Adding a comment from your thread. The lighting seems a bit harsh and off in this shot, which isn't easy with the dark fur friend you have. The eyes are just a bit too dark to make that connection. As Louis stated the focus seems a bit soft as well. I am not a fan of the color of cloth used and the type of material that it is, it reflects too much light taking focus away from your cute buddy. I gave this a 6 and do recall thing that I felt is was cute but that the main issue with me was the lighting and then the color.
From this thread: The subject is probably the first thing that garnered the large number of mid-range votes of 5. Cute pet photos probably do best only in subject-related challenges, such as Pet Portrait. Consider that your other shot of the pup in Pet Portrait III had more sixes than fives, probably for this reason.
There's nothing particularly engaging about Peek-a-pup, even though the dog is very cute, and acting in a cute way. For example, nothing has separated this picture from the large number of pet snaps that exist on Flickr, DPC, or many other websites.
Focus on the little guy's nose is sharper than on his eyes. If his eyes were lit well, or had interesting catchlights making his eyes look very big, maybe the photo would connect with more people. As it is, his dark eyes are almost lost in his dark fur.
The similarity of colour between the "backdrop" and the floor create a very unidimensional quality to this photograph, making it somewhat bland.
Overall, the picture lacks sharpness. It's a little soft.
It might have been improved by the following:
Ensure the image is tack-sharp. Let's see the individual strands of fur, or some detail that engages the viewer. I love blur and soft focus as an intentional effect, but for this style of photo, I consider sharpness essential. Check yanko's cat portraits for an example.
There are basically two colours here: grey and purple. Mix it up in your backgrounds, floor, add a red ribbon to your pet, etc. Add something interesting to the frame.
The framing/cropping itself is not very interesting, and should engage the viewer. Had we seen more of his environment, perhaps with the dog more to right-of-frame, it might have been more of an interesting view.
I love this...so cute! I can't wait to take pics like this of my dad's new little schnauzer...looks exactly like this one! He's coming to visit next month!
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