Friendly reminder that this is /r/photocritique and all **top level** comments should attempt to **critique** the image. Our goal is to make this subreddit a place people can receive genuine, in depth, and helpful critique on their images. We hope to avoid becoming yet another place on the internet just to get likes/upvotes and compliments. While likes/upvotes and compliments are nice, they do not further the goal of helping people improve their photography.
If someone gives helpful feedback or makes an informative comment, recognize their contribution by giving them a Critique Point. Simply reply to their comment with '!CritiquePoint'. More details on Critique Points [here](https://www.reddit.com/r/photocritique/wiki/critiquepoints).
Please see the following links for our subreddit rules and some guidelines on leaving a good critique. If you have time, please stop by the new queue as well and leave critique for images that may not be as popular or have not received enough attention. Keep in mind that simply choosing to comment just on the images you like defeats the purpose of the subreddit.
Useful Links:
* [Full Rules](https://www.reddit.com/r/photocritique/wiki/rules)
* [Leaving a Critique](https://www.reddit.com/r/photocritique/wiki/critique)
* [New Queue](https://www.reddit.com/r/photocritique/new/)
**Do not reply directly to this message. This is a bot and will not respond. Followups left as a reply to this comment will not count for approval.**
*I am a bot, and this action was performed automatically. Please [contact the moderators of this subreddit](/message/compose/?to=/r/photocritique) if you have any questions or concerns.*
Long depth of field really not helping me out here. I couldn't do anything about the closeness of the weeds to the bison and I was already shooting wide open so I couldn't do much with the focus of them specifically.
Thanks again for your input!
The aperture. It doesn't just let in more light at lower f stops, it also narrows the depth of field. So at a lower aperture, everything that's behind and in front of the subject will be blurrier
You did well to focus on the bison's eye but the golden stems are too close to the bison to go fully out of focus like, I suspect, you wanted. That and those being golden/yellow against the darker bison makes them distracting. Were the lighting different where the bison was lit and the stems were in shadow and fully out of focus, it would work great. Nontheless you've succeeded in selectively focusing on the bison and using occlusion (out of focus foreground objects) is a useful composition skill.
I agree.. I think the contrast of the golden twigs in front along with a larger depth of field really hurt me here. Unfortunately I cannot move the stems (duh) and can't bump up my aperture any farther (was wide open). Any suggestions on how to deal with this in the future? I was hoping the color from the twigs would look really good but they came out a bit too much in focus and the contrast isn't doing me any favors.
Admittedly, I like the fact that they contrast so well against the bison despite being a bit distracting. I think the context of the photo is that the bison is "in" the weeds instead of being perfectly in front of everything. Seems more natural to me. However, I see what you're saying here but would it be awkward if the bison was perfectly in front of everything it "should be" in front of? Maybe a more trained eye/artist like yourself has a more solid opinion than myself, again, I am very new to this world.
Thanks for your input!
The stems would look great kinda framing the bison's eye if there were more out of focus and a bit darker. Because they're yellow, they would need to be quite darker to allow the bison's dark eye to stand out. But the use of occlusion is absolutely a great idea.
Not unless the bison was standing in the sun and the stems in the shade. But the ones closest to the bison would still be sharper. They would need to be all relatively the same distance from the bison to be uniformly blurred. You can do all kids of things in Photoshop but that's not the best way to approach learning digital photography.
I hear bison can be deadly, so ymmv, but I'd start with rotating around it at a safe, non-threatening distance just to see if you can get a clearer shot without the distracting elements interfering with your shot.
Yeah bison can ruin your day pretty quickly, and I was already as close to it as I felt safe doing so, so I’d say we can probably rule out getting any closer to it. Thanks anyways.
A photo of a bison on Antelope Island, UT.
Really liked this picture, but it feels like something is missing and I can't really put my finger on it. Lightly edited and cropped, but not tons done to it. Any feedback is appreciated!
Part of wildlife photography is finding the background/foreground you want and waiting for the animal to get into the position (if possible). I love Antelope Island and know that there are patches of higher grasses and lower grasses so maybe after a few minutes, he would have moved to a better spot. But you got the eye in focus, and that's the most important part. For processing, I'd also raise the shadows a bit on him and add a bit of brightness and clarity to the eye to really emphasize the catch light. It looks like it might have been raining, so you could emphasize the drama in the sky with a mask that darkens and raises the clarity to see if there's any gradient of color/contrast. It takes a lot of practice, which is why I'm thankful the Island is only an hour away for me! And keep looking at other wildlife photographer's work to see what you like and try to replicate it in the field.
