Beautiful Golden Retriever Puppy:)

[Lindsie Nicole]

I took this picture of me kissing Scout (a friends dog.. though I also have a precious golden retriever) on my Sony Cyber-shot and edited it in Photoshop. I think I maybe went alittle too dark... I really wanted the sides to be dark so the dog and I looked brighter without actually having to make us brighter, if that makes any sense... haha. What are your thoughts on this? Is it too dark?

thanks!
Lindsie

[karen_s]

That is one adorable puppy! What a face.

As for critique, I kinda like the darker look you have going. If you could get a bit of the detail back in the nose and maybe your hair, I think that would be helpful. Maybe dodge (lighten) it a bit? The detail may be there, I just see mostly black in this smaller version on my screen. There is a wonderful catch light in his eye which really makes it for me. And those whiskers are great details.

The black area toward the bottom of Scout is a little distracting and I would either try to dodge that area too or maybe even crop it out. It's heavy and at the bottom and keeps pulling my eye down. I do like the black look, just be careful not to lose the special details and textures that help make the shot.

I'm not too sure the area on the left adds much to this shot (although on its own might be kinda interesting :-). While you may like it this way because it gives context to where you were when you took the picture, you might try also try an alternate crop that focuses more on you and the little guy, possibly vertical or even square. It truly comes down to what you are going for.

I have a Golden Mix myself and he is my favorite photographic subject :-)

ks