Does this work? Its our dog.

[JonathanC]

Supposed to be a dynamic shot, but I'm concerned that I can't "do" composition very well. C&C invited.

[RichB]

Works for me just fine, composition looks good. Could do with a little sharpening I think. It certainly gets its message across and that's the important thing, right?

[David]

Hi Jonathan - You may have seen this thread:
Mad Max and Jazzy Jasper

We debated on the best format and the close crop won. There may be a case for cropping some of the LHS away so long as you leave a bit for your dog to be running into. Otherwise I would be happy with the shot, maybe(?) some selective sharpening around the eyes?

Cheers

David

[RichB]

I don't think a closer crop would work better here myself, the background would become too abstract.

If you'll excuse the impertinence I've made a couple adjustments that I felt might work.

[JonathanC]

Thanks guys. WRT sharpening, I'd envisaged a larger image than what shows up here, so it looks softer small, if that makes sense?
Been spending time working out where the thirds cross too much I think.

[Dave Humphries]

Thanks guys. WRT sharpening, I'd envisaged a larger image than what shows up here, so it looks softer small, if that makes sense?
Been spending time working out where the thirds cross too much I think.

Hi Jonathan,

Yes, it may well I'm afraid.

This is me on my hobby horse (I'm afraid) and I am explaining things in detail for the benefit all.

If the poster does not down size to 700px themselves, then sharpen and save, before uploading here as an attachment (or album) picture, the forum downsizes it automatically, and although we tried to get a good balance between sharpening and artefacts, it will definitely look softer than the poster remembers it. Another downside when a picture goes through automatic downsizing is that the EXIF data, which (even if the poster don't know what it is yet) many rely upon to be able to offer more accurate advice.

The poster has to take control, or suffer the (many) consequences.

OK, what do I mean by "take control"?
Well, if the poster wants to store images as attachments, or in albums, here at CiC (as a matter of convenience), they must do as I suggest above and accept the pictures will never be bigger than 700px.

However, there are alternatives; either use TinyPic, available under the Go Advanced options when posting, or store them elsewhere; e.g. PBase, Flickr, Smugmug, etc. BUT be sure to link to the correct size of image. Again; for ultimate sharpness, this must be the "original" size uploaded - which is easy with PBase, but maybe less so with other sites. I prefer posting bigger images, with some words under the picture like "F11 and click image to see at 1,500px × 996px", so people know there's a bigger version available. If the poster doesn't want to post at that size and prefers to keep to the standard 700px size, please downsize and upload at 700px, don't use the 640 or 500px versions of an image from the likes of Flickr because they will be soft and small.

Unless the poster fully understands how it all works, they may still be disappointed - as I once was. The good news is, it doesn't have to be like this - simply follow the step by step instructions (to the letter) in one of the various options here.

Open invitation: but do let me know if you get stuck.
If you mis-understand something I've written, I can update the words so the next person doesn't, thus everyone benefits.

Cheers,