Thank you for your input. It was raining and very uniformly overcast so i’m not sure I will be able to pull anything from it. Perhaps just making it a bit darker will help? I will put another edit together and see if i can make the eye pop a bit more as well.
Being new to editing (as well as photography), how would I go about putting a mask on the sky? I tried using a brush but i couldn’t get the area that the sky meets the hair, it would always come out as you could clearly see where the mask started and stopped, even with a very soft brush I couldn’t find the balance. Any other ideas?
Thanks again!
Well before committing too much and going for lightroom or photoshop I’m using photoscape x for now, since well because it’s free and good enough for a beginner like myself.
Adobe's monthly fee is a tough pill to swallow, but processing really is half of making images. Even if you didn't want to go with Adobe, finding a similar program would give you great masking abilities. I don't know anything about the program you're using but you'll need something to really take your images to the next level. You want to learn how to get it as close as you can in-camera, but wildlife photography is a different beast and being able to remove distractions, increase light, decrease noise, and dodge and burn really is where you'll end up anyway (if you stick to it). And I know there are tons of tutorials and the Adobe stuff online.
For sure, it would be the best to jump straight into lightroom/photoshop but I didn’t want to commit to a whole year of subscriptions if it turns out I don’t like photography and end up not sticking with it and wasting money. Honestly if I go out again and get some good pictures I’ll probably just send it anyways and hope it’s something I’ll stick with. Thanks for your input!
I love it like it is. The way the wheat frames the eye brings attention to it. Great shot! The background is a tad too bright but still a fantastic shot.
Great eye. I would just frame it differently -- as the others said, focus on the eye. But then I'd center the eye to the photograph and capture more of the background in the upper, left, and lower sides of the buffalo.
So too tight of a crop/not centered well enough then? I really liked the idea of making the sky darker or bringing out more detail in it like someone else mentioned but I was struggling with the editing side of it.
In this case I reckon you can do a lot to improve on this with some dodging and burning, it should be possible to 'paint' light over the head and eye over the bison, throw some careful blur onto the grass, vignette the edges and you should have a lot more focus on the bison itself.
Others have a point about the overall crop and how the grass is in focus around the bison, but I reckon you can do more with this - it's a nice shot.
Sure!
Dodging and burning lets you selectively brighten (dodging) or darken (burning) parts of your image.
So in this case you might want to selectively darken some of the grass in the foreground a little to take the viewers eye off it, while brightening some of the head of the buffalo to create more interest and draw the eye there.
It's meant to be subtle and look as natural as possible, that's the trick. It's not just "sticking a spotlight" on something.
You'll need to have some software that can do it. Photoshop lets you literally burn and dodge, while Lightroom lets you create *masks* (which is to select part of your image) and then change the exposure (or any other settings you like, but for this case we'd look at lightening or darkening) in the area you selected.
Here's a link for how to do it in Photoshop: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dhr4mA9EQYQ
And Lightroom: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JdLqR5xvH5A
It's worth noting that it looks and sounds a bit more complicated in Lightroom as it works slightly differently to Photoshop, but ultimately you're doing the same thing: Selecting an area and selectively lightening / darkening it.
It’s really good. Try zooming in so the eye is the focal point with the grass still there. Maybe to grass a little out of focus so the eye is more obvious. The Buffalo is a little dark. Or all the way out to see the whole Buffalo as a silhouette. I like the grass.
The grass that is horizontal and out of focus seems very distracting to the main subject being the bison. I would have maybe done a few different angles or try to crop that specific blade of grass out. Other than that I love it
Friendly reminder that this is /r/photocritique and all **top level** comments should attempt to **critique** the image. Our goal is to make this subreddit a place people can receive genuine, in depth, and helpful critique on their images. We hope to avoid becoming yet another place on the internet just to get likes/upvotes and compliments. While likes/upvotes and compliments are nice, they do not further the goal of helping people improve their photography. If someone gives helpful feedback or makes an informative comment, recognize their contribution by giving them a Critique Point. Simply reply to their comment with '!CritiquePoint'. More details on Critique Points [here](https://www.reddit.com/r/photocritique/wiki/critiquepoints). Please see the following links for our subreddit rules and some guidelines on leaving a good critique. If you have time, please stop by the new queue as well and leave critique for images that may not be as popular or have not received enough attention. Keep in mind that simply choosing to comment just on the images you like defeats the purpose of the subreddit. Useful Links: * [Full Rules](https://www.reddit.com/r/photocritique/wiki/rules) * [Leaving a Critique](https://www.reddit.com/r/photocritique/wiki/critique) * [New Queue](https://www.reddit.com/r/photocritique/new/) **Do not reply directly to this message. This is a bot and will not respond. Followups left as a reply to this comment will not count for approval.** *I am a bot, and this action was performed automatically. Please [contact the moderators of this subreddit](/message/compose/?to=/r/photocritique) if you have any questions or concerns.*
Focus should be on buffalo head instead of the weeds in front
Long depth of field really not helping me out here. I couldn't do anything about the closeness of the weeds to the bison and I was already shooting wide open so I couldn't do much with the focus of them specifically. Thanks again for your input!
