# A dangerous shot



## Snakeguy101 (Dec 9, 2010)

Hello, I am looking to get some C&C on this shot. It is one of my best shots but I feel like it is lacking that professional quality that I see on here. I just can pick out what it is that I don't like with it so I was hoping I could borrow your more experienced eyes to tell me what it is and if/ how I could fix it. 
This shot was taken with my cannon s90. 
Thanks in advance for your help.


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## Biggs88 (Dec 9, 2010)

I think it looks good. Would you mind if I play with it in Lightroom? Although I don't really know what im doing, its fun as hell.


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## ghache (Dec 9, 2010)

Biggs88 said:


> I think it looks good. Would you mind if I play with it in Lightroom? Although I don't really know what im doing, its fun as hell.


 
Right click, save as,


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## Marc-Etienne (Dec 9, 2010)

Personally, I would say a bit more contrast to get more depth in the snake's mouth. More talented people would probably be able to say more, but from my noob's eye, I would say it would be a good start. Nothing you can do about it now, but if the background would be a little less busy. If you would had been able to use dark part on the left as background, the snake would capture more the attention and less would the brown wood behind it. More contrast with the background help focusing on your subject. Something to think about next time I guess!

Awesome capture by the way! How close this lovely thing was away from you?


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## Marc-Etienne (Dec 9, 2010)

I'm new to PP, but here is what I did. Nothing I can do for the background. What I did is a bit of sharpening, color boost and put the head perfectly vertical. Don't know if you think it's better. I only took 1 min.


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## Person (Dec 9, 2010)

Marc-Etienne said:


> I'm new to PP, but here is what I did. Nothing I can do for the background. What I did is a bit of sharpening, color boost and put the head perfectly vertical. Don't know if you think it's better. I only took 1 min.



You can try cutting the snake as a new layer, then de-saturating the background to bring out the greens of the snake; so there won't be a clashing of the bright greens against the warmer orange.


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## Marc-Etienne (Dec 9, 2010)

Person said:


> Marc-Etienne said:
> 
> 
> > I'm new to PP, but here is what I did. Nothing I can do for the background. What I did is a bit of sharpening, color boost and put the head perfectly vertical. Don't know if you think it's better. I only took 1 min.
> ...



Please don't give me more reasons not to work!:lmao: My master thesis won't write itself unfortunately! It would be worth it to try on the full resolution picture. It wouldn't be too hard of a cut to do. I'm not going to try on the low resolution, but at least that gives snakeguy a start point.


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## Biggs88 (Dec 9, 2010)

Heres my lightroom try:


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## Snakeguy101 (Dec 9, 2010)

okay, how is this?






For some reason when I upload them, the colors get messed up. It is much nicer looking (somewhere in between the original colors and Biggs88 colors) on my computer but you get the idea...


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## Snakeguy101 (Dec 9, 2010)

Marc-Etienne said:


> Personally, I would say a bit more contrast to get more depth in the snake's mouth. More talented people would probably be able to say more, but from my noob's eye, I would say it would be a good start. Nothing you can do about it now, but if the background would be a little less busy. If you would had been able to use dark part on the left as background, the snake would capture more the attention and less would the brown wood behind it. More contrast with the background help focusing on your subject. Something to think about next time I guess!



Okay, thanks I will definitely keep that in mind next time.




Marc-Etienne said:


> Awesome capture by the way! How close this lovely thing was away from you?


The picture was taken with the camera mounted on a tripod that I was holding out vertically and set on a timer so I did not have to get my fingers within striking range. I took about a hundred pictures of her but this is the only one that I think turned out pretty good and in focus. If I had a better camera that would allow for a decent zoom lens I think I would have been able to get some more but I am limited by my budget right now.


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## daarksun (Dec 9, 2010)

Okay. I'll play. This is a great image to photoshop around with. I increased the texture, detail, contrast and concentrated on bring out the colors in the snake's mouth.


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## contyler (Dec 9, 2010)

That thing could bite your head. It could even swallow you with your camera.


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## Snakeguy101 (Dec 9, 2010)

contyler said:


> That thing could bite your head. It could even swallow you with your camera.



haha, she is still under 2' and is about full grown. She is fat but not THAT fat...:mrgreen:


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## ddbowdoin (Dec 10, 2010)

daarksun said:


> Okay. I'll play. This is a great image to photoshop around with. I increased the texture, detail, contrast and concentrated on bring out the colors in the snake's mouth.


