Father figure

[Overread]

http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3585/3305101968_38385cac22_o.jpg
f4, ISO 200, 1/250sec

What I was trying for - well I think I got the main part captured - that of the look from the old fox - I won't put a name to it since I think that part of the photo is leaving it free to let people assign their own emotion to the fox. The settings I chose delibratly to throw the background into blur and isolate the fox - distances is a big thing with this and its never a grantee that it will work when working in the close confines of the pen where the background can easily be too close to throw out into blur.

What failed - I see only two failed points in this shot myself and some people have suggested a third; the first is that I think it might be a bit central, its still something that I am losing with my work and moving to backbutton focusing has helped me, but I still have to work at it; the second failure I will not mention (I partly want to see if its noticed at all - to me its a glaring mistake!); the third thing that others have pointed out is the out of focus twigs - I don't mind them myself and due to their nature I could remove them from the shot if I really felt the need to.

[Hertz van Rental]

Let's see if I get this approval thing right this time.

A good shot. What needs to be sharp is sharp and the lighting is just right.
There are only two things 'wrong' with it as I see it, and one of those is negligible.
You just clipped the top of the rear ear off but as the fox's face takes centre stage it's not noticeable and certainly isn't a problem.
What I would say is that he's facing the wrong way.
The eye moves left to right across an image so when the subject is facing left and looking that way it runs counter to how you view it. This tends to jar a little. It's stops your eye but not in a good way.
I suspect this is mainly because he gives the feeling of looking up. If he was looking down I think it wouldn't bother me.
As it stands I'd be inclined to flip the image so he's looking right. This will make the image feel more 'positive'. The only drawback is that it will give a slight feeling of movement towards the right. In an ideal world you would balance this by having more space between the fox and the right edge. But I think the image is strong enough to minimise the motion effect anyway.
Try it and see.

By the way. I love foxes. Next to cats they are my fave.

[Overread]

Interesting - I wonder if I might be photographing backwards - I seem to end up with more left facing photos than right facing ones (that or animals in zoos are getting some revenge ;))
Also be interesting if this eye movement factor differed (as I think it must do) if one were to grow up in a culture which reads right to left - or even a culture which does not have a written word (not many of those left these days).
Anyways I do understand your point and flipping the fox is certainly possible


ps - can't you set it so that you have to moderate new posts only - whilst leaving replies free from moderation? Only otherwise it would seem to be rather limiting talk around a shot when your not present.

[Hertz van Rental]

can't you set it so that you have to moderate new posts only - whilst leaving replies free from moderation? Only otherwise it would seem to be rather limiting talk around a shot when your not present.

It doesn't seem to work like that and I don't appear to have the option to change it globally.
Blame the person that wrote the program.


Oh, and as far as I can discover no-one has done any major research into how people view images when their writing is not Latin based.
Some Asiatic cultures (notably Japan) view perspective differently in Classical Art - the further away an object is the higher it is on the page, the size remaining constant. This would appear to mimic in some ways the direction of their writing. But...
I would hazard, though, that through the dominance of Western culture and it's imposition of it's conventions most, if not all, cultures have been forced in to viewing graphic images in pretty much the same way as us (if they didn't in the first place). So it is now unlikely that we will ever know if the way you read dictates the way you view.

[vicky]

What is back button focussing?

[Hertz van Rental]

Absolutely no idea. The poor syntax means you can interpret it in several ways. But knowing programers it will mean something else entirely.

[Jeff Jarboe]

What is back button focussing?
it is a custom function option that lets you focus lock with one of the button on the upper right back comer rather holding trigger haft way (it may not be on all camera model)

[Overread]

Well instead of having the AF work when you press the shutter button half way - instead the AF control is moved to a button on the back of the camera body. The higher level cameras have a dedicated button for this whilst the rebels make use of the preflash button on the camera back (thus taking away your selective area preflash option - but for action its rare - I find - that one gets the time to use this).
With the button set your AF will only turn on when that is pressed - I find this along with an HSM motor lens a great way to allow one to use the AF to focus a shot - then you can recompose the shot so that the subject is not deadcentre and correct any alteration in focus with the manual controls - without having to fiddle around trying to find the AFon/off button on the camera. Its more use if your using an AF mode like AI servo as then if you were to try and change the composition and use manual focusing with the AF set to the shutter button the AF would keep fighting your choice and then your fighting your own AF motors in the lens.
If your just using single AF mode then its not much of a concern -but I like having AIservo ready for when the action starts.

I also find it a great use in zoos where sometimes the AF can get confused between a tiger and the bars of the cage