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Beagles in a Barrel
Beagles in a Barrel
mandyturner


Photograph Information Photographer's Comments
Challenge: Country Life II (Advanced Editing IV)
Camera: Canon EOS-20D
Lens: Canon EF-S 18-55mm f/3.5-5.6
Location: Tennessee
Date: Feb 11, 2006
Galleries: Portraiture, Animals
Date Uploaded: Feb 11, 2006

N/A

Statistics
Place: 101 out of 219
Avg (all users): 5.5890
Avg (commenters): 6.0000
Avg (participants): 5.3273
Avg (non-participants): 5.8532
Views since voting: 1336
Views during voting: 332
Votes: 219
Comments: 23
Favorites: 0


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AuthorThread
04/17/2006 09:11:44 AM
thanks skiprow...I have never tried that!
04/17/2006 09:06:28 AM
this would have been helped with a tighter crop that would have let the viewer become more engaged with those soleful eyes. also, even though you were low, i don't think you were low enough. for some reason, photos of animals and children seem more interesting when shot at or just below their eye-level.

i would encourage you to REALLY PRACTICE shooting without looking through the viewfinder. get used to holding the camera down to the ground or over your head, pointing it towards your subject. yeah, a lot of shots don't come out, but the ones that do are usually a lot more interesting...
  Photographer found comment helpful.
02/25/2006 04:47:24 AM
GREETINGS FROM CRITIQUE CLUB!

Mandy,

This image is just as cute as all get-out, and i see there's virtual unanimity in that opinion. It's a little difficult to critique it well since you have provided NO information whatsoever; whatlens, what f/stop. ISO, shutter speed? No photographer's comments on what you were after. Kind of a tabula rasa, as it were.

The strengths of the image are its powerful basic composition and the expression on the face of the prominent beagle, plus the muted color palette which reinforces a sort of sense of somberness, so that the viewer is kind of torn between giggling and feeling a little sad. This is all good.

On the other hand, there's a lot of compositional elements that are distracting from the key elements. Most obviously, these include the very bright hole in the back of the barrel above the lead beagle's head and the oddly out-of-place half-rock in the foreground. Simply cropping the rock out to make a more horizontal composition seems to help when I look at it that way. I'd have given some thoguht, also, to cloning out the distracting hole, or at least muting its brightness by a zone or a zone-and-a-half.

I'd also have tried some local contrast/brightness control in the depths of the barrel to bring up the hindmost beagle's face a little better. Finally, the upper left corner is a pretty busy, cluttered, non-contributing element which might have nenefitted from being burned in a bit.

You're also aware you have a sharpness issue, with the sense that the subject dog's face is not the crispest element in the image. However, this doesn't seem to me a focus issue as much as it seems to be a lack of sharpening of the image as a whole. I've taken the liberty of doing a quick-n-dirty reworking of it to illustrate what I'm taling about; I hope you don't mind.

Nice shot, major high on the cute scale!

  Photographer found comment helpful.
02/21/2006 09:20:14 PM
Mandy, This is such an adorable capture- perfect for country life. It's one of my favorites.
  Photographer found comment helpful.
02/20/2006 12:15:28 AM
I really thought this would do better. I personally gave it a 9.
  Photographer found comment helpful.
02/20/2006 12:07:24 AM
Gosh. I gave you a 10 on this. The focus is a little soft, but its a great pic nonetheless.
  Photographer found comment helpful.
 Comments Made During the Challenge
02/19/2006 04:41:46 PM
Composition: 4 - Technical: 4 - Creativity: 5 - Appeal: 4 - Challenge: 4 - Overall Calculated Average Score: 4

Note: Click for info
02/19/2006 02:26:09 PM
Adorable! Neat composition with the straight piece of wood and the round barrel... but you just keep getting sucked back into that cute little face staring at you!
  Photographer found comment helpful.
02/19/2006 11:43:35 AM
I really like the color palette.
  Photographer found comment helpful.
02/19/2006 12:32:19 AM
Oh my gosh! How cute is this? Love the look in the central pups eyes. Very nice photo, meets the challenge well in my opinion! Very interesting framing for the pups too. 9 from me!
  Photographer found comment helpful.
02/16/2006 09:17:09 PM
Nice capture. Perhaps without the board and rock may have been a better catch?
  Photographer found comment helpful.
02/15/2006 07:42:02 PM
That took patience. thanks!
  Photographer found comment helpful.
02/15/2006 11:25:50 AM
Adorable photo. :) For some reason the rock at the bottom is a little distracting. I love how the main puppy is looking directly at the camera. :)I'm probably biased a little because I have 2 beagles, and adore them, but this is a definite favorite of mine. :)
  Photographer found comment helpful.
02/15/2006 04:58:53 AM
lacks sharpness where it counts...on the dog's face, it seems like the focus is on the wood...but what a great face!
  Photographer found comment helpful.
02/15/2006 02:14:16 AM
Cute photo, the focus just seems slightly off.
  Photographer found comment helpful.
02/14/2006 09:58:32 PM
Awwwwwwww!!! How CUTE!!!!! Look at those sad little eyes. There's something about this that very much says "Country Life". I love it!!! Good luck.
  Photographer found comment helpful.
02/14/2006 06:42:26 PM
Too Cute! Nice capture
  Photographer found comment helpful.
02/14/2006 12:06:21 AM
Very cute.
  Photographer found comment helpful.
02/13/2006 04:05:17 PM
I love Beagles 7
  Photographer found comment helpful.
02/13/2006 10:14:32 AM
a bit too soft
  Photographer found comment helpful.
02/13/2006 06:39:35 AM
Cute dog, but needs to bere more country feel as this could be anywhere...
  Photographer found comment helpful.
02/13/2006 01:53:10 AM
awww - pure country, although I think they belong in a nice warm house myself.
  Photographer found comment helpful.
02/13/2006 12:54:53 AM
God, this would be awesome if they weren't slightly out of focus!! ;~(
  Photographer found comment helpful.


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