Miss Molly Belleby
DrakeComment by Dr.Confuser: Greetings from the Critique Club
And greetings, Michigander! I used to live down the road from you in Jackson. Been to Battle Creek many times. I took a look at your portfolio and you have some stunning photos there, full of drama and fury. And you've been around enough to have amassed a terrific body of work. I hope we'll see a lot more.
Your photo made me smile! You've got a good fit for the challenge. The degree of difficulty in working with a 7 month old pup is pretty high.
But it scored in the middle of the pack. As you point out, the DOF is pretty shallow and I believe at least some voters would vote higher with greater DOF. Actually the focus is right where it ought to be, on the "headwear" and on the eyes. Deepening the DOF to include the whole hat might have inched up the score.
I like to think of photos in terms of foreground (subject) and background (everything else.) A great photographer will manage/control both. I like the black background, but there's some artifact showing through in the lower left that pulls my eye away from the subject. It would have been legal to darken the artifact so that it doesn't visually impede. Otherwise background is fine.
I am not great with artificial lighting ... so take what I'm about to say as an uninformed comment. I think if you had used some extra light, possibly behind Molly, and possibly something to bring out some highlights in her fur, she would have had greater depth and "life." I don't really know
how to do it, but I've seen it done and it would have raised my score on the photo.
Otherwise, it's hard to find much to critique here.
Photographer found comment helpful.
