Something doesn't work in this photo, but I don't know what! (help, please)

Senor Hound · May 13, 2008

I can't figure out what's wrong with this photo. Its not all that good, but according to what I know about composition, it seems okay. Eyes are looking towards the center of photo, he's in one of the four, "rule of thirds" spots, etc. The only thing I can think of is lack of framing...

A larger version is here:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/sir_hound/2435431225/sizes/o/

If someone wants to help me out with this, I'd appreciate it. I love taking photos of my hound dog, so I'd like them to do him as much justice as possible.

Also, does this photo seem to have poor resolution on the pixel level. I don't want to sound like a camera reviewer, but it seems like my photos aren't really "popping" in comparison to other cameras, and when I zoom in I can see aliasing and lots of noise.

AmericanJesus · May 13, 2008

I think it would be better if it was lower. would like to have more of the dogs perspective. Also might have waited for later in the day or early mnorning for better light. It seems flat.

LaFoto · May 13, 2008

As to your question on composition, my initial thought was that which is also expressed in AJ's post: there is too much lawn at the bottom, it would be better if the dog were closer to the bottom, which gave us more of his perspective. And I think AJ means to say you might have wanted to crouch and take the photo from there, though I don't know how much of the water we'd still be able to see.

Water and sky are quite blown so you'd get lawn and shadowy part of the trees well exposed. This is what the compact cameras often do. You will have to live with that, I'm afraid...

invisible · May 13, 2008

LaFoto said:
there is too much lawn at the bottom, it would be better if the dog were closer to the bottom, which gave us more of his perspective.

I think this is the key. The way the image is composed right now, the viewer's eyes are immediately drawn to the dog. So the resulting image is not about what the dog is looking at... but about you looking at your dog looking at something.

I also agree with AmericanJesus about the angle chosen and the time of day the image was captured.

Keep shooting. With a dog as beautiful as that, you really can't go wrong.

ZacMan1987 · May 13, 2008

My eye was immediately attracted to what appears to be a telephone pole just right of frame center??

K_Pugh · May 13, 2008

It says your images are ok to edit, so i hope you don't mind.. i just thought i'd do this as it was easier for me rather than trying to explain it..

tighter crop, bit more contrast, took out the sky as it wasn't really any use here.. it's about the dog and the water right? I also got carried out with the clone tool after cloning out the pole and added extra water lol.

But yeah, a little closer to the dog, lower down and no sky may be what was needed here.. but that's just me.

oh, and lucky you, your dog actually stands still for a long enough time to take a pic! got him/her trained well!