CRITIQUE PLEASE

Hi Michelle, thanks for joining our community! The best places for critiques are in the other forum categories we have here. I think the Wildlife Forum would be the best for photos like this: https://www.shuttermonkeys.com/forum/wildlife-photography. I guess this isn't exactly "wildlife" but it is close enough. Maybe we need to expand the category to include domestic animals as well, we'll figure it out. But we can proceed for now here!

This is a perfectly lovely photo - good subject, well lit, a nice pose. Lots of good texture and detail. The dark, blurred background really helps make the subject stand out.

These seems to be a slight halo around the outline of the horse (I can see it especially around the ears) - perhaps you tried to significantly darken the background when processing the file? Sometimes this can result in a halo around the edges of objects. Backing off some on the darkening can make the halo less noticeable. I'm not sure if that is what is going on here, and it isn't that big of a deal, just something I noticed and was wondering about.

Here at Shuttermonkeys, we're all about encouraging people to push their creativity. It looks like you've got a good grasp of the fundamentals, so I'm going to encourage you to experiment more with composition and light. One thing I often recommend is to take a wider view. Although I sometimes shoot tight portraits of my wildlife subjects, I usually try to include their surroundings as well, helping me to make the composition more interesting and to tell more of a story about my subject and its environment. Of course, going wider increases compositional complexity, so it can make getting successful photographs more challenging - but that also makes success all the more sweet! You'll be able to find plenty of examples of this approach on this site, but a good recent example was posted by Zac: https://www.shuttermonkeys.com/forum/wildlife-photography/welcome-to-the-wildlife-photography-forum.

I hope this makes sense, and I hope this helps. And thanks so much for joining us! I know we're small right now, but I have a feeling that things are going to quickly pick up here. I want to especially thank you and the others who have joined us in the very beginning.

Thanks so much for your insight and helpful advice. I should have included more info. This was a requested portrait for 16x20 B/W. I have never shot in B/W so I shot this in color and changed the background to a B/W version of a stormy sky I had taken, and the subject was a black horse (hence the halo) I might be able to burn it some before ordering the print.

Yes, an animal category as well as a bird category and a B/W category might be helpful as membership grows

Gorgeous animal! Love the idea of a B&H category.