The Mighty Hunter - my first photo for C&C

[StewartR]

Apparently I've made exactly 100 posts to Critique Corner since I joined POTN. And I haven't contributed any photos. (You know what they say. Those who can, do. Those who can't, critique.) Anyway I guess it's time to put that right.

I'm not sure who's actually "The Mighty Hunter" here. Is it the cat, who spent 45 minutes skulking around in the long grass looking for mice and frogs? Or is it me, who spent 45 minutes skulking around in the long grass looking for the cat? (He didn't catch anything. At least I got a photo.)

Any or all comments and suggestions that you may have would be very welcome. Thanks.

PS EXIF: 18-200mm lens at 144mm; ISO 400; 1/160th at f/6.3.

[midnitejam]

Nice Shot. I like the composition and the DOF. I wouldn't change anything.

[madchadder]

Good shot, but it looks like it's either slightly out of focus or just needs some sharpening.

[delinian]

Stewart, Nice capture, but WB seems a little off to me.
Used adj. layers to adjust colors, and contrast.
A little smart sharpening.
Hope you approve my edit.
109783

[PhotogJeff]

Nice picture Stewart. Nice editing job too delinian.

[madchadder]

I actually like the original's color better.

[StewartR]

Thanks for the comments folks.

I'm relatively new to digital after >20 years using 35mm, and I think it shows here. I paid attention to the things you do with film - composition, DOF etc. - but I was less careful about the additional things you have to worry about with digital - WB, sharpening, etc.

madchadder - I think the focus was OK, but you're probably right about sharpening. I'l have another go at that.

delinian - now you mention it, maybe my picture is a little on the warm side. But I think you've made it too cool - not your fault of course, you weren't there and you don't know the cat. And I'm not sure I like the reduced contrast and desaturated colours in your version. But it's food for thought. I'll compare this to the other pictures I took in the same session and see whether I need to do anything with the WB.

Thanks again. I really feel I've learnt from this.

[Chris71]

I don't see anything wrong with it at all. Nice job!

[triumph]

The original images white balance does appear to be off, but delinian's mods appear to lack saturation. Hopefully you'll like this...

http://i102.photobucket.com/albums/m102/lovesporran/cat.jpg

[SanderH]

Don't mess with the WB. It is the creatively correct WB IMO. It adds warmth... Great composition. Good frame filling.

[Hellashot]

The original images white balance does appear to be off, but delinian's mods appear to lack saturation. Hopefully you'll like this...

http://i102.photobucket.com/albums/m102/lovesporran/cat.jpg

Bravo. I knew immediately looking at the original image that the WB/levels were a bit off and too warm. Often images with incorrect WB can look just fine by themselves, but once you see how it looks with correct levels - it's an eye opener. :) Seeing images with correct/incorrect WB takes time.

[morehtml]

My try. The original pic seems to have a red cast.

[StewartR]

Hello, OP here again.

Wow, this is fascinating, and thanks everybody for all their contributions! I mean, at the end of the day, this isn't great art - it's just a picture of a cat...

I'm so used to just sending the film off to the lab, and what I get back is what I get. As Hellashot says, images with incorrect WB can look just fine by themselves - and I'm not used to having to think through how the shot should look, or to explore variations on how it could look.

So I've learnt a lot from this. I've also learnt that I need to get myself an online photo sharing account, because the 100kB limit for directly-attached images is just too restrictive for shots like this - as matthewlrigdon observed, for some reason this image needs an awful lot of compression to get it down to 100kB.

For what it's worth, here's what I think is my final attempt. I've reduced the colour temperature, desaturated the reds a little (good spot, morehtml) and applied some sharpening. Obviously the choice of WB is to a certain degree subjective - and thanks SanderH for the observation that it doesn't have to be "scientifically" correct, there's a creative element too. I wouldn't have thought of that.

(PS It looks a lot better ar 3000x2000! I think I might print and frame this...)