Do You Ever Wonder What I am Thinking?

[mappleby]

I took this shot at the Calgary Zoo earlier this year. I had to crop it a fair bit to get the composition that I was thinking of, but in doing so I lost a lot of the detail. Next time I will try the shot a longer lens.

That's the history... What do you think?

[Palachandra]

Yep, I am wonder what he may be thinking!!

I read your description about using the short lense and loosing some comments. Room at frame left is ok, but room at the right of the frame might be good. More crop at the bottom. Finally the important thing eye... No details shown here.

These are just my observations and opinions....

[ELAY]

Even though you cropped, you still have decent sharpness on this gentle giant's face. But do you have any more detail in the eyes? Looks like contrast is high on this version anyway -- if you can tease a bit more detail out of the face I think the picture will be improved.

Also the cropping does seem to have made the background screen of trees a bit unattractive -- too blurry to be sharp, but not quite blurry enough to recede into the background. You might consider applying a Gaussian blur to this part of the photo, to send those trees into the background where they belong.

EL

[wulf]

As well as the suggestions above, notice the black element (shadow?) in the bottom right corner. While you are fixing up other things, it would be worth removing this, cropping or cloning, since it adds nothing to the image.

Wulf

[jiminyClickit]

mappleby,

Whatever else may have need of repair here, congratulations on a title that grabs, causes a thought process, and actually contributes to the experience of viewing your work.

[mappleby]

Thanks for all the great feed back. I agree I really wish that I could have gotten more detail in the eyes. I went back to all the photos of him and none of them had any eye detail. I tried to light the eye area but there was no detail to lighten, it just went from black to gray. I did however recrop without the shadow in the bottom right corner and I was able to ease up on the contrast.

Elay I tried the Blur technique that you mentioned and I was unsuccessful. I tried the magic wand selector and that didn't work so I went with the Lasso. I applied the blur effect but it left such a noticeable line (blur effect to no blurr effect). I tried to use some of the tools in Photoshop Elements but I couldn't seem to make it work. I am new at the post production so I guess I need ALOT more practice. That said I really like the effect that it could have created.

Mr. Clickit... Thank you for your kind words they are much appreciated. I alway try to put a Title that make so you think. That said it doesn't always work but I glad to hear that you thought it did on this one.

Ok enough talking from me... Here is the reedited version.