Those Eyes

Let me begin by saying that while I love the Critique system, I don't like the rating system, so by default I give five stars, it's just too subjective, and I like to keep my critiques specifically on-point with technical skill and not style.

That being said, I think this photo is adorable, and the perspective is very winning when it comes to quirky pet photos. I can't tell from the EXIF data what mode you photographed this in, so I'm going to assume Manual for the purposes of this critique.

ISO 3200 is very high, and it has created noticeable noise in your photograph, but I imagine it's because of the dim-lighting of the area. You always want to shoot at the lowest ISO possible when you're creating your exposure, and it should be the last option. So in this case, your aperture was the widest it could go (f/3.5 is typically the lowest on kit lenses), but your shutter speed was still decently fast, and could stand to be 1/80 or 1/100. That shutter speed range is still fast enough to reduce camera shake, but would allow in a lot more light and allow you to lower your ISO, thus reducing noise.

One plug-in you might really enjoy for your high ISO images, however, is Imagenomic's Noiseware. It's fantastic for filtering out noise, and I highly recommend giving the trial a go to see what it does with your photographs.

Now, when it comes to the composition of this image, the focus has been put on the bridge of his nose, as opposed to the eyes or tip of the nose, which is a stylistic choice. I've taken enough images of my dogs to know they are very difficult subjects, so I think you did a good job with this, but I wonder what a different focal point would have done, as usually the eyes are the focus for pet photography.

Due to the very wide focal length you picked, this has created a visual distortion, which isn't a bad thing and works well with the quirky nature of the photograph, but you may want to try a 'portrait' approach with another photograph of your pet, by getting down to his level, using a longer focal length that is 50mm+, and sticking to the largest aperture you can for a shallow depth of field. I'd be interested to see how your dog would look when applying basic rules in portrait photography.

I really do like this photograph, and I genuinely hope my critique helps you in some way. <img src="e.deviantart.net/emoticons/s/s…" width="15" height="15" alt="" title=" (Smile)"/>