I really love this style of photography—there’s action, my dog is running, and her expression captures the moment perfectly. The composition is precise, but I also recognize the drawbacks, both in terms of the shot itself and the editing.

The photo was taken in RAW, so I can re-edit it, but I’d really appreciate constructive criticism on how to improve it. It was shot with a relatively inexpensive 150-600mm telephoto lens, so I had to boost the contrast, and the final edit may have turned out too dark. I’d love any tips on how to enhance it and learn as much as possible.

This shot is truly meaningful to me, and I want to improve for the future.

C: NIKON D7500 

L: Tamron for Nikon SP 150-600mm f/5-6.3 Di VC USD G2

F: 160mm

ISO: 125

A: f/5

S: 1/2000 sec.

Hello, Yuri

welcome to our forum and thank you for sharing your image with us. I think it's a great image and I Can understand how meaningful this kind of image can be for a person who boat has love for pets and is addicted to photography. I think there's not much to worry about the image and the editing. I like the composition and the high shutter speed Really gave you a  great outcome. I have got a very easy to apply suggestion. if this for my image, I would slightly lower the highlights of the background, and after applying a mask onto the subject, I would carefully enhance slightly to exposure, like + 0,5-1, and then carefully increase the value of the shadows. While increasing the shadows on the subject, please be careful not to lose too much contrast in the whole subject. If the subject becomes paler, stop it and agreeable amount of highlighting the shadows and try to apply some dodging and burning to on some dark areas that might need some more lightning up. The aim of this is to see a bit more detail in the dark areas of your dog. After that you might try Some tonal contrast on the whole image. If you think lightning shadows, makes the editing to visible, at the stage when you selected the subject try to adjust the white balance on the subject. Slightly giving the subject a warmer light light naturally lighten it up while preserving colors. Then you can work on some dodging and burning to bring detail into the subject. if you have any further questions, I would love to answer them. I wish you good light. ..CICEK.

Hello Yuri

Thank you for sharing your Wild and Free photo with us which understandably means a lot to you. Cicek has already given you excellent advice. My initial reaction was that the area around the dog's eyes was too dark and I wanted to bring out more detail so I increased the definition and contrast as well as brightening the image. The increased contrast has also given a darker background to the splashing water.

Good light, Elizabeth

Hello, Yuri. 

Many of my best friends / family have been dogs and yours looks lovely; please give your dog my best wishes - few models on 1X look as good.

You identified the main problem: under-exposure and Elizabeth then corrected it beautifully. I think I might be tempted to take her modifications a little further, even, by considerably darkening the background and, perhaps, even brightening your dog's forehead more, if that works.  The problem, for me, is that the (beautiful) background is trying to steel our attention from the main subject. I also think having your dog just a tad smaller in the canvas might improve the overall image.

I see you used a 600mm lens toward the lower end. That is great (I tend to shoot long, too) but have you tried a Nifty-Fifty, too? Great portrait lens. Most toggers of human portraits recommend 85mm and that can also work-well with dogs.

Under no circumstances do I want to endanger your dog (please leave his name disc on, etc) but if you could remove its harness for photograpjing, that would be great. Look how much of your photograph is showing harness, as opposed to dog and you'll see what I mean. (NB This comment does have hipocracy because I have shot many photographs of my late dog with harness attached - the harness needs to be there sometimes for the dog's safety, I appreciate that).

Finally, these nit-picks should not undermine what is a great shot - you went low and did a good job: well done and thank you and your fab model.

Cheerio.