Remains

Taken in B&W with natural light and the only pp was too resize, crop, and sharpen and that's about it. Apart from any photography elements that can be critiqued could someone tell what is wrong with subject in the photo? Now, with that said any c/c would be appreciated and if you can’t figure out what might be wrong I will give some more tips later.

Thanks,

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I can't tell whats wrong with the subject. Perhaps the fang on the right being broken off? The little bits of dirt on the subject? Hmm.

Its a nice picture, btw. Just not sure where the flaw is.

um.. he appears dead. that's what's wrong!
No really, I have no idea...

I think the problem you are seeing is that the subject is dead centre. (*groan* no pun intended)... You should try cropping it off to one side, and maybe bring it below the horizon.

That is the first thing i woudl try anyways.

It's a nice start, let's see a crop so we can compare?

Thanks all for responding and here's a new revision, although I still like the first even though it is breaking the rules I think it still works too.

MRailford, you are very close to figuring it out. Now what is wrong with the jaw other than what you have indicated?

Clue: left side

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Is his jaw broken? It looks rough.

Epluim, yes, it is broken in half, but there is something else wrong with it.

Another clue: When taking a portrait of person or even this subject that I used here your right side is what side of the subject if they are facing you?


Anatomically correct it is not.

Uh. Left?
Am I right to think that I may need some knowledge of skunk anatomy to figure this one out?

Yes, the left side is correct.

No, I do not think you need to take an anatomy class on skunks. Your doing just fine without it.

I think you have the answer if you just put everything together.

“Broken jaw”, left side

Remember the skull and jaw bone are two separate pieces. Maybe this photo will help clear things up for you.

The little white speckles are mineral deposit in the limestone.

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I guess I took stupid pills because I'm completely confused. Is the picture flipped? Is there something wrong with the teeth? This last picture is showing us the left side of the face I believe and there seems to be nothing wrong there... Hint?

Ok, no taking stupid pills not in this forum…LOL

The answer is in the “details” of the last photo and I will give you one more clue and that is incisors.

What is wrong with them?

Also remember the previous clue, broken

Oh, now that I have taken so much of your time up what do you think of the photograph?

Well, the ones in the first photo don't match up. And one appears to be sticking out at an odd angle.
And to answer your other question: It's a little yucky. My sister and I used to collect dead things (mostly their bones). We made a little museum in the back yard of frogs and squirrels and snakes and even a dog. Looking back, that kind of freaks me out.
But back to the picture: The B&W conversion looks pretty good on both versions. The one of the right side is a little hard to see on the top (there needs to be a shadow to define the eye socket). And I like that you've posed them on natural backgrounds rather than a couch or somewhere.
Also, I'd never seen a skunk skull before. I had no idea they had those huge teeth. I kinda hope one never bites me!

I only found half the jaw and when photographing the first photo. I did not pay attention to what side the jaw was placed on because I was more concern with the natural lighting and trying to get the jaw separated from the skull and balancing them on a notch on a pine tree without dropping them off a cliff that I was working next to. I think this might be the second time taking photograph like this; however, the other was a partly decomposed skeleton of a raccoon that was frozen to the grown in an old abandon farm building. The photos of the raccoon were not setup like the ones of the skunk skull and I also took them in black & white, but used a slow shutter speed to blur the subject so the details where not clear. The skunk skull perspective is a little over whelming by these photos because they are zoomed in on Super Macro mode on my camera and there is nothing close to it to compare the relative size of the skull and teeth to and they do look a little intimidating to say the least. However, the skull and jaw bone are no bigger than my palm of my hand. I also realize that this does not look like a macro shot if I were to leave it full size 2272 x 1704 and just cropped the size that I am using for the forum here from the original the skull would be full of details. I also have some shots that are 3264 x 2448 pixels but were shot using the Vivid function on manual mode instead.

There was actually no conversion on these photos I shot all in the B&W function on my camera. The pp was just resizing, changing resolution, contrast, and sharpening (USM). I have also used levels and curves before but on these they only needed a little contrast to bring out some of the details. I do agree with what you have said about the last photo that is it needs some more burning to get the eye socket to standout. I did not spend much time on this photo and maybe I should have. I can now say I am a bone collector, but before you think I am some nut. I would like to reassure you that this is the first time and they never made it in the house they are still in the trunk of my car and soon they will be going back to where I found them. I was thinking if these photos turned out ok I might take some more, but I think I have enough to work with for now. Anyway this is different from what I normally photograph.

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