portrait of a squirrel monkey.....and a bonus photo.....feedback appreciated.....

[Gato Moteado]

...and by feedback, i mean constructive criticism. i'm trying to create art.

[Bayard]

1. These are wonderful!

Maybe just center the little guy a bit more in the bottom pic. Move the border on the right over to the outside edge of that big leaf.

Thanks for sharing! I always appreciate your photos.

[blm]

2. I agree.

[Gato Moteado]

4. thank you.....

....OK....this can be a learning experience for all of us. generally, i use the rule of thirds for composition...or something as close to it as possible. for tightly cropped portraits, like the top photo, rule of thirds generally is usually not appropriate. but for the bottom pic, i tried to get the monkey's right eye into the upper left intersection but, as you probably noticed, the out of focus leaf on the right would be even more noticeable....so i shifted everything more to the right:



here is the unprocessed and uncropped frame so you can see what i had to work with.....the subject was framed on each side by out of focus palm fronds in the foreground.



i didn't want to crop more than i already had because it was a fairly high ISO shot and that cut into the detail. negative space in the direction the subject is looking into or facing (both laterally and vertically) is usually more pleasing, so i opted to have him closer to the left side because of that. i guess it can be cropped into a tight square to make everything work and that would be appropriate for IG. still, i'm open to other ideas....here is the uncropped, unprocessed frame without red marks if you want to play with it:

[mopinko]

3. the rule of thirds, my friend.

the rule of thirds.
the eye enters a pic in the lower left corner. your goal is always to pull the eye in a circle, through the picture.

[Gato Moteado]

5. hey mo.....rule of thirds is usually what i shoot for....

....i'm kind of a one trick pony that way. it basically just divides the frame into 3 equal sections horizontally and vertically for you to position your subject. additionally, the four points of intersection of the 6 sections are where the viewers eyes look first. i tried to get the monkey's right eye into the upper left intersection but distracting out of focus stuff to the right made me shift the image to the right to push that distraction farther away from an area of attention:



i think the rule of composition you are referring to is the fibonacci spiral rule:

https://www.picturecorrect.com/how-to-use-the-fibonacci-spiral-for-better-compositions/

anyway, here is the uncropped, unprocessed frame if you want to have a crack at cropping this one:

[mopinko]

6. cant post pics, but

did look at it. if u lopped off that whole rt column, and brought down the top margin, it’s pretty compelling.
that tail drags u in.