Concentration

Varg - be gentle with us please but constructive - would it be better in greyscale?

I'm not good with the C&C's. Its a nice shot - but I think I would prefer a bit more underneath his nose - it looks a bit out of proportion. I like the focus on his eyes.

I like the composition and looks as if he is just about to shoot off down the garden after a cat... the intent stare in his eyes is great.

I would have sharpened up the eyes every so slightly and brightened up down the right hand side of the picture. A b&w conversion would suit this image well Your white balance seems to be a little off as the image looks slightly blue, but then its hard with dark furred dogs as they tend to appear blue in photographs

Here is my edit of your photo, i'll remove it if you want me to

Very nice Snapper

I like Sams edit too - it brings out the detail in the face by making sure there is enough light on the vital areas

Thank you Sam, yes my dogs often look blue, must say it has never dawned on me it was a problem with white balance but I shall try to correct that in future, if I can find out how. Know how to in RAW but have not tried in Elements, perhaps I should try to correct the problem in camera.

Happy for you to leave your work on the thread and I will see if I can replicate it, have never thought of sharpening the eyes on dogs, do you use the unsharp filter or is it more difficult than that?

yup just a few tweaks on the unsharp filter, but not too much though.

OK, I've had a go for myself, first the blue is mostly my fault, I increased the contrast a tad, the original is not nearly so blue. Here is my attempt to replicate your work, think I should have masked the eyes a little wider and I lifted the side of the nose with the doge tool, is that right? Did notice that part of the face on the dark side has no detail at all, can one do anything about this without using a flash as I find the flash flattens the image?



Looking at your B & W again it seems much brighter than my effort, is this just a case of turning up the brightness?

Thanks for your help I am very gratefull

Good effort

I did a brightness and contrast layer in photoshop. and then masked out the left hand side of the image by using the gradient fill tool and dragging from right to left.

I then adjusted the levels to bring it all back again and make it look more even... erm.. its so much easier than i am making it sound LOL!

LOL, glad about that, think I need a hour or so to sort that out but will try because it is good of you to try to help, thanks.

no problem, its because i use it everyday for editing work and at the moment i am putting finishing touches to my tattoo, i forget how everything is just 2nd nature now. You'll get it, just keep practicing.

Also with regards to flashes... sometimes the can make an image look flat but what you want to do is try and bounce light off a wall or off something so its redirected light rather then full on flash. I picked up a reflector from warehouse express for about £25 i think it was, and i just use it to bounce natural light onto the shaded side of the face.