auburn dog Brookfield, NH

The white balance (overall color cast) of this image has been set to complement the auburn coat of my neighbor's dog. I like the quirky placement of the subject where he is almost off the image. This creates a little tension and allows him to be looking into the frame. Notice that the eyes are the sharpest part of the image. He's waiting for me to toss his ball. Shading has been adjusted by applying a subtle freehand vignetting.

Fan Ho fanboy

Someone once asked me who my influences were. This blog entry is the definitive answer.

The most effective way to improve your compositional skills as a photographer is to study the great masters. There is one photographer in the world whom I think stands out above the rest in terms of composition. That would be Fan Ho.
He is a master of compositional techniques. He directs your eye using lines, subject placement, and chiaroscuro*. He masterfully uses fog/smoke/smog to create a feeling of depth. All the elements of his images have MEANINGFUL impact. His composite images are well designed with composition in mind using scale not only thoughtfully, but playfully at times. His image, An Early Morn is a visual Haiku displaying balance and simplicity eliminating all but the essential elements.
You would benefit from viewing Fan Ho's work at: http://www.modernbook.com/fanho/new-work/images.htm and keep coming back on occasion for a refresher course.


(*contrasting light- think of a spotlight in a dark image)

Panda Cub at San Diego Zoo San Diego,CA

This image required a lot of tonal adjustments.  Besides having contrast problems and structure problems, his face also had a yellow cast. However it was easily corrected by using NIK Software Viveza control points. He also was very dirty and required a beauty makeover that was done using the spot healing brush in Photoshop CS5. The rock also had some clipped highlights that were easily remedied using control points. I cannot say enough good things about the NIK Software suite of plugins.
By the way, his pose is not photoshopped. This is an example of a "decisive moment" for the shot.