Smartypants got a personal best in the recently finished free study:
She was above 7 for about half the week but really took a beating on the last day of voting and ended up with a 6.8. She saved a screen capture just to imagine "what if..."
She's too modest to blow her own horn so here comes dad...
Congrats to Smartypants for that new PB! Ya know - I think with a verticle or uncentered crop, that one would have stayed above 7.... just my opinion of course. Hope her next 7 comes along quickly. :)
Congrats to Smartypants for that new PB! Ya know - I think with a verticle or uncentered crop, that one would have stayed above 7.... just my opinion of course. Hope her next 7 comes along quickly. :)
I was thinking exactly the same thing, and said something remotely related during voting.
Call me photographically impaired or naive, but the centered composition doesn't bother me in this image.
I think since the kitty is staring directly at the camera and her stance is poised in such a symmetric (and intense) way, the centered comp works (for me).
If the kitty was at an intersecting point in the rule of terds, would the impact of the image be better? Or are people/voters just really married to the 'rules'? When is it appropriate to break those 'rules'? (I struggle with this distinction...often).
To me, the background combined with the aforementioned intense (and positioned) stare create a perfect opportunity to break rules and center crop this piece.
Regardless of all the chirping, this is a great capture.
Call me photographically impaired or naive, but the centered composition doesn't bother me in this image.
I think since the kitty is staring directly at the camera and her stance is poised in such a symmetric (and intense) way, the centered comp works (for me).
If the kitty was at an intersecting point in the rule of terds, would the impact of the image be better? Or are people/voters just really married to the 'rules'? When is it appropriate to break those 'rules'? (I struggle with this distinction...often).
To me, the background combined with the aforementioned intense (and positioned) stare create a perfect opportunity to break rules and center crop this piece.
Regardless of all the chirping, this is a great capture.
I definately agree with you.
And I laughed when I read your typo..."rule of terds"
Hey, thanks everybody for all the great comments and tips. It's funny, but cropping vertically never even occurred to me. I kept it horizontal and centered from the very start- didn't think twice about it. I personally think the centered composition works here (obviously) and had it not been from a straight-on POV, I probably would have cropped it differently.
I'm curious to know how you all would have cropped it..
Absolutely a great photo, and congratualtions. but one still has to wonder who would vote it a 2, or a 3, or even a 4? A ghost account, or someone just worried about not winning?
I don't think the "problem" is as much with the centered composition as it is with the too-prominent trunk on the right: to my eyes, just using a gradient on the right to tone that down makes a marked improvement:
as submitted: gradient version:
If I were working on it more seriously I'd be sure to maintain the separation of the lower leg area better.
I actually thought about doing a subtle vignette but I wasn't happy with any of my attempts. I like your edit- what did you do?
Created a selection of the entire right side right up to the tiger and around and over his head. Created a new, empty layer in multiply mode, set to neutral fill (white), and used the gradient tool set from black-to-transparent to draw a gradient from the right edge to the center of the image. Then I created a second new empty layer, set to overlay with a neutral fill (gray this time) and redrew the gradient on that. Faded the multiply gradient layer to 50% and the overlay gradient layer to 40%.
Why two layers? Because the overlay layer alone dulled down the whole log and made the details muddy, whilst the multiply layer alone introduced too much contrast int he details. Using them in tandem I was able to retain detail whilst muting the whole log.
I think the rather static feel you get from the centred landscape comp. works quite well with the "I'm staring at you and then I pounce expression". If anything, maybe if the look were just a bit fiercer it would work wonders (so go train that kitty to stare better). I like the context (the logs/rock), even though it might be catching a bit more attention than needed.
It's a great image; I do think it would be better cropped a bit towards a traditional thirds image, rather than the centric composition, but it's quite lovely either way!
