Phoebe Photo

I followed Phoebe onto the deck to enjoy the overcaste. Here's another. Primarily looking for cc on Orientation, Motion, and Framing, but would like to hear anything you feel.

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I have a question ... was the dog put on the background?
There is a rim light on the dog that is not on the wood fence, isn't there?
I might be nuts (I am hearing my new 5D calling to me from its cold dark lonely box at home), but I swear there is different lighting in the fore and back grounds.

In any case. I love your dog. The only thing I would say is that the background seems too sharp for its high % of the image. Its a tad distracting. Use a lower Fstop to mush it wile keeping focus on the dog.
The exposure is great and the shaprness on the dog is great also.

From where I'm sitting it seems to be a straight shot, no foolin' aroun' with PS, etc.
Nice picture of Phoebe and the porch railing.

Nice tones and lighting. Good job!

Thanks for your help. No, llaamaboy, Bob is right, that's the straight shot clipped. I'm not real good at pp yet either. And you're both right, it ends up being a picture of Phoebe AND the porch rails. Thanks for the tip on the fStop, too. Did either of you check out the full-figure Phoebe here. I tried working the background of this one in PS (version 6). The background seemed to be in motion so I tended to keep it in motion, but it's probably more distracting than the original. Wuddyathink?
~marty

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LOL ... in my opinion ... yes still toooo much background.

Try this.
Print out a photo any small size in color if you can ... well it has to be in color.
Trun the photo away from you then turn the photo 360 degrees in a circle very quickly - you should only see a quick glimpse of the image. If you saw the subject, I assume the dog in this case, you have done your job. If you see background ... back to the photoshop manuals.

Just in case you have not hear this before... in a two deminsional plane suffering the loss of time, in a media which is perceived by one of our 5 senses (a photograph), dark colors receed into nothingness and do not want to be noticed, while lighter colors act as a cheerleading squad and demand attention. Hence darker backrounds focus attention on lighter subjects and black can become an subject element used to tell the eye to go somewhere else on the image.

I tried it with a little less gaussian blur on the background ans since I had the background selected I used levels to darken it up a bit. This makes the dog stand out a little more.

Thanks again, llaamaboy. All that really helps. It all would have been better if I followed Phoebe OFF the deck. Glad you saw the humor in my motion post. It looks like Phoebe and I are on a merry-go-round.

Char, that is great! Yes, she DOES stand out, and the halo is also missing. Thanks. It's still not a great shot because of the distracting background, but you've made it the best it could be without changing the background.

You sure are Welcome!
And thank you QB288.

I actually like the background. That is why I didnt blur it out more. I think it adds to the photo but just not as prominant as the original.