Critique Style Requested: Initial Reaction
Please share your immediate response to the image before reading the photographer’s intent (obscured text below) or other comments. The photographer seeks a genuinely unbiased first impression.
Questions to guide your feedback
Obviously you don’t know this guy like I do. That being said, are you drawn to the image for reasons of your own?
Other Information
Please leave your feedback before viewing the blurred information below, once you have replied, click to reveal the text and see if your assessment aligns with the photographer. Remember, this if for their benefit to learn what your unbiased reaction is.
Image Description
I would have to say that Woody is not only one of the true loves of my life but is also a bit of an artistic muse. I love this image for a few reasons. The natural light gives it a wonderful sense of depth and visual interest. I love the mystery that comes through chiaroscuro affect and that is a big part of this picture – the relationship between what is seen and not seen. But what I like most about this picture is the tightness of the shot combined with the clarity and catch light in the one eye that looks back at you. I feel that it gives the image a sense of intimacy, which makes for a good portrait. Now, I’m obviously biased. After all, isn’t Woody the best dog in the whole world!! But I’d love to know how you feel about this image given that you have no particular relationship with the subject of this portrait.
Technical Details
1 Like
I’m not particularly a dog person. I prefer cats, both for their aloof personalities and because they are self-cleaning, but I think I probably have a reasonably neutral basis to relate to the image. So, yes, I think you have a wonderful image with great light and tonal quality and captured a great expression with the one eye, which makes a very good connection with the viewer. My first thought is maybe take a little off the right, but not a big deal.
So after reading your further material – yes, Woody strikes me as very likeable. The artistic skill of the photographer certainly brings that out!
Hello, My initial reaction was to focus on the dog’s eye…i have a doodle with similar features so this look means to me pleading for something! I love the monchromatic treatment and the details in the curls. To me the depth of field is perfect.
The key thing that I like about this image is the dog’s eye in the brightest part of the image. Lighting is awesome, and there’s enough of the dog showing from the shadows which catches the eye. Lots of excellent detail and like this one as presented…Jim
This is excellent Kerry. I feel a connection with your dog. He is not an object but a personality. It’s all in that eye. He’s studying you and you sense a being in there.
It’s nice to see this wonderful image brought back to the top of the stack, as I was just thinking of you yesterday, Kerry (how’s that for special powers!) and hoping you haven’t abandoned us!
@Igor_Doncov , @Diane_Miller - what a surprise and a treat to have your comments after having posted this (very personal ) image so many months ago. And no, Diane, I have not abandoned my relationship with NPN by any means (though I am very appreciative of your thoughts). I have been more occupied in the last number of months with non landscape photography and finding it very satisfying. But my wife and I have just now returned from our annual month-long canoeing sojourn and, naturally I have thousands of landscape images to sort through and hopefully there will be a handful worthy of posting. I must say that a combination of things - focusing on non-landscape photography plus, what feels to me like a more discerning eye as well as a clearer sense of what actually interests me and draws my attention in the natural world, have re-ignited my interest in landscape photography. When I’m roaming the backwoods with my camera, Leonard Cohen’s song, “You Want It Darker” keeps coming to mind and I realize that I am attracted to the shadows. Anyway, while I haven’t been posting much of late, I’m always stopping by to see what all is being shared here at NPN, still the most intelligent photography site (of any kind) of which I’m aware.
