Winter Survivors
by Kathe

Comment by manavg:
What DOF were you using? With a narrower aperture, I think the berries in the background would have blurred more, giving the ones in the front more prominence.

Winter Survivors
by Kathe

Comment by davisambrose:
This would have made a classic shot if tried in a slightly different angle. Seems the focus is off a little 6.

Arctic Beauty
by Kathe

Comment by macrothing:



Critique Club Critique

First Impressions
Beautiful animal, like the focus on the snout - the b&w conversion seems to have detracted in this instance.

Photograph Information, Technicals & Composition Review
There seems to be some under & overexposed areas, which make me wonder whether this contributed to your choice to convert to b&w. I find the areas distracting that are overexposed, especially in the b&w. The b&w itself, I wonder whether some further processing and refinement, including some added drama/depth in certain areas, would have allowed the image to pop and come to life more.

I have just moved to another monitor to verify whether the dodging on the eyes that I was seeing was due to the monitor or not, and it is the same on this other monitor. I am not an advanced pp user, so suggest asking around for advanced help, but as a suggestion, if the eyes were dark and you were trying to lighten them, without making them opaque, perhaps creating a separate layer (or two) and using curves to adjust - all this should be ok under Advanced Editing.

I did a quick 10 minute edit on your image:


(temporary, will be removed in a few days)

I used 3 layers, one on the eyes (curves up), one on the overexposed fur at the rear (curves down), deleted the areas that I didn't want to keep, sharpened all (hard to work with this size file) and added a touch of contrast up on the final merged image/layers. Finally, I removed the border and resized back to 800. Feel free to comment on this edit or totally disregard it ";)" - I'm only trying to give a visual backup to my suggestions.

The other two suggestions would be, shoot in RAW (I can't see that you did with this, based on your comments) and then you can have two exposure proofs to work with. Perhaps a deeper depth of field would also help with getting the details. The time of day, when the light is better placed, may also help you get an advantage.

Comments, Score & Placement Review
26/378 in a Free Study is a very strong placement,, along with a good solid score of 6.44. An average score of 7.75 from your commenters is also very good and gives you a truthful look at how they scored you. You didn't really receive any criticism (constructive or otherwise) in your comments, nor really anything that gives you an indication of what really appealed to the voters, besides of course the animal itself - Arctic Foxes are beautiful creatures.

Summary
A nicely composed image, however I see much more potential in the image - just a little more depth and/or drama, or a variation in tones to add some interest, not sure. That is personal taste though and if this was your vision exactly, then that's ok - of course.

Arctic Beauty
by Kathe

Comment by MaryO:
Up close and personal.

Arctic Beauty
by Kathe

Comment by Ja-9:
I'm going to have to move this up on the voting scale...this is positively stunning

Arctic Beauty
by Kathe

Comment by Jutilda:
I just have such an affinity for these guys. What a lovely creature.

Arctic Beauty
by Kathe

Comment by pjotre7:
beautiful shot!

Eye Contact
by Kathe

Comment by WriteHeart:
Great capture!!!! Very engaging.

Wild Tenderness
by Kathe

Comment by duartix:
Greetings from the Critique Club ;)

Cheers Kathe

Lucky me that I got this photo for critique as it's a picture I really enjoy looking at.

Artistic Merit
Pros:
* Beautiful subject. Beeing a nature photographer I'm sure you really enjoyed making this picture.
* Good cropping on almost all corners (I'll get to that ina moment)
* Good job at balance of masses of both subjects. None is more important than the other, they function as a whole, dividing the attention of the viewer.
Cons:
* A tighter crop on the left, hiding the left tiger's leg, might have given this photo more spatial continuity. Even though there is almost no leg to see, it should have worked better with either no leg (my preference) or with a bit more (adding closure to the white space).
* The black frame IMHO doesn't suit it all that well. A brighter one would have worked better. I know there is a need to border the snow but in these cases I find that just a one black pixel inner frame with a thicker white border outside works well.

Technical Merit
Pros:
* Good exposure on an otherwise dificult metering and lighting situation. I'm curious on how you managed to keep the snow from blowing high and still have so much shadow detail.
* Good isolation with pleasant bokeh.

Emotional Merit
Pros:
* To capture such a tender moment from one of the wildest beasts in the animal kigdom, goes straight at the viewer's throat without asking for permission. This is a photo that makes a hit on the viewer instantly.
* The environmentaly cold of the snow also contrasts beautifully with such a warm moment of affection.

Result
Let's get it right:
* It's in the upper tenth of the lot.
* It's your personal best.
* It's a significant step in the direction of one of your goals.
* I liked it best over about one third of the ones that were in front of it.
AND ALL OF THIS IN A FREE STUDY!!!

I'm sure this photo will make you proud for days to come. I know I would be.

All the best
Duarte Bruno

Message edited by author 2010-02-12 20:30:23.

Wild Tenderness
by Kathe

Comment by luv389:
Great shot!! This photo is beautiful!! definitly should have got higher