Hi there!

Hello, Lily Rose (Twoflowers. Clever!) and welcome both to the Critique Gallery and to Ephotozine generally. Obviously, you do want critique: you've said so. And on the way to posting, you'll have clicked through a screen asking you for more information about what you wanted to do. To provide the best critique, we need to know more about you and the picture: we've got the EXIF, but we don't know about your editing, or indeed whether you did any editing. If we're going to give you the best feedback that we possibly can, we need real input from you, including a lot more information. That way, the critique that we give is far more likely to be what you are looking for, and consequently far more helpful to you. What is your reason for requesting critique? What inspired you to take this photo? What were you hoping to achieve? Do you feel that you succeeded or failed? Are there any specific elements of your photo that you want help with? Do you want advice on camera settings, processing, composition, or something else? Do you have any particular questions you would like answered? Without that data, it's only possible to offer limited comments. I'd say that the second goat on the right is intrusive, and a bit of polishing in editing software could improve the result a bit. I'll do an edit to show you what I mean - click on the blue 'Modifications' button below the image on the left, then on the numbers that come up to see modifications.

Hello, Lily Rose (Twoflowers. Clever!) and welcome both to the Critique Gallery and to Ephotozine generally.

Obviously, you do want critique: you've said so. And on the way to posting, you'll have clicked through a screen asking you for more information about what you wanted to do. To provide the best critique, we need to know more about you and the picture: we've got the EXIF, but we don't know about your editing, or indeed whether you did any editing.

If we're going to give you the best feedback that we possibly can, we need real input from you, including a lot more information. That way, the critique that we give is far more likely to be what you are looking for, and consequently far more helpful to you.

What is your reason for requesting critique?
What inspired you to take this photo?
What were you hoping to achieve?
Do you feel that you succeeded or failed?
Are there any specific elements of your photo that you want help with?
Do you want advice on camera settings, processing, composition, or something else?
Do you have any particular questions you would like answered?

Without that data, it's only possible to offer limited comments. I'd say that the second goat on the right is intrusive, and a bit of polishing in editing software could improve the result a bit. I'll do an edit to show you what I mean - click on the blue 'Modifications' button below the image on the left, then on the numbers that come up to see modifications.

Welcome from me too, I hope you'll find the Critique Gallery useful. It would help to hear more from you - what sort of advice you are looking for, and also how you see this, whether you are satisfied with it. Pending that - two thoughts. How did you instruct the camera - we are not seeing whether you used auto, program, aperture priority, shutter priority, manual? Settings generally look sensible, but I'm curious as to the reason for the -2/3 exposure compensation. And if only you had a few more pixels on the right... Get half of that second face included and it would be worthwhile, as it is it looks awkward, accidental, so better without it altogether as in John's modification. Modifications appear under the blue modifications button below your upload, I shall try one in a little whie; similar to John's, but I want to brighten a bit and apply some local sharpening to the eyes. Please join in the conversation, that's how the Critique Gallery works best! Moira

Welcome from me too, I hope you'll find the Critique Gallery useful. It would help to hear more from you - what sort of advice you are looking for, and also how you see this, whether you are satisfied with it.

Pending that - two thoughts. How did you instruct the camera - we are not seeing whether you used auto, program, aperture priority, shutter priority, manual? Settings generally look sensible, but I'm curious as to the reason for the -2/3 exposure compensation.

And if only you had a few more pixels on the right... Get half of that second face included and it would be worthwhile, as it is it looks awkward, accidental, so better without it altogether as in John's modification.

Modifications appear under the blue modifications button below your upload, I shall try one in a little whie; similar to John's, but I want to brighten a bit and apply some local sharpening to the eyes.

Please join in the conversation, that's how the Critique Gallery works best!
Moira

Modification now uploaded, very similar to John's but a few differences - here's what I did. First I cropped to get rid of the cut-off bit of sheep on the right, and also to lift the eyes higher in the frame, nearer to the viewer's eye-level. That makes for comfortable viewing and a sense of communication. I used the spot healing brush to get rid of some bits of straw - just as a comparison. And I added 10% brightness, made a Levels adjustment moving the outer sliders in a bit to increase tonal range (are you familiar with the histogram?). And i used the dodge tool set to highlights, the burn tool set to shadows, 3% exposure for both, tiny brush - just on the eyes. That brightens them, gives them life. And finally a bit of unsharp mask. Not massive changes, but suggestions as to how you could proceed further, depending on your software. Let us have your thoughts.

Modification now uploaded, very similar to John's but a few differences - here's what I did.

First I cropped to get rid of the cut-off bit of sheep on the right, and also to lift the eyes higher in the frame, nearer to the viewer's eye-level. That makes for comfortable viewing and a sense of communication.

I used the spot healing brush to get rid of some bits of straw - just as a comparison.

And I added 10% brightness, made a Levels adjustment moving the outer sliders in a bit to increase tonal range (are you familiar with the histogram?). And i used the dodge tool set to highlights, the burn tool set to shadows, 3% exposure for both, tiny brush - just on the eyes. That brightens them, gives them life. And finally a bit of unsharp mask.

Not massive changes, but suggestions as to how you could proceed further, depending on your software. Let us have your thoughts.

A good effort. As mentioned, one head can be better than two; you used Manual mode, brave, - its worked quite well. -2/3 would not be effective in Manual mode. Needs to be a but brighter, - then the face is backlit, you need to overexpose a little. Loaded a mod, - hope to see more uploads! W

A good effort.

As mentioned, one head can be better than two; you used Manual mode, brave, - its worked quite well. -2/3 would not be effective in Manual mode.

