Stag Shoot

[Drew Smith]

Here's a shot from the weekend.

I think it would benefit from a tighter crop personally. But then it's sometimes nice to give the subject matter some context.

Wondered what you guys thought?

Drew

[Cathus]

I think it would suit a tighter crop, and if you cut out the fence along the back it might look a little more natural, although the nice grass field does make it look like it's in a park rather than in the wild.

[DigiDiva]

I would crop, but then, Im still learning..wonder what others think

[Drew Smith]

Thanks for your opinions guys.

Here's the tighter crop I tried.

I hate losing the tree on the right though. In retrospect I should have moved right and got closer. But when the shutter went off he looked up - hence this shot, which was the next shot I took.

I didn't really fancy getting any closer to those antlers, being a wuss!

Drew

[silversnapper1]

Hi Drew,

Great pic of a magnificent creature and you've got the eye contact too.

I also think that the tree on the right adds to the image. Have you considered just cropping the fence out?

Hi Drew,
The shape and might of the tree works well in the first image - Nice work!

[pburness]

Hi Drew,
I think you have two nice shots here (even though it's one picture),

In the first image, I would crop the fence out as Cathus suggests, and I would crop a small section of the bottom (to just below the foot of the tree on the right hand side).
In the second image, I would crop just another half inch of the right hand side, this will put more emphasis on the magnificent head and antlers, and perhaps (very carefully) add a little more blur to the tree behind the Stag.

And don't worry about the antlers next time, he's a lot more frightened than you and will run away at first opportunity which is why you've done well to capture this!

Phil

[Cathus]

second image is much better

[Drew Smith]

Here's a quick and dirty photoshop fix:

The stag is now closer to the tree that some of you, and I myself liked in the picture, but felt it was too distant from the main subject.

Oh, and without the sapling sticking out of Stag's bum!

Maybe too close to the tree. If it was mine I would remove the sapling and fencing with clone brush as there is a nice sense of space in the original; and the DOF in your quick fix looks a bit abrupt.