C&C: Movement Study

[tevo]

Interested to get some C&C on this. Shot for a photo class, and I rather enjoyed it. Any feedback is appreciated!

#1
Motion Study by trevorwillphoto, on Flickr

 

[Derrel]

I shoot this subject every time I am at the beach, in the evenings, when slow speeds are almost a necessity. Your shot has some issues that make it not a "keeper", but an okay "motion study". No tail on the dog, at least no visible tail. The "schema" for "dog" usually has a tail...

There's not a lot of iconic dog parts visible. Slow-speed panning like this is very tricky, and the right speed for the distance, angle, and the speed the dog is moving at all interact, very fluidly. The way the dog's feet are positioned is interesting, but is not ideal. The strong, late afternoon/early evening light is not showing the dog's coat off much, but the grass is very bright. It's just not a "keeper" shot as shown. Getting a really GOOD shot of this kind of thing involves skill,timing,theory, practice, and LUCK. Luck is good.

Most shots of this type/genre are not very good. Here's what I mean...I shot 65 of the same thing on April 25. I still shoot this kind of thing WHENEVER I get the opportunity.



Again, I shot 65 frames of this...I had three I flagged, but only ONE was really worth processing.



This was a new pup (cute female Australian shep mix) his owners had had for 10 days. I sent them a shot of it. They loved it. Me? Not so much.

 

[tevo]

I shoot this subject every time I am at the beach, in the evenings, when slow speeds are almost a necessity. Your shot has some issues that make it not a "keeper", but an okay "motion study". No tail on the dog, at least no visible tail. The "schema" for "dog" usually has a tail...

There's not a lot of iconic dog parts visible. Slow-speed panning like this is very tricky, and the right speed for the distance, angle, and the speed the dog is moving at all interact, very fluidly. The way the dog's feet are positioned is interesting, but is not ideal. The strong, late afternoon/early evening light is not showing the dog's coat off much, but the grass is very bright. It's just not a "keeper" shot as shown. Getting a really GOOD shot of this kind of thing involves skill,timing,theory, practice, and LUCK. Luck is good.

Most shots of this type/genre are not very good. Here's what I mean...I shot 65 of the same thing on April 25. I still shoot this kind of thing WHENEVER I get the opportunity.

View attachment 75580

Again, I shot 65 frames of this...I had three I flagged, but only ONE was really worth processing.

View attachment 75581

This was a new pup (cute female Australian shep mix) his owners had had for 10 days. I sent them a shot of it. They loved it. Me? Not so much.

My dog is an Australian shepherd, and does not have a tail (per the breed).

Would you suggest I bring down the luminance/saturation of the green to better accentuate the dog's coat?

 

[Derrel]

I suppose you could tone the green down a bit, but the lighting is rather flat, and low in contrast because it's pretty strong back lighting. The top of the dog's neck area is blown out white. I hate to sound like a fatalist, but the shot is just not that interesting. Neither were my shots either. Okay, the thing is, panning shots are mostly luck. I would say that the gait you captured is one brief moment in a full gallop.

dog gaits + full gallop - Google Search

The subtle details between the dog and the background are not very well-shown in the feet. I think the shutter speed is too slow, so most of the interest is just not shown. The dog's coat is not going to be accentuated much because it's basically blurred by motion, and the light is flat, and directionless. Which is what I was faced with after sunset at the beach. Light that had very low contrast. If you had been on the OTHER SIDE of the dog, the light would have been sweet, evening light, and at double the shutter speed, this might have made for AMAZING shots. I don't like to come off as being overly negative, but the shot is just not that interesting, no matter what you do to it; it's not a good panning split-second. You can work on it for days, and it still lacks a good body position and it is not a "pretty" shot. Sometimes with the exact right processing we can take a shot and make it into something good, but I do not feel that way about this frame. This frame just has sooooo much blur, and not "in a good way", that I do not see a lot of potential in it.

These are the types of on-line interactions that are THE most-difficult ones for me to write. I like you, and have always spent a lot of extra time and effort on offering C&C or comments on YOUR posts, and I have repeatedly encouraged you, for a couple of years now. I hope how I feel is coming across, but I think it might not be.