Springer Springs in Spring Fling

[David]

Hi Guys - Here's a shot of a friend's spaniel, Maddie, in full flow. As normal, comments and crits are welcome. I had considerable difficulty in getting the dog's ears to stay upright. Eventually, I used sticks and chewing gum. So, any other ideas on how to do this would be welcome.




Cheers

David

[Dave Humphries]

Hi David,

A very nice action shot, with far more right than wrong about it, for example the well hidden gum!

Three comments for next time;
a) A tad tightly cropped on the right hand side, a few extra pixels would have looked better.
b) It's a bit noisy and further, the noise has been sharpened - I've been there, done that, and still do it sometimes, if I'm honest - Try sharpening with a higher threshold, or noise reduce first
c) It's a bit over-exposed, if RAW, can anything be recovered I wonder, this kind of fur is difficult to get right, especially in action shots like this unless manually exposed and locked, or averaged and compensated.

I like that it is sharp and the composition, barring my first point, is perfectly acceptable to me, I'm not too fussed about not having a whole dog (my appetite isn't what it was), or the other front leg complete.

Was it a pan or "run alongside" capture?
Either way, nicely done, congratulations.

Regards,

[David]

Hi Dave - Thanks for comments. The RHS is as shot, all cropping had to be on the LHS to negate an unbalanced image. The shot was taken "en pannon" to coin a phrase, one of about ten. I've looked closely at my original TIFF from the RAW and am not sure where the noise is. I do wonder about conversions and uploads and transfers and different monitors.

Anyway, glad you like the shot and thanks again.

Cheers

David

[Dave Humphries]

Hi David,

It's most visible on the blurred background grassland when viewed at 100%, but I'll check again at home on my usual screen tonight.

I had a feeling about the RHS being as shot, you could always extend the canvas and clone some more grassland in. Takes a while, but worth it to make an 'almost' shot into a 'winner'.
In order to keep it square (1200 x 1200), one could crop off an equivalent 30 odd pixels on the left hand side to counteract the 'growth' on the right. Only an idea (and an indication of the lengths I'd go to).

Cheers,

[David]

Hi Dave - I'd thought about the addition of canvas on RHS, but decided against it, the paw kind of leads the view in, or the dog's trying to escape. But that's the sort of personal style decision you have to make. The noise issue is in the JPG. I've just looked at the original TIFF and there are no probs that I can see, but the JPG created for the Web is full of obvious noise.

Thanks again.

Cheers

David

[crisscross]

I reckon its pretty good except that you should also have confessed to stitching the end of his tongue to the upper jaw to get that perfect gap above it

It might be an idea to try downsizing to about 800x800 rather than 1200x1200 which won't fit on many of our screens as it is and induced noise may go away. The alternative is to just brush the grass to within just missing the dog with soft edge to it and apply either noise reduction or even gaussian blur to it, I often do that to simulate the f2.8 that I haven't got.

Having been trying to get flying sheep ( Spring sprung challenge ) I appreciate how well you have done here - if you have a 4 paws off ground shot too, post it there, the guys on pbase have interpreted the challenge as any animal

[Dave Humphries]

Hi David,

Now you mention it, it looks like he's "pushing back the boundaries" with that paw.

Cheers, Dave

[David]

Chris - Point noted about posting at 800*800. I didn't mention about stitching the tongue as I thought the animal rights people might be watching. Unfortunately, I've not got a "4 paws in air image", but that will be a good excuse to go back to see my friends in Wiltshire again.

Cheers

David

[Richardjwakefield]

As a newcomer it strikes me that people are at times too technical with their critique , trying to get an action shot of an unpredictable subject at speed is in itself a thing of wonder and we should marvel at the sheer technique of getting such a wonderful sharp picture of a close speeding object !

[David]

Hi Richard - Welcome to the forums. Good point - we sometimes go overboard with our crits. We should remember that with snapshots like this nothing will ever be perfect.

Cheers

David

[Donald]

Richard
Re:

As a newcomer it strikes me that people are at times too technical with their critique , trying to get an action shot of an unpredictable subject at speed is in itself a thing of wonder and we should marvel at the sheer technique of getting such a wonderful sharp picture of a close speeding object !

I acknowledge the point you make and note David's response. The great plus point for me about those who offer constructive critique's on this site is their holding to that principle; i.e. 'constructive'. If you've got the ability to get a shot such as this, then exposing it to constructive criticism is, for me, about learning and being able to move to the next level in terms of knowledge and skill.
As you write, getting the picture at all is fantastic and should be acknowledged. And when someone writes that this is the case, it is welcome and encouraging. But I think we also want our fellow enthusiasts, who bring an objective eye to the image, to make their suggestions as to how it might be further improved, either in terms of the capture or the post processing.
We can then take these comments on board, if we choose, and the next time that we look to capture and process a similar type of image, we hopefully further improve the final product.