 

I WISH I had PS skills like this, wow!


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## medic24 (Dec 11, 2010)




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## Dominantly (Dec 11, 2010)

I digg the shot! I mean the action and the way you framed it totally work for me.
I think if I were to have to suggest something to try to improve it, it would be lighting next time. But with that comes extra expenses.

I do think that with the shot the way it is, you have a bit too much in the warm category, maybe that is a heat light or something, but it just kind of blends together. The snake obviously grabs your attention, but the rest of the shot just kind of blends together.
Took a whack at it, pulled the image into 3 parts, mouth, body, background. Did a high contrast B&W on the background and then layered it over the original with 71% opacity (desaturated it). Then the body was desaturated a bit and hit with some level adjustments. Then I used Viveza 2 to edit it's mouth.


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## daarksun (Dec 11, 2010)

ddbowdoin said:


> daarksun said:
> 
> 
> > Okay. I'll play. This is a great image to photoshop around with. I increased the texture, detail, contrast and concentrated on bring out the colors in the snake's mouth.
> ...


 
Thanks. Just practice constantly. I am still learning, lol


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## point-&-shoot (Dec 12, 2010)

i kept scrolling down and seeing the same pic but everytime i saw it i almost jumped backwards.


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## Kunstler (Dec 24, 2010)

not sure if its within the "rules" (this is my first Post on here) but For me the picture was much more of a snap shot...and you were asking for Critques and comments so for me what differed it from a powerful image and a snap shot was composition.  So now since it is what it is in the file/film you can always help it it along.

I figured its within the rules since your willing to edit color and other things...so why not crop in closer to the snake and just take out that background.  Not saying crop down to just the snakes mouth, but rather down the the point where the background isn't as distracting, you still get a snese of space/location, but the snake is far more invading the personal space of the viewer.

I messed around in lightroom with it, but trying to figure out how to put it in the response without posting it on the web somewhere else...

I don't know...I feel if it was cropped in, it would make ever more of a "oh holy crap a snake" effect.


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## kanskanos (Jan 4, 2011)

think it looks good. Would you mind if I play with it in Lightroom?  Although I don't really know what im doing, its fun as hell.


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## Snakeguy101 (Jan 4, 2011)

kanskanos said:


> think it looks good. Would you mind if I play with it in Lightroom?  Although I don't really know what im doing, its fun as hell.



Have fun with it, I don't mind.


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## MichiganFarts (Jan 4, 2011)

Fiddled with it a sec...probably made the background too dark, but that's what happens when you just fiddle.


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## Shawnda (Jan 6, 2011)

daarksun said:


> Okay. I'll play. This is a great image to photoshop around with. I increased the texture, detail, contrast and concentrated on bring out the colors in the snake's mouth.
> 
> 
> 
> Ridiculous skills man .. ridiculous!


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## willis_927 (Jan 6, 2011)

daarksun said:


> Okay. I'll play. This is a great image to photoshop around with. I increased the texture, detail, contrast and concentrated on bring out the colors in the snake's mouth.


 
This is really well done IMO. The others were good to, but this one looks much more realistic. I also wish I had photoshop skills like this!


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## Fern (Jan 6, 2011)

<P>I cropped the photo to the beginning of the coil on the left and just past the first red triangle on&nbsp;the right of the mouth - don't know how to post it though.&nbsp; It is quite a bit more dramatic.</P>


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## Snakeguy101 (Jan 6, 2011)

Fern said:


> <P>I cropped the photo to the beginning of the coil on the left and just past the first red triangle on&nbsp;the right of the mouth - don't know how to post it though.&nbsp; It is quite a bit more dramatic.</P>



To post you have to upload it to photobucket or flikr or some other sort of photo sharing website then post the link here. I look forward to seeing your edit.


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## HopeNFotos (Jan 6, 2011)

Wow this picture is amazing. And with the people that helped you with editing ideas..it turned out great 
Scared me to death when I got down to the last few really good ones..looks almost 3D in a way


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## vitaminj08 (Jan 29, 2011)

If you run out of ideas, you can always try some actions.


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