My Parents' Dog

[Jessica Eldredge]

This is a picture of my parents dog that I took at a campout last year with my telephoto lense.
I'll repost a larger size later, but wanted to get some opinions on it.

 

[Asher Kelman]

Hi Jessica,

This picture is more interesting to me than your previous offerings in that we have a context of a beautiful background that gives the dog an environment and so tells us more about it.

Again, you have a handsome subject. In the hands of a master printer, this would make a stunning print. What size file is this? Was it taken in RAW and what camera and lesn did you happen to use. The latter details are not important for the artistry of the picture but do impact on printing, perhaps.

You seem to like close cropped images. If it's your intention fine! That's O.K.

My presefence is for more of the background so that the tops of the trees are visible and also so that at least the eye can be seen and a tad more of the dog.

Photography teachers, priests and guru's advise to crop close then closer. Yes that's often admirable.

However, in learning, and especially today when in reality, we restart making the picture in front of the computer screen, wider is sometimes better. And why? Wider framing allows one to experiement and explore many different compositional options.

If you must be religious about close cropping when you press the shutter, do so. However, also take some wide angle shots. This will permit you to learn more about possible new choices for composition at the time of pressing the shitter.

The picture has the dog's head smack in the middle and that people don't like. However, I like the pointing of the head to the dog's right. Now if there was a lot of landscape there, it would be even more fascinating as it would appear that the dog is looking there and thinking about it.

The colors of the picture are particularly attractive. I cannot think of a more pleasing combination. You have a gentle blue sky, the layered hils in the distance, green grass with shadows and a dog with white fur like clouds and brown and golden fur like the mountains of landscapes. In fact, the shape of the dog's face is itself like a large mountain.

So, if this ia a place you can return too, I would. I can see you have now two excellent subjects.

Great and good luck.

Asher

 

[Jessica Eldredge]

Here is a more recent picture of my parents' dog. This was taken last week while I was on a camping trip with my family. She is standing on the porch in front of the cabin we were staying at.

 

[Kathy Rappaport]

Personality

I like this portrait. It shows her personality. She is a Border Collie, yes? Doing her job of watching something ...I like the angle. If this were my image, I'd remove the number 9 and the white lettering from the image since it's a bit distracting. Of course, depending on what you want to use it for.

Someone around here has a quote on their signature that says "Everything in the Frame must contribute to the image". I think about that all the time.

 

[Jessica Eldredge]

Kathy,
She is part border collie, yes. I don't really know what she was looking at.

I'll have to see what I can do about the lettering. I think you're right about that. They are a bit distracting. I hadn't really thought about that.

 

[Asher Kelman]

Kathy,
She is part border collie, yes. I don't really know what she was looking at.

I'll have to see what I can do about the lettering. I think you're right about that. They are a bit distracting. I hadn't really thought about that.

Jessica,

I also find the shot so impressive. Since you are open to slight changes, might you crop away the top 1/4 inch above the roof as it's even more distracting than the letter "9" which I agree distracts too. That pose is so striking that I would have nothing that takes away from it.

Asher

 

[Jessica Eldredge]

Asher,
I'm glad you liked the picture. I was working hard last week to get amazing shots of the dogs and people there. I'll make those edits as soon as I can and post what I come up with.

 

[Ray West]

Hi Jessica,

As others have said, this image deserves a better background. Why not post a link to the original file over on Tim's processing forum, see what folk can make of it? I would respectfully suggest you concentrate on post processing, in particular blurring/cloning backgrounds. Your subjects are often well captured, but you miss out on leaving out the intrusive backgrounds. But, this is a very, very good dog portrait, you can tell who's the boss of your folks ;-)

Best wishes,

Ray

 

[Jessica Eldredge]

Ray,
Thanks for you comments. I'll keep that in mind. I definitely need to work on post processing. It's not something I've done a lot of.

 

[Asher Kelman]

Hi Jessica,

One of the nice things about OPF is that one can explore different looks. You are the artist and it's only your vision that matters. The picture is still outstanding no matter what.

