want changed. Then work with the opacity of that layer. The key is not to get completely rid of it, but to lessen it's effect to point that it's not overpowering the great parts of the image. That might be a fail too, in which case, maybe someone with more experience has a better idea.

To the second point, the background does not bother me at all. The exposure on the dog looks pretty good and I really don't see any blown highlights. I'm guessing what might be bothering you is that the background is lighter than the subject? The viewers eye tends to go to the brightest part of an image and maybe that is just distracting you a bit. It works ok for me because the subject is bigger than the background and covers more area of the image. The only thing I can really offer is if you don't like the lighter background, try to find a darker backdrop, maybe some dark green trees or bushes. I do this with my Golden boy as much as I can. He tends to stand out nice against darker backgrounds (and blue skies), really brings out his color.

Oh, I like the square crop.

[3bayjunkie]

Beautiful dog and great exposure. There really isn't anything to critique here. You should have put this in SYS :P

[SwtHrt88]

karen_s, thank-you for the response...I appreciate your input on the background. With your comments in mind, I forced myself to take another look without my own, overly self-critical eye and I think you're right - it's not blown out. Although it's still a bit distracting for me (partially because I've already thought about it so much), it's definitely not something I would have thought twice about in someone else's photo...thanks for the perspective.

3bayjunkie, thank-you! As I gain more confidence, I'm sure I will start posting in SYS. I just feel like I still have a lot to learn from all of the seasoned photographers on here.

[photog1107]

I also think you really nailed the exposure and the sharpness on this... nice portrait. I agree the background is slightly distracting, only because of the yellowish/green cast, but as another commenter mentioned, a slight desaturation or color shift could bring it more toward a warm, neutral mode. Really nice shot, though. Welcome back!