Mountain Sheep

[dante]

@ the Icefields Parkway

actually two sheep, white one is hiding behind the brownish one

http://img829.imageshack.us/img829/9583/img306567tonemapped.jpg

[Gem]

Nice shot. The clouds add somewhat of a dramatic flair to the photo! And, I can see the legs of the one hiding, haha :)

ETA: Oops. Didn't realize this was in the Critiques section. Well, one thing I can think to suggest is to maybe dodge that extremely bright spot in the sky a bit more. My eye keeps getting drawn towards that repeatedly, instead of the sheep.

[Matt K.]

Shot has great potential. I suppose positioning is everything here: if the photographer would get a bit lower down and take that image from a lower position, then the head of the animal would be higher up a bit. I would have preferred the head to be above the mountain range line. This would have shown off the water and it's reflections a bit better as well. To me, personally, it is irritating to look at the head of the animal and have the shore line almost intersect with the animal's eyes.

[scorpio_e]

I think the processing is a bit over the top. Just my opinion

[dante]

Nice shot. The clouds add somewhat of a dramatic flair to the photo! And, I can see the legs of the one hiding, haha :)
ETA: Oops. Didn't realize this was in the Critiques section. Well, one thing I can think to suggest is to maybe dodge that extremely bright spot in the sky a bit more. My eye keeps getting drawn towards that repeatedly, instead of the sheep.

yeah I actually already dodged it a bit but it could use some more


Shot has great potential. I suppose positioning is everything here: if the photographer would get a bit lower down and take that image from a lower position, then the head of the animal would be higher up a bit. I would have preferred the head to be above the mountain range line. This would have shown off the water and it's reflections a bit better as well. To me, personally, it is irritating to look at the head of the animal and have the shore line almost intersect with the animal's eyes.

Thanks, good observation! I didn't notice it before but now I can't believe I did not see that :)



I think the processing is a bit over the top. Just my opinion

No worries, I appreciate all input and comments! Usually I like my HDR photos to look so you wouldn't know it's HDR, but for this one I liked how it looked with a bit more tone mapping.

[Marko]

This is a strong image in my opinion but the most distracting element is actually the wonderful but dramatic sky, there's too much sky here imo, and if the shot were mine I'd crop a pile of it out of this shot. The shot is about the Sheep not the sky yet the sky takes up almost 1/2 the image and the sky is more dramatic than the sheep.

Just as an FYI dodging is the wrong term here. Dodging means 'to lighten'
the correct term is burning in. Personally it does not bother me. Normally the eye will go to the brightest part of an image, but that does not mean that it should be burned in in 100% of all images. This is especially true when we are talking about the sun.

The leading lines near the sheep are strong compositional elements. The curve at the far right that takes you away from the sheep is a distraction imo.

Although it is very obvious that this image has been 'processed' the processing is not over the top to my eye.

hope that helps - Marko