The Image: Great to be back in the saddle after getting my new D300! Millie just hated having this picture done and this was the best one out of about 60! I was feeding her some almonds as a reward to keep her interested. Wanted to give this an old world look as if she was a princess (which of course she is).
Overexposed by one stop because of the backlighting.
The Edit: Grayscale, Duotone, Levels, Dodge and Burn, some shaprening and bluring, Noise Ninja. Clone out a stray hair across the eye.
Overall it is OK. Decided to go the selective desat route, not sure I chose wisely, but it matches what I wanted to achieve. I then added a bit of red through the variations thing in PSCS3. Won't win anything I don't think.
Prediction: Some might recognise Mille here, so I don't know...6.1???
POST: Obviously very disappointed with the result...expected a lot better...and what's with the two 1's?
Statistics
Place: 102 out of 261 Avg (all users): 5.8125 Avg (commenters): 7.2000 Avg (participants): 5.5405 Avg (non-participants): 6.1237 Views since voting: 1247 Views during voting: 338 Votes: 208 Comments: 20 Favorites: 2 (view)
Camera Work/Technical: I do like your post-processing, as well as the shallow depth of field that you chose to go with. My only technical gripe is that the primary focus are appears to be on the pups nose. I'd always try to make sure that the eyes of my subject, whether human or otherwise, stay as focused and as crisp as possible.
Lighting: I think that your choice of lighting is what pulled your score down more than anything else with the capture. I like the antique-esque effect that you captured/created, but the hot spot on her head is a fairly strong distraction to my eye. The same goes for the background in this particular shot. You also lost a little detail with the lack of light on her right eye. A little fill flash would have made this one a good deal stronger.
Composition/Content: Nicely creative. I didn't vote on this particular challenge, but I did go through them after the voting was over. This one made me chuckle. I bet she was tired by the end of 60 shots.
My Opinion: I like it. You did a pretty good job achieving the look you were after. Great subject, good use of props, but I think the lighting could have been a bit better. Good to see that the D300 is getting some good use.
Thank you for the opportunity to provide a critique on your entry,
Eric
You've got the Posthumous curse. I never got around to commenting, but I put this photo in my 7 bin for later bumping. Sorry! Anything I love goes down the DPC drain!
7 - Cute, just wish the snout had a little 'clean', especially with such refinement around and the quality of the image. Like the shapes in the background.
nice setup, good DOF, cute doggie. bit too many blown lights, especially on her head while her right eye is too dark
- you should have gone for a 5D for better exposure control :D
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