Needs to be a but brighter, - then the face is backlit, you need to overexpose a little.


Loaded a mod, - hope to see more uploads!


W

Hello Lily Rose, a big welcome to EPZ from me too! :) I see the Critique Team have already been in and welcomed you (they've also given you three brilliant mods). If you have any queries, don't be afraid to ask! :) I shall look forward to seeing more of your work.

Hello Lily Rose, a big welcome to EPZ from me too!

I see the Critique Team have already been in and welcomed you (they've also given you three brilliant mods). If you have any queries, don't be afraid to ask!

I shall look forward to seeing more of your work.

Welcome from me too. I've nothing to add to what's been said, so I'll just emphasise how big a difference a small crop can make. Don't feel constrained by the dimesions of the original frame. Nowlet's hear what you think.

Welcome from me too.

I've nothing to add to what's been said, so I'll just emphasise how big a difference a small crop can make. Don't feel constrained by the dimesions of the original frame.
Nowlet's hear what you think.

Hi and welcome to the Critique Gallery. Some really good critique above and I have to agree that the half sheep on the RHS isn't adding anything to this frame, so a bit of a crop needed there. Exposure looks very slightly under, easily fixed with a touch of brightening as has been well demonstrated in the modifications. Would be great to hear from you to let us know what you think too.

Hi and welcome to the Critique Gallery.
Some really good critique above and I have to agree that the half sheep on the RHS isn't adding anything to this frame, so a bit of a crop needed there.
Exposure looks very slightly under, easily fixed with a touch of brightening as has been well demonstrated in the modifications.

Would be great to hear from you to let us know what you think too.

I did add to the already nice mods. Cropped off the half sheep, brightened slightly, cloned away the bright water trough ( ? ) with the clone tool set to darken on a separate layer. Reduced the blues, especially on the horns, just to add a little more warmth to your image.

I did add to the already nice mods.
Cropped off the half sheep, brightened slightly, cloned away the bright water trough ( ? ) with the clone tool set to darken on a separate layer.
Reduced the blues, especially on the horns, just to add a little more warmth to your image.

Thanks dudler and others, for these useful replies, I do not edit my photos yet so please may you leave criticism on the photography rather on how it is (not) edited. I do feel quite proud of this photo, though I know it is not perfect. Could I please have some advice on the composition and exposure of my images in future? Can I please have advice on camera settings and what setting are better for which subjects.

Thanks dudler and others, for these useful replies, I do not edit my photos yet so please may you leave criticism on the photography rather on how it is (not) edited.
I do feel quite proud of this photo, though I know it is not perfect. Could I please have some advice on the composition and exposure of my images in future?
Can I please have advice on camera settings and what setting are better for which subjects.

Thank you for your feedback, Lily Rose. It would have been helpful if you had told us this in your Description Box when you uploaded to the Critique Gallery, and then we would have had a better idea of the kind of critique you were looking for. I hope, however, that the comments were of some use to you? Pamela.

Thank you for your feedback, Lily Rose.

It would have been helpful if you had told us this in your Description Box when you uploaded to the Critique Gallery, and then we would have had a better idea of the kind of critique you were looking for.
I hope, however, that the comments were of some use to you?

Pamela.

Thanks for coming back to us! I hope that some of the advice above helped, particularly regarding composition. (Cropping is a fairly basic adjustment, and can often transform an image without the need for invasive processing.) As the automatic pm that goes out to Critique Gallery uploaders says: [quote]Please let us know what advice you are looking for - eg on camera technique, composition, processing etc. Tell us about your intentions...[/quote] Otherwise we are rather working in the dark. And I hope we shall see more from you. Moira

Thanks for coming back to us! I hope that some of the advice above helped, particularly regarding composition. (Cropping is a fairly basic adjustment, and can often transform an image without the need for invasive processing.)

As the automatic pm that goes out to Critique Gallery uploaders says:

Quote:Please let us know what advice you are looking for - eg on camera technique, composition, processing etc. Tell us about your intentions...

Otherwise we are rather working in the dark. And I hope we shall see more from you.
Moira

Hi and thanks for coming back to us with your specific requirements for critique, without which we have offered critique on the image as we see it here. As Moira has said, cropping an image is not invasive and does help with composition if you don't get it quite right 100% of the time. John did ask some really important questions initially... [quote]What is your reason for requesting critique? What inspired you to take this photo? What were you hoping to achieve? Do you feel that you succeeded or failed? Are there any specific elements of your photo that you want help with? Do you want advice on camera settings, processing, composition, or something else? Do you have any particular questions you would like answered? [/quote] Without some answers to those questions we can only comment very generally. I look forward to seeing more from you.

Hi and thanks for coming back to us with your specific requirements for critique, without which we have offered critique on the image as we see it here.
As Moira has said, cropping an image is not invasive and does help with composition if you don't get it quite right 100% of the time.
John did ask some really important questions initially...

Quote:What is your reason for requesting critique?
What inspired you to take this photo?
What were you hoping to achieve?
Do you feel that you succeeded or failed?
Are there any specific elements of your photo that you want help with?
Do you want advice on camera settings, processing, composition, or something else?
Do you have any particular questions you would like answered?


Without some answers to those questions we can only comment very generally.
I look forward to seeing more from you.

Thanks for getting back to us. I am sure that you will find that editing becomes something that you want to do, but possibly not quite yet... It'll be sooner than you think, though!

Thanks for getting back to us. I am sure that you will find that editing becomes something that you want to do, but possibly not quite yet... It'll be sooner than you think, though!