A cow and a dog.

[ahtoxa]

Dog's my hiking buddy named Jack.

Being new, critique is most welcome.

 

[jcdeboever]

Very nice captures

 

[baturn]

I like the 2nd, but would remove collar and tag as I find them a bit distracting.

 

[The_Traveler]

I would toss #1 as a 'picture' although its a nice memory shot
I suggest that if you can crop to a standard size. It makes pictures easier to frame and print.

In #2, on the plus side, it is sharp, decent depth of field and good eyes open.,
but it is overbright, the grass and shrubs are washed out plus the dog's muzzle is up against the frame and there's empty space behind him/her for no reason.
Ideally, a softer light would have been better but a bit of editing and warming increases color a bit. Not perfect but OK.

In the last, good sharpness and depth of field
The eyes are black pools; I would try to get some color there to make some cow-personality.
I would warm it up a bit.

Very good start, particularly with focus and choice of DOF.

 

[ZombiesniperJr]

Nice set

 

[ahtoxa]

I would toss #1 as a 'picture' although its a nice memory shot
I suggest that if you can crop to a standard size. It makes pictures easier to frame and print.

In #2, on the plus side, it is sharp, decent depth of field and good eyes open.,
but it is overbright, the grass and shrubs are washed out plus the dog's muzzle is up against the frame and there's empty space behind him/her for no reason.
Ideally, a softer light would have been better but a bit of editing and warming increases color a bit. Not perfect but OK.

Yep, I see the difference, thank you. When put side to side it is definitely overly bright. Excellent - thanks!

Can you elaborate on the empty space more? Is there a better way to crop it? I was thinking of the most optimal crop and that's what I came up with.

 

[The_Traveler]

IMO, placement of the center of interest is important.
In the first version of the dog picture, the crop is somewhere between square and 4 x 5.
I try to crop to a standard aspect ratio for two reasons;first, ease in printing and framing and second, because people are used to seeing through standard windows and I don't want to call attention to the shape. That's not part of the picture for me.

Where the center of interest is in the frame and space around is important because viewers try to understand why that space is there. After all the photographer did it on purpose, what should the viewer understand out of it?

Here is a more extreme example.
The center of interest is her face and hands and there is a lot of space behind her and above. why? That space puts a question in the viewers' mind that has nothing to do with the point of the picture.

Now if the picture is cropped to a standard form, the space is removed and the centers of interest moved to a stronger position, then all of a sudden, the picture takes on a strength and interest it didn't have before.

The viewer doesn't think much about the hat and the muttens and snow become much more important.