Cow and calf in dusty sunset

[Hartmut]

My first attempt at this sort of shot, not too clued up on pp - any advice on how to better this shot very welcome

[Shadowman]

Interesting shot, I like it. I would consider either applying a bit of fill light to the cows and foreground or let everything go deep silhouette. I actually like the bit of rim lighting on the calf and if that could be emphasized more perhaps subtle touches of light here and there.

[Geoff F]

What is the main subject here? Do you need all that black leaf area at the top? Maybe crop to 4 x 5 ratio and lose a bit from the top?

As a totally different alternative, I wonder about a substantial crop to something like 5 x 4 ratio and concentrate solely on the cattle?

[Dave Humphries]

I looked at this earlier Hartmut and decided that I didn't know how to suggest to make this shot better.

Compositionally, having that tree straight up the middle is a bad thing, but I fully appreciate that it is necessary since you needed to be in its shadow to take the shot.

That leaves the positioning of the subjects; the cow and calf - these are not ideally placed at all (e.g. being partly hidden by the tree trunk), so my number one suggestion would be that you really needed to wait for them to move in to a better position, then take the image. You would have still needed the tree in the middle of your frame when taking the photograph, but if you'd shot with a little wider angle, you could have cropped in PP (Post Processing) to position it off to one side.

Of course, I wasn't there, I don't know what time constraints you may have been under, nor whether the animals were moving at all, so what I said above may have been unattainable - this might have been the best anyone could have taken.

Working with this capture:
You could crop some off the top and perhaps right side of this shot, but the issue of the far less than ideal subject positioning and the tree and sun rays being more dominant than the subjects, will still persist. I think this is a shot to learn from.

I hope these thoughts help, Dave

[IzzieK]

+1 to John's comment...and also of Dave's. I can't think of anymore to add to those advises.

[Mike Buckley]

Agreed with the other comments.

I just want to mention that this type of image is a lot more difficult to successfully make than perhaps it would seem. Considering that it is your first one made in this style, it's clear that you're off to a good start and I look forward to more successful refinements once you've got more experience.

Regarding John's suggestion about the possibilities of using less or more of the silhouette style, any choice you make about that is viable. I tend to like the total silhouette when there are just one or two strong objects that don't overlap. Otherwise, I often prefer seeing a bit of detail. Just food for thought.

[Hartmut]

Thanks very much. Had about 30 seconds to make a choice what to have in the picture. Cows where moving constantly.