My Poppy (not what you may be thinking)

[ninafrog]

I would like some advice about this image. It is essentially SOC, only cropped a bit to focus the attention where I wanted it, the light spot in her eye. I like this shot quite a bit, and feel like it shows a great deal of her personality.

I asked some of my friends, who are dabbling in photography as well, what kind of thoughts they had about it and they just say things like: "she is a cute puppy" or "what a cutie". Perhaps I am getting these kind of vague responses, where I want critique, because I am asking a vague question. But, I honestly don't know how to be more specific! Other than to say: I would like help seeing what I did wrong (or right) in my attempt to make this image engaging. Thanks ahead of time!

[monstermum]

I like the shot. Your puppy looks as though it is going to say something rather cheeky. The blurred background brings my eye to the "expression" on the puppy's face.
:<)

[BigFuzzy]

First off, welcome to DPS.

Ok then, you asked for it. Best constructive criticism I ever heard was also harshest.

First thing I noticed is that you shot this image standing there with the camera at eye level looking down at the subject. This is exactly how every other person would see this if they were there, so it makes it not particularly exciting to me. Change perspective. Get lower, to the dogs level. Shoot at the dogs eye level.. anything to make this different than the other 10 billion puppy shots out there.

The image simply isn't sharp where it needs to be. You mentioned you cropped it to focus on light parts of eyes.. well, focus should be there as well. Focus seems to be falling on the nose which hints to me you were using some sort of Auto focus.. don't. Focus should be where you want the viewers eyes to go if there's elements in focus vs blurred elements. Learn to focus-lock & recompose, or manual focus, don't rely on your camera.

Image white balance seems off. The whites aren't actually white. This can be corrected, either in-camera (with your wb settings) or later in post-production, pretty easily.

Your cropping/composition cut off the puppies paw.. poor puppy. It's never good to barely cut off limbs, either go full tight cropp or include everthing.

I like your choice of dof by using a large aperture.. so that's good.
You did seem to capture a nice moment, so that's also good.

Just remember to always ask yourself, "how is this at all different than the 10billion other people with camera snapping away at 'cute' things?" before ever even hitting the shutter. Get creative.. don't just go "oh, cute, *click*!"... because that's what 99% of people do.

Good luck and keep posting...

[ninafrog]

First off, Big Fuzzy, thank you for taking the time to respond & for your honest critique (c: Without sounding defensive or unappreciative, I would like to respond to a few of your remarks:

I think I agree about "This is exactly how every other person would see this if they were there" Immediately after I took this shot I thought "that is the perfect *puppy* shot" and then "what a great expression!" I would have only thought it was a perfect puppy shot if there was such a thing, that happens when many, many people do the exact same thing, to the point where it becomes the standard. I do, however, think that I caught her personality in a picture...she is a devious little rascal, and the more I've gotten to know her in the last 3 weeks (since we adopted her) the more I see how well I captured that in her expression )c: Nearly every other picture I took that night was with both of us laying on the floor, but, though they were nice, it was well nigh impossible to compose a decent shot, since she kept scootching towards me on the floor, and she never had that same look again.

"Focus seems to be falling on the nose" That may be true, and yes, I do rely heavily on auto-focus. I am extremely nearsighted (once one gets into the higher end of vision correction, the available corrections aren't as precise, so I am corrected up to 20/30, I think). As such, I tend to trust my equipment to focus where I want it to. I have the AF set to a single point and I generally use that single point to focus, hold the focus-lock, & then compose my image. If you have another suggestion, considering my "handi-cap" (LOL) I would very much appreciate it!

Funny that you brought up the white balance...I actually DID "fix" it in photoshop, when I went in to crop it, but it seemed to change the feel of the image, made it kind of harsh. The honey color you see I got from ambient light and bouncing flash off the wall behind me. I found I preferred the warmer image.

I actually cut off her paw when I snapped the shot )c: I was rather put-out when I saw it on my computer, because I hadn't noticed it when I looked at the screen on the back of my camera. I would have, otherwise, zoomed out a bit and tried to catch it again...if I had seen it while I was shooting...so upsetting! I spent several minutes trying to figure a way to crop closer to her face, while keeping the same "feel", yet, every crop I tried to "fix" it so that it wasn't so obvious, took away from her sassy expression (LOL). I think it is because of the way she is holding her body in relation to the camera adds to her expression. In the end, like the WB, I left the paw slightly cut off to keep the "feel" of the image intact. So, except for some extra space on the sides (because I originally shot it landscape), in the end, I felt like this picture needed a "less is more" approach.

Again, thank you SOOO much for your critique! It helped me to be able to see (and explain) the specific choices I made, and why, when creating this image. I am striving to be a more thoughtful photographer and "make" my pictures instead of merely "taking" them. I also appreciate that you didn't simply tear apart my image and/or personally attack me, or just tell me that I suck! (c; I look forward to many more interactions in the future.

[ninafrog]

Originally Posted by monstermum

I like the shot. Your puppy looks as though it is going to say something rather cheeky. The blurred background brings my eye to the "expression" on the puppy's face.
:<)

Thanks! I think I have a great subject (c: I gotta tell you, she really IS that cheeky...and that is what I LOVE most about this picture...how well it captures her "spirited nature" (LOL Probably has something to do with being a mix of Shiba Inu & Australian Shepard!)