Decisions Decisions : boards.ie photography exhibition ?

Muineach · 28-10-2007 6:28pm #1

hya all,
I've been going back over my fox photo's with friends and family calling around to see "sick" old me, what was interesting was that they all had a different favorite fox photo, plus they were kinda different to me, so I've popped 6 below so it'd be great if you can click on the poll on your favorite. I've just lost my confidence on what I think is a "good" photo, I think I've gotten too deep with the fox if you know what I mean, my taste generally isn’t suited to the public.
I had chosen one for the exhibition but doubting myself now
BTW all are at a full 8mp, no cropping, so full resolution and if you spot something wrong (C&C) with any of them let me know
Thanks,
Muineach

1)

2)

3)

4)

5)

6)

Eirebear · 28-10-2007 6:41pm

hmmm a tight one between number 1 and number 4 for me.
I like the fact that even though he is an extremely beautiful animal, he still manages to look scary in the first one.
But the lines of his markings in the close up of number four are really beautiful, so i chose that instead.

Covey · 28-10-2007 6:54pm

5 for me stands out above the others.

All great shots, but they look oversharpened and saturated.

T.

Carrigman · 28-10-2007 8:23pm

Number 5, for fox's sake.

AnCatDubh · 28-10-2007 8:24pm

From the poll it appears that others won't agree with me so for what its worth number 3 for me. BTW - they are all really good and i think this may be your difficulty. But each will probably appeal to people for very different reasons. So at best you probably will get an opinion of what the majority of people with a photographer persuasion like. Perhaps it would be an idea to try bounce off another boards group???? just a thought. Cheers.

kensutz · 28-10-2007 8:32pm

5 for me.

Paulw · 28-10-2007 8:40pm

5 for me. Brilliant work though in them all.

Kali · 28-10-2007 9:16pm

Easily 1 for me, he's got that great sly look that is stereotypical of foxes.. the tongue just emphasises this more, composition is perfect as well.

While they're all stunning shots, 2 to me seems overly saturated.

Ideo · 28-10-2007 10:27pm

it would be between 1 and 3 for me. prob go with 1 because you would get very few like it?...

Thirdfox · 28-10-2007 10:33pm

I'm the strange person who voted for 6

I like it because the pose of the fox is akin to that of a pet (dog/cat) then you realise the wildness of this animal... Preferred it to 5 due to the depth of field look both with the grass in front and hedges behind.

edit: good to see no-one's voted for the 7th option so far

Redisle · 28-10-2007 10:44pm

I think its between 1 and 5 for me.. number 1 is a lovely shot but I think the left of the photo is too out of focus, is that all from on camera dof or has it been adjusted in ps to increase the effect?
Then number 5 has more character and a sense of action, I really think it would "jump" off the wall if it were framed,also the cut on the foxes ear really shows its a wild animal that has been involved in fights etc rather than a trained pet.. btw are these 2 different foxes or did the fox get hurt during the times he was visiting you? I mean he dosent really have any visible damage to his ear in #1 and #2..

elven · 29-10-2007 10:54am

Aye it would have been 1 but if you're printing you won't get away with the sharpness issues. The other is beautifully crisp and just seems to put across how sleekit the fox is, with the pose and expression.

smdweb · 29-10-2007 10:57am

I really like the way the eyes & fur look in #3.
#5 is a lovely shot too !
Where do you get to see a fox this close ?

Muineach · 29-10-2007 12:59pm

Thanks for all the replies; I just thought you’d just click on the poll at the top.
There were lots of questions so I’ll go through answers to some of them, rather than quote people I’ll just go through them one by one. I didn't realize that my response would be so big :eek:

Fox Hair
You may notice this on all photo’s and be wondering what’s going on with his hair, the fox’s tail is nice and bushy like a normal dog (lassie type), this was used on fur coats/wraps a long time ago, while the rest of the coat is far more wirely/bristly, kind of like a badger, it’s hard to describe and I can’t think of a nice dog equivalent. So that’s why the fox’s head nearly always look over “sharp”, take a look at this photo from wiki , and on photo’s 3&4 you can kind of see what I mean by bristly hair on his face.

Depth of Field – All photo’s
It may look like I’ve added in a DOF(DOF/Blur etc.) in Photoshop, but I went back to the files and I didn’t use any of them, what may be throwing you out a bit when looking at the photo’s is that I did use High Pass Sharpening around the area of “focus”, so I’d sharpen the main face of the fox while leaving the rest of the fox/background as it was and tried to blend it in properly so it wouldn’t be too obvious, trying to replicate the real DOF.

Depth of Field – Photos 3 & 4
These were taken at 300mm at about 7-10 feet, which meant that the DOF was about 2cm and I was just a bit off on both of them, but then again he was a wild animal so I’ll live with that 

Photo 5
Hmm I think the fox may be overly saturated a bit, I have a problem with saturation, I always tend to whack it up on everything, I might tone it down a bit.

Printing
Elven : Aye it would have been 1 but if you're printing you won't get away with the sharpness
All I’ve ever printed on is just 8x12, so I’ve no idea what it would look like on anything larger or on matte/canvas etc so I’m a noob on that, but Number 1 was the one chosen to be on DSLR magazine this month, but then again it is just more or less an 8x12. TBH I’ve never been in a photo gallery at all!, what kind of sizes would be the normal ? just curious

A different Fox ?
Nope same fox all the time, he has a little white spot on the right side of his snout, it should visible on all of the photo’s except number 3, I think I just did a “spot removal” on it :P
The damage on his ear was in early September, but he has been coming around since July, so he was a cub early on in the year and now as he reached “adulthood” he was trying to stake a claim to an area, him growing up also explains how his coat has changed over the year, think this was the first picture I took of him

How did I get so close ?
First time experience:
From photo above : Well at 8:34 while most of you were stuck in traffic I woke up to hear the yelps of a fox, so up I get and see that there's 2 fox's in the back garden, I grab my camera, so there I was, outside, wearing only a pair of speedo's (joking, boxer's) and a t-shirt to get this photo

After that he was around the garden, I left food out, and just sat there, relaxed, no fear, eventually he just came up to me over time, he did get within about 4 foot of me, which was within the min focus distance grrr of my 300mm lens, plus I have/had

red hair so maybe that was it

countryjimbo · 29-10-2007 2:28pm

Definitely between 1 and 5 for me, both are excellent shots. I've going to vote for no. 5. This captures the cunning of the fox perfectly. He looks like he's stalking something and will pounce at any minute!

Imho I think you should work on it a little more and get the colouring similar to no. 6, its looks a little harsh.

bovril · 30-10-2007 8:50am

they're all fab photos but number 5 stands out for me.

TelePaul · 30-10-2007 11:20am

Wasn't number 1 featurred in Digital SLR user? I like 5 the most.

Muineach · 30-10-2007 12:01pm

yea, that's what's thrown me into this, Number 1 was in the magazine and they could have picked any of these fox photo's, while most people seem to prefer number 5 ? that's what threw up this dilemma :rolleyes: