Ralph - Critique needed :)

[Sean]

This is my first photo on these forums, and it's a picture of my border collie puppy Ralph. Feel free to critique it as you will, I'm always looking for feedback from my fellow photographers. It helps me learn new things. I think it captures his curious and playful nature.

[Sean]

Oh, I forgot to mention, this photo has no PP except for cropping and a bit of sharpening before converting to JPEG. I don't have photoshop CS4 (yet, getting it soon).

[kevinbythebeach]

cute dog,,,But

I would have cropped it differntly...with either the whole body iin the frame or just the top half from mid chest up..also Id try a different background, th estairs are just too distracting and similar to the dog in color.

[Sean]

Hm, I suppose you're right. It's hard to catch him sitting still so I didn't think to take the background differently. (If I had moved a few feet to my left there would be a flower bed behind him instead).

[flashbackpat]

I do a lot of photography with my 6 dogs and usually I am stuck with whatever backdrop I get when I snap the photo. It's impossible to get them to pose in a certain spot. I like this photo a lot, Ralph looks very natural and relaxed. I do agree that a closer crop of maybe just his head and shoulders might make the background less distracting. He's a beautiful dog.