How could I have made this a better photo.

10/26/2004 08:56:11 AM · #1

Besides, not cutting her head off and getting my knee in the photo!
Do you think it is overexposed?

Message edited by author 2004-10-26 08:56:39.

moodville

Nikon D100

10/26/2004 09:15:19 AM · #2

Chopping off part of the head isnt always a bad thing, especially if you're doing a full frame close-up. The knee is bad, though :P Is it a black dog? Black dogs are a pain to expose right. I'm guessing you used the flash too? You have details in the fur but the head is a little bright, although it is the eyes that make it look somewhat like a flashed snapshot. I'm assuming this is your dog and you can reshoot it at will, but you could still play around with this image some. Try cropping out your knee and even making a square image by cropping close to the side of the head too. You could also try painting the white circles in the eyes black and add a little catchlight so they dont look too flat and dead. Playing around with levels, curves, and contrast should help with the tone/lightness issue some.

Canon EF 24-105mm f/4.0L IS

10/26/2004 09:23:10 AM · #3

Thank you :-) Yep, she is a black dog. I will try some of the techniques you suggested, just to get practice and to see how it comes out. She is my dog, and I always taking pictures of her. I never get the eyes right, when I take pictures of here. Should I change the exposure compensastion to get the eyes better?

Thanks

suemack

Canon EOS-20D

10/26/2004 09:33:19 AM · #4

Love the expression in her face :) I try to avoid using the flash when taking dog photos, that way it's easier to capture that lovely soulful look they have. Great part with her being yours is that for a titbit she'll be a willing model for hours.

sue

myqyl

Nikon D3100

Nikon AF-S Nikkor 18-55mm f/3.5-5.6G DX VR

10/26/2004 09:37:31 AM · #5

2 things, but first a disclaimer... "I ain't no expert :) Take any advice I give with a grain of salt"

I have a black lab and I feel your pain. I try to avoid using flash whenever possible as it leaves hot spots all over him and gives him "Demon Eye"... My wife says that's his soul showing through, but I'm not sure what she means by that. I try to meter off his fur and let the background be a little overexposed.

The second thing is the background. I found the power-strip on the floor to be worse than the knee. The knee isn't great, but the power chords are worse. At least to me.

She's a beautiful puppy :) Keep shooting and I'm sure you'll get some great shots... If you find anything that works real well, please post them here... I can use some help on the dreaded "Black Dog Exposure" problem too :)

Message edited by author 2004-10-26 09:38:37.

Plexxoid

Canon EOS-30D

Canon EF 70-200mm f/2.8L IS USM

10/26/2004 09:54:53 AM · #6

Assuming you shot with an SD110, I'm not sure there's much you can do. I would suggest not using a flash, and picking a background without distracting objects in it. If you're going for a close-up on the face, zoom all the way out, put it on macro mode, put the nose in the lower third-line*, and the eyes on the upper third-line. Probably a good idea to do this outside. I kind of doubt you could keep her still enough to follow these instructions...

*third-line: imagine your picture is divided into thirds, so now there are two imaginary horizontal lines evenly spaced from the edges of your picture and eachother. Put the eyes on the top line, and the nose on the bottom line. (divide all of your pictures into thirds both horizontally and vertically and put your subject on those lines, and you've got the rule of thirds!)

Neil

Fujifilm X-T30

Nikon AF-S NIKKOR 24-70mm f/2.8G ED

10/26/2004 09:57:36 AM · #7

Black dogs are difficult. We got a yellow lab to avoid this problem. ;)

The best thing you can do is to photograph outside where the light is best and natural. Indoors just make sure you have lots of light but not flash.

Every couple of frames give him/her a treat. My dog loves to pose as a result.

Plexxoid

Canon EOS-30D

Canon EF 70-200mm f/2.8L IS USM

10/26/2004 10:00:07 AM · #8

Originally posted by nshapiro:

Great picture, what lens did you use?

Gordon

RIM BlackBerry Curve

Canon EF 85mm f/1.8 USM

10/26/2004 10:19:44 AM · #9

Black dog:

Get down to the dog's level - so you aren't shooting 'down' but shooting at eye level. This works well for children too.

The dog is black, so you need to expose correctly. If the dog is the majority of the scene you'll need to use your camera's exposure compensation to bias the meter for a dark scene. Something around -1, -1.5 or -2 will work. It is worth bracketing around these values as the dog will not always be the whole scene. (your manual will explain how to do this)

Lighting: try and avoid using your on camera flash as a light source. At best on camera flash can be used outside, on a bright sunny day for some fill light. I'd strongly recommend not using it in any other situation if you can at all avoid it.

For a portrait like this, bright, overcast cloudy days, outside in early
morning, or late evening are perfect.

Also, you want to really try and pay attention to the background. Your camera probably doesn't have a lot of choices for creative depth of field control, so you want to find a clean, non-fussy background that will compliment your dog - a grassy mound or something would provide a
reasonably seamless backdrop - or even a brick wall - just something that is consistant, not busy and not cluttered with items (like your floor is in this shot). A busy background distracts from the subject - getting a clean, continuous one will make a huge difference to your portraits - there are plenty of options if you look for them.

So get down low, get outside, try for better lighting and use the metering features on your camera.

Try any one of these and see how it goes - add one new thing each time.
Hope it helps you. Most of this advice works equally well for portraits of people too.

Message edited by author 2004-10-26 10:23:50.

Koriyama

Nikon D200

Nikon AF Micro-Nikkor 60mm f2.8D

10/26/2004 10:21:47 AM · #10

While far from being perfect, I tried to follow Moodville's advice.

Neil

Fujifilm X-T30

Nikon AF-S NIKKOR 24-70mm f/2.8G ED

10/26/2004 10:32:32 AM · #11

Originally posted by Plexxoid:

Originally posted by nshapiro:
Black dogs are difficult. We got a yellow lab to avoid this problem. ;)

The best thing you can do is to photograph outside where the light is best and natural. Indoors just make sure you have lots of light but not flash.

Every couple of frames give him/her a treat. My dog loves to pose as a result.

Great picture, what lens did you use?

That was taken with my Canon G2 a while back.

10/26/2004 10:56:14 AM · #12

Thank you all!! I will try out all of the advice as soon as my DX7590 arrives :-)