I'm from Tulbagh, Western Cape, South Africa. Tulbagh is a small farming community.
Get Pushed Challenge: I have been doing this challenge on and off...
this is beautiful - such amazing clarity... i am rotten at giving critiques... i think if it were me i might "try" to see if i could get a crop that didn't have the eye dead centre, but i'm not sure it would work, and regardless, this is just so fabulously captured!
@agima Brendan, some critique needed please. I took this shot in the late afternoon. Would normally have bumped up the ISO to take this. Have only my on camera flash. Do you have any advice on how or if I could have done this differently?
@northy thanks for your input. I have cropped this fairly tightly so I will definitely look at a different crop. May need more work in PS to get rid of objects in the background.
Now I dont know your equipment so some of thing thes I say you might not be able to do.
I would of changed the F stop to be as fast as you could get it (i.e the lower the number the faster the lens).
I would of bumped up your ISO as high as you could go before the image becomes unssable because of digital noise. Do you know what yours is on your camera?
Mine is 6400 after that I need to use post to reduce the noise.
I see you took this photo under flash.. The great thing about flash (can be a bad thing) is that the image is taken in something like 1/6400 of a second which means that you could of reduced your shutter speed - NOTE: This would be a last resort given that there would be a big chance the dog would move.. If you had a model that would stay still you could/might get away with it.
As for your background if you moved the dog to a white/light colored background it would of also helped. I see in the upper top left of the image there is a white wall. I would of moved the dog there.
I agree with so many of the comments above...this is a beautiful shot with lovely clarity and detail. Your crop and placement in the frame is perfect...but I am a sucker for tight crops! If I could try to add anything to this wonderful picture, I would suggest burning the bottom part of the background ( below the shadow) to eliminate the flash-shadow and make the whole of the background dark.
@agima thanks very much. I will have to do some experimenting with my ISO. I don't think I have ever used higher than 1000. I hadn't given much thought to the background, to be honest. The sun does set behind that wall so I seldom shoot that way in the afternoon.
Thanks again for your advice
A beautiful portrait Sally Kaela is the perfect model. I have read all the suggestions with great interest. I would have suggested a slightly different crop and maybe giving a bit of space on the right hand siide where she is looking. That would bring her eye onto the third. I always play around for ages with the crop but like to get the eyes on the thirds somehow. The suggestion Brendan made about shooting with the sun in the background and using fill in flash is probably the way I would have taken the shot. I love the darkness of your shot however. You are so lucky she poses so well for you!!
I'm your get pushed partner this week. I was impressed with how you managed your challenge last week so this week I want you to do some more people shots - they don't need to be portraits but I'd like to see more people in your photos to give the shots a sense of scale. Enjoy. :)
Now I dont know your equipment so some of thing thes I say you might not be able to do.
I would of changed the F stop to be as fast as you could get it (i.e the lower the number the faster the lens).
I would of bumped up your ISO as high as you could go before the image becomes unssable because of digital noise. Do you know what yours is on your camera?
Mine is 6400 after that I need to use post to reduce the noise.
I see you took this photo under flash.. The great thing about flash (can be a bad thing) is that the image is taken in something like 1/6400 of a second which means that you could of reduced your shutter speed - NOTE: This would be a last resort given that there would be a big chance the dog would move.. If you had a model that would stay still you could/might get away with it.
As for your background if you moved the dog to a white/light colored background it would of also helped. I see in the upper top left of the image there is a white wall. I would of moved the dog there.
Does that help?
Thanks again for your advice
give that a try.
I'm your get pushed partner this week. I was impressed with how you managed your challenge last week so this week I want you to do some more people shots - they don't need to be portraits but I'd like to see more people in your photos to give the shots a sense of scale. Enjoy. :)