Wild Dog Portrait - Kwando Lagoon

[Loi Nguyen]

This image is one of my early favorites. Taken at Kwando Lagoon late afternoon while following the dog pack on a hunt. They stopped briefly to listen for sounds of the prey and their comrades while the sun just broke out from the cloud. The golden ray of the late afternoon sun illuminated the dog's face brilliantly against a small pond in the BG. So I wanted to capture a close up portrait instead of full body.

5D3
500f4 II
1/800
F5
ISO-1600
Handheld

Appreciate your comments.

Thank you

Loi

[Tobie Schalkwyk]

A nice one of one of my favourite animals. I like the awareness of this guy - can almost feel the tension as it listens for sounds. Somehow most photo's of these dogs create the perception that you're one of the pack. Nice clarity & focus on the eye & facial area in general.

I don't really like the paint-brushy look of the BG but I guess others might like it. A nice keeper, well done! :5

[Marc Mol]

Love the lighting, BG and tension in the open mouth pose here Loi, but would be tempted to crop a little closer to somewhere just behind the front leg for added impact.

[Rachel Hollander]

Hi Loi - great alert pose, sharpness and dof. There's a slight red cast so I would drop the reds a little and I also think you can bring out a bit more detail by opening up the midtones just slightly. Minor tweaks. Your comp works but I think Marc has suggested a good alternative, you can come in from the left and below. Keep them coming.

TFS,
Rachel

[Andreas Liedmann]

Hi Loi,
good pose of the subject ,with some nice details in the dog . Like the overall colors but would drop reds/magentas and blues in the subject.Would drop the reds a tad more then Rachel suggested , just me feeling it is too red.
Love the clarity in that eye. Marc made a good suggestion for a tighter crop , in which i agree.The BKG does not bother me, i like it .Lovely color transitions in the BKG.

Cheers Andreas

[Loi Nguyen]

Hi Everyone, right after I posted, I wondered if there was a Red cast, so I'm beginning to see COLORS!!! This is a huge improvement for me, so thank you fr your continuing good feedback. Will play with the colors and crop tonight. Got to go back to work.

Loi

[Gabriela Plesea]

Why is it that we always see the colour casts in other people's images but not ours?:bg3: I feel almost guilty to tell someone there's a cast in his or her image since I often fail to see mine!:tinysmile_shy_t: Well I do see the magenta cast here on the nose and ears of the subject, but I also see the loveliest close-up of a very, very gorgeous wild-dog, well done on capturing this Loi!!! I like the BG and colours in general, very vivid and attractive. What I might change slightly if this was mine, is the crop - I guess you wanted to show these lovely patterns on the fur but my feeling is that, by including so much of the body you are leaving too little space in front of the animal. I would include the neck but not the body in my suggested crop, just as suggested by Marc and then Rachel earlier on. Nevertheless this is one image I tremendously enjoyed viewing, great work Loi and hope to see the rest of what you brought back from your trip!

Kind regards,

[Loi Nguyen]

Hi Everyone. Fixed the magenta cast via Selective Color on the body and the blue cast via Hue/Saturation on the nose. Didn't like the tighter crop. Actually left the bottom uncropped to show where the legs are. Hopefully you will like it better. Thank you everyone for your suggestions. It's very helpful for me. Loi

[Gabriela Plesea]

Hi Loi,

This is how I see this image in terms of crop, more or less. Have you thought of a B/W conversion? I think it will be stunning, if you have the time and you feel like it, give it a try! The subject would pop nicely against that soft BG:w3

Have a wonderful week-end,

[Andre Pretorius]

Hi Loi

Love the pose and the alertness.

Still a bit of blue behind ears...

Torn between two crops..

Did you do NR on BG on OP?- RP not so much noise in BG from 1600 ISO:2eyes2:

Stunner!

Andre

[Steve Kaluski]

Hi Loi, I think I prefer Gabriela's crop to the OP, however the colours look better in the OP, nice and rich with some depth, but I'm not on a calibrated monitor so...

Like the BKG, very evocative of the location, also separates the subject nicely. The amber eye stands out well.

TFS
Steve

[Morkel Erasmus]

Love the soft lighting and alert look here, Loi.
I too prefer the colours more towards the OP than the repost, and I like Gabriela's crop for sure.
Looking forward to more of these guys!

Have to say I disagree with Tobie on the BG - quite like it! Much better than what we normally get as backdrops for these canines in SA (Kruger and Madikwe)...:t3

[Loi Nguyen]

Hi Everyone, it finally dawned on me that the Red color cast on the dog is actually BLOOD!!! Nature is more beautiful than my attempt to remove the Red. So thank you to Steve and Morkel for stating your preference to the colors in the OP. and Gabriela, appreciate your suggestion of crop. I think I will go between the two versions and changed the aspect ratio so that there is not so much space in front of the dog. And Tobie, the "paint brush" of the BG is completely natural due to the habitat and the limited DOF. Andre, yes I did run a NR on the BG. With the 5D3, some noise is presence at ISO-1600. With the 1DX, I normally don't run NR at same ISO. Hope you like the RP better. This is one of my favorite images of the trip, so much appreciate evryone's comments.

Thank you!

Loi