Mr. Goat

[KimC]

Taken this evening before sunset. I like the tranquility of it. Feel free to C&C

Focal length -300mm; F/5.6; 1/125



Thanks for looking.

[Donald]

I know what you mean about tranquility. And it's the sense of tranquility that comes from the low contrast that is caused by that evening light, that is its main challenge as well, I think.

When talking about PP adjustments in an image like this, I always feel we're talking about subtlety. Nothing extreme or over-the-top. But I wondered if a bit of dodging on the animal's coat, just to lighten it a little bit, plus some Local Contrast enhancement (LCE) on the same area, would give it just a bit more 'pop' but still retain that sense of tranquility. Just one idea to consider.

[pnodrog]

Donald has said it all with a very good critique. The goat just needs a bit of livening up to add a fraction more spark to a lovely photo.

[KimC]

Thank you for the feedback. I will give that a try later today.

[Shadowman]

And what is it looking at. Nicely captured.

[NorthernFocus]

It looks like you had a lovely evening with beautiful light when you shot this. When morning/evening light is like that sometimes one simply has to shoot.

Now here's the C/C part. For me as a viewer of the image I'm not sure what I'm looking at. Titling the shot Mr.Goat suggests that he is the subject, in which case it's an awkward angle. By mentioning the tranquility presumably you mean of the entire scene that the goat is looking at. If that's the case then perhaps a wide angle and deeper DOF would have worked better to bring it into focus and let the viewer enjoy the same scene. Or if the lighting was the draw, them perhaps a bit more of it at top of frame. Donald already mentioned the technical aspects.

[KimC]

And what is it looking at. Nicely captured.

Thank you. He was looking in the direction of his other goat friends and thinking about joining them. :-)

[Shadowman]

Thank you. He was looking in the direction of his other goat friends and thinking about joining them. :-)

[KimC]

It looks like you had a lovely evening with beautiful light when you shot this. When morning/evening light is like that sometimes one simply has to shoot.

Now here's the C/C part. For me as a viewer of the image I'm not sure what I'm looking at. Titling the shot Mr.Goat suggests that he is the subject, in which case it's an awkward angle. By mentioning the tranquility presumably you mean of the entire scene that the goat is looking at. If that's the case then perhaps a wide angle and deeper DOF would have worked better to bring it into focus and let the viewer enjoy the same scene. Or if the lighting was the draw, them perhaps a bit more of it at top of frame. Donald already mentioned the technical aspects.

Oh yes -I was so annoyed I didn't have my wide angle with me. All I had was my 70-300. I popped in for an ice cream at a stand and found the goats.

You are correct Dan, I had the advantage of seeing the entire scene and I wasn't keeping the viewer in mind. Great lesson - thank you!

[NorthernFocus]

... I had the advantage of seeing the entire scene and I wasn't keeping the viewer in mind.

That's probably one of the first and toughest hurdles to get over in photography. 1. Realizing that the two dimensional image doesn't contain the same information that's in your mind's eye, 2. How to make it so, what to include/exclude in a scene, etc.

That's part of the value of forums like this. We all see things differently. Getting comments from people with various perspectives can be very useful if one's intent is to generate imagery to be viewed by others. None of it is right or wrong, just different views on the world.

[KimC]

As suggested, I made the goat a bit brighter...