how do you...

mm99 · Jun 10, 2007

I live on a farm and like to take pics of random animals, but they are always in a herd/ don't look at you and I was wondering how to take pics of one animal in a herd. I took this one...probably isn't too good, but it will work for critiquing....

malsech · Jun 10, 2007

i did a quick crop, added unsharp mask and cloned out the other two cows. Messed with saturation and contrast. My edit is def not the greatest, but is this in the direction of what your looking for?

Lackoffunding · Jun 11, 2007

Are adult (Im guessing female) sheep called cows? I like this shot. I thing you did it well. A good way to "isolate" a subject would be by shooting with a very low aperature value, so the background gets blurred. What I would change on this shot is as follows.

-Straighten the image. Horizon lines are straight.
-The little guy is a touch out of focus, just barely.
-Crouch down to get a more level angle with him, looking down is what everyone sees.
-Maybe crop out the sky, as it is completely blown. I probably wouldnt if it was salvageable, but there is nothing there.

This is a very cute picture, and I dont mean to be harsh, but this is in the critique forum. I would love to see a re-shoot, and this is a good start. Great cloning work too.

Digital Matt · Jun 11, 2007

Get closer. These are not wild animals. Surely you can walk right up to them. If your photos aren't good enough, then you aren't close enough.

JIP · Jun 11, 2007

malsech said:
i did a quick crop, added unsharp mask and cloned out the other two cows. Messed with saturation and contrast. My edit is def not the greatest, but is this in the direction of what your looking for?

I see no cows lol.

Seriously though you need to do something about your white balance. It really helps to take it off auto because that magenta tint is usually what you get with AWB.

mm99 · Jun 12, 2007

Digital Matt said:
Get closer. These are not wild animals. Surely you can walk right up to them. If your photos aren't good enough, then you aren't close enough.

They aren't wild, but they are still scared of humans (atleast ours are). And usually the mothers will get mad if you get too close. Newborns are the usually curious and look at you when their mom isn't around, but still have to be several feet away.

jimiismydaddy · Jun 12, 2007

The only way to get a truly good picture is to take a single animal out of the fenced in pastures and shoot them. Of course you cant do that though lol. You just have to have patience and set up a shot that will not have distracting elements like fencing and then lure or pray a single animal comes lol.