Devoted and Loyalby
JutildaComment by Artyste: Hello, and greetings from the Critique Club. Whattya know.. I got a Jutilda shot to critique. Hope you enjoy it.. I don't give simple ones ;)
Initial Thoughts
Hmm, tad out of focus, and a little too in-the-frame. Almost startling in a way.
Composition / Content
This is a unique composition for a pet portrait, and probably a little weaker than it could have been. For instance, that blue eye is a real stand-out in the shot, and my feeling is that you should use natural "grabbers" like that to the fullest of potential. In this case, instead of having it on the edge of the portrait, where it seems to be an after-thought, I'd have used it as a main focal point. Perhaps if you'd shot it from the other side so the blue eye was in the same position as the brown eye. It would definitely help give the shot a "center", instead of people seeing that eye and feeling pulled off the frame. The model itself is a gorgeous dog, and you really want to try and sell him/her as an image.
Background
The body of the animal is your background, and works as such, but I feel that you just didn't leave enough space for the facial features that this photo kind of begs for.
Camera Work / Technical
Your focus is off. That is one of the first things I noticed when the image came up. Your aperature settings are N/A, so I can't comment on what you used, but possibly using a smaller aperature would have helped with focus by providing a larger DOF. Of course, with a smaller aperature, more light would have been needed. Also, reading your write-up, I can definitely sympathize with an unwilling model. Shutter speed could have been important here too, a good 1/500 or higher might have also given you a clearer shot (but again, light would be a problem, especially indoors). Other than that, your exposure looks ok. A trifle dark in areas.
Digital Processing
Given your processing steps, I can add a couple that would have really helped you here. Some clever Unsharp Mask work could have crisped this up a bit more and taken some of that "wow, this is blurry" look away. I would try a 254/0.3/0 setting with USM, and then slowly raise or lower the % depending on the look. You can also try 0.2 or 0.4 on the radius, but 0.3 usually weilds the best result for minor sharpening.
Also, there seems to be a cyan cast in your whites that some Selective Color work or hue/saturation work could also clear up. In selective colors, I'd chose the cyan channel, and drop the cyan value a bit, and then select whites, and drop the cyan value in that as well. You might have to also tweak a few of the other values, but experiment is key. Dropping the cyan value in the cyan channel might also mess with the dog's blue eye, so I'd do the selective color on an Adjustment Layer, and then just mask back in the blue eye when you're done.
Also, just remember these are suggestions.. no requirements to do them :)
Fits the Challenge
Your title is the strongest link to the challenge if we were going by the title alone. This portrait doesn't really convey Devoted and Loyal on its own so much. However, the "Dark and Light" I can see, although it might be a tenuous connection itself. Most people might simply see the Dog and think "Dog and.. what?"
My Opinion of the Photo
It's a really sweet attempt at a portrait of a loved one, but is a little cramped to me, and suffers from a few items that I've mentioned. Not particularily strong this time around, but I've seen what you can do with a camera, so just hang right in there. Good luck on future challenges.
Photographer found comment helpful.
