What is Wrong with this Picture?

[Flutterby]

I battle with composition...never quite sure where to place the subject for the best effect. I know the whole rule of thirds thing, but sometimes it just doesn't look right.
Is the hyena correctly placed here?

[Sprocky]

I like the placement of the Hyaena in that shot. It has plenty of area to "look" into in the photo. One small problem could be with the legs. Although you cant see them behind the grass, try and imagine where the feet would be. I think you might have amputated the back legs slightly. Always try and keep the feet in the frame even if you cant see them.

[Flutterby]

I also thought that...will see if I still have the original and play around a bit more.

[Flutterby]

Better? Or is it too much in the centre now? I didn't have much space to play around with.

[PRWIN]

flutterby to me it is not in the centre. If you divide the photo into 9 blocks of equile size the head and eyes which is what every one or should take into account is in the top 2nd block so to me it,s

[Grumpy]

The "rule of thirds" in photography is often misunderstood by many. It is not as much as the nine blocks that are claimed to be important, but the points of intersection of the lines. By dividing an image into nine blocks, you end up with two vertical lines and two horizontal lines; It is claimed that the focal point of images should be at these intersecting lines .... While I often try to use this "rule", it should never be cast in stone;

In my opinion, a photograph either works .... or it doesn't. Most of my images simply become personal memories and I find it difficult to share memories through images, without the associated story that makes it so memorable ... at least to me.

Having got that bit off my chest, I can pass an opinion on the picture of the hyena. When taking pictures of wildlife, there are many, many areas outside of your control. It would seem that this image was taken outside of the early-morning or late-afternoon time frame, so the light is against you and seems to be quite harsh; The grass is distracting to me, and while quite uniform in colour, it does highlight the colours in the animal. There is not much you can do about the tall grasses, nor the harsh light, just as you cannot ask the animal to pose appropriately. What you have captured, and what raises some intrigue in my mind, is "what is the animal looking at?" Every picture tells a story.

While this image may hold memories for you personally, I do think there were too many things outside your control to capture an image with that "wow" factor that many people seek.

Criticism of the image asked for and given. Please do not take the comments personally; They are my opinion of this photo, and what can be done to improve it. I have no doubt that you have many images that can be cropped and/or tweaked in lightroom/photoshop to bring them from great to "wow", but this one, at least for me, is not one of those. Chin up, keep practicing and in the interim, have some flowers

[Amoli]

The "rule of thirds" in photography is often misunderstood by many. It is not as much as the nine blocks that are claimed to be important, but the points of intersection of the lines. By dividing an image into nine blocks, you end up with two vertical lines and two horizontal lines; It is claimed that the focal point of images should be at these intersecting lines .... While I often try to use this "rule", it should never be cast in stone;

In my opinion, a photograph either works .... or it doesn't. Most of my images simply become personal memories and I find it difficult to share memories through images, without the associated story that makes it so memorable ... at least to me.

Having got that bit off my chest, I can pass an opinion on the picture of the hyena. When taking pictures of wildlife, there are many, many areas outside of your control. It would seem that this image was taken outside of the early-morning or late-afternoon time frame, so the light is against you and seems to be quite harsh; The grass is distracting to me, and while quite uniform in colour, it does highlight the colours in the animal. There is not much you can do about the tall grasses, nor the harsh light, just as you cannot ask the animal to pose appropriately. What you have captured, and what raises some intrigue in my mind, is "what is the animal looking at?" Every picture tells a story.

While this image may hold memories for you personally, I do think there were too many things outside your control to capture an image with that "wow" factor that many people seek.

Criticism of the image asked for and given. Please do not take the comments personally; They are my opinion of this photo, and what can be done to improve it. I have no doubt that you have many images that can be cropped and/or tweaked in lightroom/photoshop to bring them from great to "wow", but this one, at least for me, is not one of those. Chin up, keep practicing and in the interim, have some flowers

It is this 'teaching' that I want.
I will post some pics soon.

[Flutterby]

Grumpy thx for your input...and no offence taken at all...tx for the flowers!! -O

This pic was taken in the morning but it was very overcast.....and the hyena was looking at its mom.

[PRWIN]

Grumpy I agree the rule of a third comes much more to play in landscape than in wild life photography. ,but it does make a difference than having it slap bang in the middle of the photo.

Fluterby I would have also mirrow it so that it looks from left to right and not right to left, this would let your gaze follow the direction it was looking and not going against it's view, also would have crooped a third off in front of the animal as there is too much space, darkend the back ground added saturation and d toned the highlites and lighting only to the hyeana and then blurred the top 3/4 around the animal , this should I think inprove the photo in making it stand out more from the background

[PRWIN]

I would like to try and illustrate to what I said earlier with a couple of photo's of the same shot taken by my son with a Fuji Camera



As is ,it is flat and the composition is not all that great, so what I normally do is have a look at the photo and then try and determine where the photo is in this shot, Also to try and get the area you want to stand out and your attention , that is by darkening the background if need be and also blurring it then so be. All that I did is what could have been done in the old days using a dark room.



Ps I know the colour is not correct as this one of the problems I must still sort out with LO camera.

As you can see I darkened the background and also slightly blurred it. At the same time adding contrast, saturation and highlights to the main subject and also Mirrowing it for more impact, now the rule of third might still come in to play to a certain degree but not strictly according to the rules as you must determine what is the main feature on the shot, normally in photo's this close it will be the eye that will catch your gaze first.

Finally due to the colour being off my final option to go for



Does the rule of a third work now, I think it depends on the shot and what you want out of the photo