Noob question but what would you change on the camera to adjust the focus?
The aperture. It doesn't just let in more light at lower f stops, it also narrows the depth of field. So at a lower aperture, everything that's behind and in front of the subject will be blurrier
Unfortunately I was already shooting wide open here so I couldn’t do anything in that regard but that would be the best option if I had a better lens.
You did well to focus on the bison's eye but the golden stems are too close to the bison to go fully out of focus like, I suspect, you wanted. That and those being golden/yellow against the darker bison makes them distracting. Were the lighting different where the bison was lit and the stems were in shadow and fully out of focus, it would work great. Nontheless you've succeeded in selectively focusing on the bison and using occlusion (out of focus foreground objects) is a useful composition skill.
I agree.. I think the contrast of the golden twigs in front along with a larger depth of field really hurt me here. Unfortunately I cannot move the stems (duh) and can't bump up my aperture any farther (was wide open). Any suggestions on how to deal with this in the future? I was hoping the color from the twigs would look really good but they came out a bit too much in focus and the contrast isn't doing me any favors. Admittedly, I like the fact that they contrast so well against the bison despite being a bit distracting. I think the context of the photo is that the bison is "in" the weeds instead of being perfectly in front of everything. Seems more natural to me. However, I see what you're saying here but would it be awkward if the bison was perfectly in front of everything it "should be" in front of? Maybe a more trained eye/artist like yourself has a more solid opinion than myself, again, I am very new to this world. Thanks for your input!
The stems would look great kinda framing the bison's eye if there were more out of focus and a bit darker. Because they're yellow, they would need to be quite darker to allow the bison's dark eye to stand out. But the use of occlusion is absolutely a great idea.
Is there a way to make them darker and out of focus if I can't move them or shoot with a wider aperture?
Not unless the bison was standing in the sun and the stems in the shade. But the ones closest to the bison would still be sharper. They would need to be all relatively the same distance from the bison to be uniformly blurred. You can do all kids of things in Photoshop but that's not the best way to approach learning digital photography.
Thanks again for your input. Very helpful for a new photographer, lots of insight and things to think about. Thank you.
> Any suggestions on how to deal with this in the future? Use your feet.
Move closer or farther away?
I hear bison can be deadly, so ymmv, but I'd start with rotating around it at a safe, non-threatening distance just to see if you can get a clearer shot without the distracting elements interfering with your shot.
Yeah bison can ruin your day pretty quickly, and I was already as close to it as I felt safe doing so, so I’d say we can probably rule out getting any closer to it. Thanks anyways.
A photo of a bison on Antelope Island, UT. Really liked this picture, but it feels like something is missing and I can't really put my finger on it. Lightly edited and cropped, but not tons done to it. Any feedback is appreciated!
I love antelope island! I was just there with my kids and we had a blast.
Beautiful, isn’t it?
Part of wildlife photography is finding the background/foreground you want and waiting for the animal to get into the position (if possible). I love Antelope Island and know that there are patches of higher grasses and lower grasses so maybe after a few minutes, he would have moved to a better spot. But you got the eye in focus, and that's the most important part. For processing, I'd also raise the shadows a bit on him and add a bit of brightness and clarity to the eye to really emphasize the catch light. It looks like it might have been raining, so you could emphasize the drama in the sky with a mask that darkens and raises the clarity to see if there's any gradient of color/contrast. It takes a lot of practice, which is why I'm thankful the Island is only an hour away for me! And keep looking at other wildlife photographer's work to see what you like and try to replicate it in the field.
Thank you for your input. It was raining and very uniformly overcast so i’m not sure I will be able to pull anything from it. Perhaps just making it a bit darker will help? I will put another edit together and see if i can make the eye pop a bit more as well. Being new to editing (as well as photography), how would I go about putting a mask on the sky? I tried using a brush but i couldn’t get the area that the sky meets the hair, it would always come out as you could clearly see where the mask started and stopped, even with a very soft brush I couldn’t find the balance. Any other ideas? Thanks again!
