One of my favorite pictures ruined by bad composition! Help?

ucfjag · Feb 16, 2011

Hey guys! I posted this image a while ago, but someone pointed out how distracting the blurry foreground is. I really want to get this picture framed, but i feel like that blurry hill will always be there, laughing at me.

I just tried to clone stamp it out, and it's apparent I'm not too savvy with Photoshop. Can anyone help? I would be thrilled if this could be fixed!

Sorry the photo is gigantic, just wanted to give you guys the best possible file to work with!

Thanks!

-Paul

Formatted · Feb 16, 2011

If anything it adds to the photo they clearly dont know what they are talking about. Great shot you should be very happy!

KenC · Feb 16, 2011

It bothers me a little, but not too much. If you want to minimize it, you could crop some on the bottom because even if it were in focus, the foreground is the least interesting part of the shot, so a little less would be OK. You could also darken the lighter areas in the blur just a bit (Curves Adj. layer with layer mask) which would make it less obvious.

ghache · Feb 16, 2011

How could the background distracting? it brings alot to this picture and it wouldnt be as nice without it........
The things that bothers me is the deer being underexposed i bit, did you try to bring up some more details without getting too much noise on the deer ?

EricD · Feb 16, 2011

ghache said:
How could the background distracting? it brings alot to this picture and it wouldnt be as nice without it........
The things that bothers me is the deer being underexposed i bit, did you try to bring up some more details without getting too much noise on the deer ?

I agree on the Deer exposure. It's the Foreground someone found distracting, not the Background.

ucfjag · Feb 16, 2011

Formatted said:
If anything it adds to the photo they clearly dont know what they are talking about. Great shot you should be very happy!

Thanks a lot!

ucfjag · Feb 16, 2011

EricD said:
ghache said:

How could the background distracting? it brings alot to this picture and it wouldnt be as nice without it........
The things that bothers me is the deer being underexposed i bit, did you try to bring up some more details without getting too much noise on the deer ?

Click to expand...

I agree on the Deer exposure. It's the Foreground someone found distracting, not the Background.

I think I was trying to go for the silhouette look, but it's a bit overexposed to be a silhouette, and underexposed to look normal. Lol.

-Paul

Rekd · Feb 16, 2011

I think the foreground is a much lesser issue than the exposure on the animal.

First thing I would do is either silhouette the animal (make it completely black) or selective lighten the animal to bring out more detail. Where it's at now is very degrading to the image.

Not sure if I'd remove the blurred foreground. It does add a bit of depth to the shot.

Bitter Jeweler · Feb 16, 2011

I have to agree that it's a nice shot, and also agree to completely silhouette the deer. :thumbup:

molested_cow · Feb 16, 2011

Doesn't make sense to me. You have a well lit environment and a blacked out deer in the middle of it?

kacielynch · Feb 17, 2011

Psh, tell people you were trying to achieve a nice "bokeh" lol

Formatted · Feb 17, 2011

You have a well lit environment and a blacked out deer in the middle of it?

Whats wrong with a Silhouette?

ProPhotoPoses · Feb 17, 2011

KenC said:
It bothers me a little, but not too much. If you want to minimize it, you could crop some on the bottom because even if it were in focus, the foreground is the least interesting part of the shot, so a little less would be OK. You could also darken the lighter areas in the blur just a bit (Curves Adj. layer with layer mask) which would make it less obvious.

This is just right. You should keep some of the foreground to add to the depth, but it would help to crop a bit and make these adjustments, as suggested. If possible with the file, it would also help to lighten the deer.