Offending foot

[cainam]

Seems to me that now you have an 'offending paw' (hind leg) instead of an 'offending foot'.
You blurred the carpet, and not the paw on it. Looks very unnatural.

Compare it to Ant's, and you'll see what I mean.

[Britsdad]

Well spotted Mark.....(just testing you all )
How's this.
John

[Oh_Heck]

Personally, I think the shoe is still a big distraction and looks really artificial just dimming it like that. If you are going to dim the background like that just take the foot out entirely, fix the chair leg where the foot overlaps and make the area where the person is a single dark color.

[Britsdad]

Oh_Heck....yea I think you have a point....I am wondering if my cousin will consider a square rather than a landscape pic, even though the foot is still visible, see below.
John

[Oh_Heck]

Well, it still looks like the foot is intentionally trying to be 'hidden'. I'm curious why your cousin wants it in a landscape layout. None of the details on either side of the dog compliment the image for a portrait, which is why you see several folks crop it first thing, and dim or blur the backdrop.

The one I did earlier I took the people out entirely as well as the stool, and replaced it with a sofa blurred and darkened.

Are you nervous about taking the foot out? I'm just curious cause its in all your shots despite your cousins request to remove it.

Also...what about taking the furniture out of the scene, and just have the dog on the carpet, and have the carpet fade into a black backdrop...

Something has to be done with it to take it from a snapshot to a portrait.

[MoPulldogs]

here is another way to approach it

[Britsdad]

Oh_Heck, The landscape thing, she has got a huge wall space to fill and who am I to argue (you don't know my cousin, she's a theatre sister and all the consultants are carefull when she's around )
No I'm no nervous about "killing the foot" it's just that I like to explore all the avenues But as you say, I think it's going to have to go! however that's going to have to wait untill the weekend now cause I'm on 12 hour nights the rest of the week.
See you guys later.....John

[Britsdad]

Oh...I couldn't leave it alone
Here's the foot killed version and a square layout too, I think I'll have to try and change my cousin's mind about landscape.
Are there any comments?
Regards...John

[Oh_Heck]

I think that looks much better. You might want to have some of that carpet in focus up near the front of the dog and have the focus falloff from there. I like how you've brought the focus more towards the head by blurring the hind quarters a bit.

A landscape picture would work, if the dog was laying more at an angle, or sideways in the shot to justify having that extra visual space.

[lurch]

Much better! Now if you'd darken those light rectangles in the upper left corner . . .

[Photo678]

lol, sorry, i just couldn't help but giggle a little at the topic title...hehehe

[Britsdad]

Best one I could think of at the time
Edit....by the way, thankyou everyone for your time and effort in helping me with this project......John