Ray's idea is worth looking into since all edits in OPF are your copyright and next time it's your ideas that will help another photographer. The advantage of other eyes is that parts of an image (which we ignore because it is not the main subject, and we for sure know that), stick out to a new viewer who comes to the image, for the first time, without knowing the dog!

Rarely can we take a picture that is not on a constructed set without some telegraphy pole, blown piece of newspaper or some other every day thing that you don't want! So doing these small adjustments to me is quite normal. Of course, people will say you just have to "frame properly" but as you can see with the number "9", no one could take your picture and not have that there!

You did what we strive for. You captured the dogs unusual and impressive stance that makes it so adorable. No other position would have done it.

Asher

 

[Don Lashier]

Jessica, the concept, angle, "pose" with the dog looking above you, are all great. But both this shot and your street portrait you posted in the other thread would have been much better if you had shot wide open or nearly so. Ideally a different background would have been better also but shooting with a narrower DOF would have been a great improvement.

- DL

 

[Asher Kelman]

Jessica, the concept, angle, "pose" with the dog looking above you, are all great. But both this shot and your street portrait you posted in the other thread would have been much better if you had shot wide open or nearly so. Ideally a different background would have been better also but shooting with a narrower DOF would have been a great improvement.

- DL

Don,

Great point! For sure opening the lens would solve all these issues. I didn't mention that because I liked the building the dog was guarding. Blur to obscure the "9" and the building might go too. That I prefer to keep rather well-defined.

However, as you suggest, blurring the building might be perfect!

Asher

 

[Jessica Eldredge]

Ok, I've done a quick edit keeping everyone's suggestions in mind. Here's what I came up with. I got rid of the writing and cropped it a little more.

 

[Asher Kelman]

Yes, this is good work. however, the transverse white letters where a valuable stabilizing feature to the composition, IMHO. This extended the power of the dog as the white appears to be part of the presence of the dog and connection to the b.g.

I'd add back about 5%-30% of the orginal with just that crop and the letter 9 removed.

Asher

 

[Jessica Eldredge]

Is something like this what you meant Asher? I personally like the letters being in the picture as well, because it reminds me of where it was taken and the memories I have of that place.

 

[Bart_van_der_Wolf]

Is something like this what you meant Asher? I personally like the letters being in the picture as well, because it reminds me of where it was taken and the memories I have of that place.

Jessica,

I agree with Asher about the letters, however ..., depending on your Photoshop skills, this would be a good opportunity to familiarize yourself with the 'Lens-blur' filter. For me, the letters are still a tad too prominent/distracting. The lens-blur filter allows (after meticulous creation of a mask for the dog) to blur the background just a bit more, as if it were created by DOF. It is a simple background, so creating a realistic depth-map is simple.

The pose for me brings back childhood memories of 'Rintintin to the rescue' (I know it was an other breed, but still).

Bart

 

[Cem_Usakligil]

..The pose for me brings back childhood memories of 'Rintintin to the rescue' (I know it was an other breed, but still)...

LOL, this to me is more like "Lassie; catch that big bad Sasquatch and then come home!".

Jessica, I like the picture. I also agree with what has already been said before me, so no C&C this time . Thanks for sharing

Cheers,

 

[Kathy Rappaport]

Rin Tin Tin

Yes, it's very Rin Tin Tin......oh my...I wonder if people here were even born back then....that was one of my favorite shows along with Lassie.

I agree that the image with lettering is better (but the number being gone is good!). Love to see it made less prominent too.

 

[Jessica Eldredge]

Sadly I don't have photoshop. I did all my editing on PaintShop Pro 7 (I think..I'm at my work computer so I don't know for sure if that's what the program is called). I used the blur tool on the backround, but IMO it didn't make enough of a difference to post it. Maybe with Photoshop it would have been a bigger difference. I don't know.

I'm very happy with how this image has turned out though and will probably make a few prints of it for my mom since this is her baby and Smokey probably won't be around for much longer. Thanks for all of your suggestions. It has definitely helped to hear what other people see in the image and what detracts from the shot.