Repost
Original
Out for a dog walk in the snow, the graphic patterns caught my eye.
Any and all comments welcome, thanks!
Canon EOS RP + RF100 f/2.8 L MACRO IS USM
1/80 s, f/8.0, ISO800
This is really cool, Cathy. The black and white dog against the white snow really worked and I do like the graphic aspect of it. A couple of things you might want to play with: It feels to me as if a touch more off the right hand side would create a better balance. The white fur seems a purer white than the snow. I wonder how it would look if you made the snow match? Just a couple of ideas where there’s no right or wrong way to go.
Hi Dennis,
Thanks for your comments! I see what you are saying about how cropping the right a bit might make it more balanced. I also agree – now that you point it out --that it might be more effective if the whites were more similar. I’ll try those edits when I get a chance and will repost.
Cathy
@Dennis_Plank
Finally getting back to this after vacation and resulting work backlog…
I’ve cropped the right a bit as suggested and it is better and more balanced. But not ideal I think. I would have liked to also add a bit more room on the left but I’m constrained there by the shape of the dog’s head – opening up more of the white space changes the shape of the space because then it also extends the white down along her neck. So I tried to find a compromise, but I’m not totally happy with it.
I think matching the snow and white fur is a great idea. I tried using the luminance masking in Lightroom to warm the snow, but it didn’t match well and created weird halos around the strands of hair so I gave up on that approach. I’ll use this as an example file when I have some time to play with lumenosity masking in photoshop.
I like the balance a lot better in your repost, Cathy. The hair is probably going to be a problem on handling the snow. I keep seeing people selecting around hair and just yesterday I watched a tutorial on photoshop’s “select and mask” that showed how to do it. I tried it on a Wood Duck image and it didn’t even come close-kept trying to erase the duck. Probably operator error, though it did seem to work in some areas.