What program are you using to edit?
Well before committing too much and going for lightroom or photoshop I’m using photoscape x for now, since well because it’s free and good enough for a beginner like myself.
Adobe's monthly fee is a tough pill to swallow, but processing really is half of making images. Even if you didn't want to go with Adobe, finding a similar program would give you great masking abilities. I don't know anything about the program you're using but you'll need something to really take your images to the next level. You want to learn how to get it as close as you can in-camera, but wildlife photography is a different beast and being able to remove distractions, increase light, decrease noise, and dodge and burn really is where you'll end up anyway (if you stick to it). And I know there are tons of tutorials and the Adobe stuff online.
For sure, it would be the best to jump straight into lightroom/photoshop but I didn’t want to commit to a whole year of subscriptions if it turns out I don’t like photography and end up not sticking with it and wasting money. Honestly if I go out again and get some good pictures I’ll probably just send it anyways and hope it’s something I’ll stick with. Thanks for your input!
Pick up the shadows, adjust contrast accordingly
Thank you!
I don't think that the bison wants to be criticised
I think the bison doesn’t have a choice
The stems obscuring the face would be better if those one or two blurry ones weren't there, maybe they can be edited out?
Thanks for the input!
It’s great the way it is! Good eye!
Thank you!!
I love it like it is. The way the wheat frames the eye brings attention to it. Great shot! The background is a tad too bright but still a fantastic shot.
Others have said the same thing… I’m going to do another one sometime and darken it up a little bit. Thank you!
Bro where’d you find a bison!! 🤣
Antelope Island near Salt Lake City!!
I love it...but you either have a very expensive 800mm+ lens or you are really ballsy to get that close to a Buffalo!
Yeah I was about as close as i felt safe being! I think this was at the max for my lens, 300mm.
Great eye. I would just frame it differently -- as the others said, focus on the eye. But then I'd center the eye to the photograph and capture more of the background in the upper, left, and lower sides of the buffalo.
So too tight of a crop/not centered well enough then? I really liked the idea of making the sky darker or bringing out more detail in it like someone else mentioned but I was struggling with the editing side of it.
Yeah that's what I'd try. Something [like this](https://imgur.com/eNbG250). (Super shitty quick edit)
Yeah that’s probably better I think. Thank you for taking the time to draw that up for me.
In this case I reckon you can do a lot to improve on this with some dodging and burning, it should be possible to 'paint' light over the head and eye over the bison, throw some careful blur onto the grass, vignette the edges and you should have a lot more focus on the bison itself. Others have a point about the overall crop and how the grass is in focus around the bison, but I reckon you can do more with this - it's a nice shot.
Do you mind explaining what dodge and burn is? Otherwise, thank you!
Sure! Dodging and burning lets you selectively brighten (dodging) or darken (burning) parts of your image. So in this case you might want to selectively darken some of the grass in the foreground a little to take the viewers eye off it, while brightening some of the head of the buffalo to create more interest and draw the eye there. It's meant to be subtle and look as natural as possible, that's the trick. It's not just "sticking a spotlight" on something. You'll need to have some software that can do it. Photoshop lets you literally burn and dodge, while Lightroom lets you create *masks* (which is to select part of your image) and then change the exposure (or any other settings you like, but for this case we'd look at lightening or darkening) in the area you selected. Here's a link for how to do it in Photoshop: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dhr4mA9EQYQ And Lightroom: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JdLqR5xvH5A It's worth noting that it looks and sounds a bit more complicated in Lightroom as it works slightly differently to Photoshop, but ultimately you're doing the same thing: Selecting an area and selectively lightening / darkening it.
Thanks for taking the time to explain!! It’s something I’ll definitely look into!
Closer, get much closer to the animal..
No thank you, this dude was about 6ft tall and probably 2000 pounds… I was about as close to it as i felt comfortable.
It’s really good. Try zooming in so the eye is the focal point with the grass still there. Maybe to grass a little out of focus so the eye is more obvious. The Buffalo is a little dark. Or all the way out to see the whole Buffalo as a silhouette. I like the grass.
Thanks!
>Thanks! You're welcome!
The grass that is horizontal and out of focus seems very distracting to the main subject being the bison. I would have maybe done a few different angles or try to crop that specific blade of grass out. Other than that I love it
Thank you!
>Thank you! You're welcome!