Critique Style Requested: Standard
The photographer is looking for generalized feedback about the aesthetic and technical qualities of their image.
I was thrilled to find big horn sheep that were close enough for me to get good shots.
I will be going back to this area soon and would love to get some ideas for improvement. It was an overcast day… late fall for this one.
Nikon z9, 400mm lens, 1/400 shutter speed, aperture priority, iso 4000, f11.
Very nice image – excellent pose, detail and color, with a lovely subdued BG. If you have more room in the original, including the feet, with a little “base” to stand on, is a very desirable feature. The whites on the flank look blown – you can possibly recover detail there in the raw file.
Yes that was my main disappointment… no base… and it wasn’t because of my cropping. I will work on the whites.
thanks for responding… sue
If that was a fixed focal length 400, it’s quite understandable that you couldn’t fit everything in. If the subject is still long enough, I’ll do 2 frames and stitch a pano – it’s surprising how well it can work.
Your second shot is very nice and deserving of a separate post!
I agree with @Diane_Miller about the second shot. I like seeing the front end of these magnificant creatures. I would darken the BG or maybe even better yet the animals so there is a clear difference between the two.
Cool images !
You already have good suggestions from @Diane_Miller & @Barbara_Djordjevic
Hi Sue, good observations and advice above. I really like the image in the comments. Great to see these two in some form of interaction. Well composed.
In both photos the sheep are rams/males. Ewes/females have smaller, shorter, thinner horns.
LOL Actually I guess I did know this. I have some great photos of females and some with their kids. I will post one later today. But thanks for reminding me…the males have this large curled horns.
Sue
Like the two frames and stitch idea. Do you do a stitch in Lightroom?
It was a fixed focal length.
Thanks, Sue
I will try darkening the back ground some. thanks for the suggestion.
Thanks Sue
Yes, stitching in LR is so easy and works so well!
I need to learn how to do that… 
I do use Lightroom and sometimes photo shop for my editing. Thanks Sue
Try it in your yard or anywhere. The issue is if you do it with a wide angle lens you can get parallax errors. For wide angles, the lens needs to be on a tripod and rotated around a special point in the lens called the entrance pupil. Lots of info on Google, along with easy ways to determine it for any lens and its various focal lengths if it is a zoom. For telephoto shots without a lot of close FG, no issues. It’s easy to get good results with handholding. Just caution not to change focus. There is some leeway if autoexposure changes – it will magically be corrected!
