Composition Hints Anyone?

[WayneW]

Taken on July 26, 2011 at 3.55pm EDT (edit)
Posted to Flickr July 26, 2011 at 6.57PM EDT (edit)

Exif data
Camera Nikon D200
Exposure 0.008 sec (1/125)
Aperture f/7.1
Focal Length 105 mm
Focal Length 106.8 mm
ISO Speed 160
Exposure Bias 0 EV
Flash Fired, Return not detected


This 16 inch long turtle was trying to pass through our yard, but the fence stopped it. I laid down next to it, dropped into macro, took several shots before I carried it off into the woods. I feel this shot is too cropped, and I should have dusted it off before "portraitising" it. Your thoughts? Thanks- Wayne

[JFSanders]

Only thing that bothers me is the fence. I like a nice closeup, especially when you get the eyes nice and sharp. He does need some adjustment though. We need to tone down his highlight behind the eye and need to blacken the blacks and pop him out of the background and then crop so that his eye is on the third line junction and BAM!

Jim

[Gulf Coast Girl]

Originally Posted by JFSanders

Only thing that bothers me is the fence. I like a nice closeup, especially when you get the eyes nice and sharp. He does need some adjustment though. We need to tone down his highlight behind the eye and need to blacken the blacks and pop him out of the background and then crop so that his eye is on the third line junction and BAM!

Jim

Fantastic adjustments Jim!

[Hellwrath]

Wayne,
That's a pretty good photograph. I don't have much to say about composition, but I generally avoid using on camera flash, and that's the only thing that I'd have probably done differently.

[JFSanders]

Originally Posted by Gulf Coast Girl

Fantastic adjustments Jim!

Thank you! It was a pretty good image to start with. So I didn't do too much.

Jim

[WayneW]

THANKS everyone! Every time I turned this turtle, he would move a few steps, so I just grabshot him and used built-in flash to bring out his eye. I guess since I had white balance on auto, that probably gave the flash a bluish tint from his eye forward. The highlight behind his eye was the sun. I don't have Photoshop, but I use an old version of Paint Shop Pro, and am not too good at it. Need to study, huh??
Thanks again for the pointers guys! We can learn from critiques of other folks work, but when you get other's viewpoints of your own stuff, that's when it sinks in!
Thanks all,
Wayne