Doggy portraits

[PhotoByTrace]

It was the local agility club's Christmas break-up and I got to take lots of doggy portraits. I ran out of light waaay too soon, but had an absolute ball till then
These are my three (or four ) favourites... I welcome any and all feedback. And since I've recently discovered my glasses need replacing, don't hesitate to let me know if these are too sharp or vice versa .

[rpcrowe]

These are lovely images of some great looking dogs with wonderful expressions. However, on my monitor they seem a bit over exposed. This is especially true of the last image with both white dogs blown out. The images can be played with in post processing. I just realized that I haven't calibrated my monitor in quite a while so, I cannot be sure regarding the brightness...

I like the way you got down to the dogs eye level to shoot these. It provides a connection with the dogs. However, the cropping seems a TAD awkward to me... Either closer crops (providing head and shoulders views) or looser crops showing more of each dog might be more pleasing...

I played with cropping the image of the border collie, right below the lead clip (with side crops adjusted to balance out the image). I also toned down the brightness of the image, used the clone stamp to eliminate the distracting lead clip and increased the vibrance a bit. The result was a wonderful head shot of this beautiful dog.

On the other hand, cropping an image is a very personal thing. Show five different photographers the same image and they just might end up with five different, but equally as good, crops...

BTW: I often like to use fill flash wen shooting dogs...

[PhotoByTrace]

Hi Richard,
I just wanted to say Thank You for your comments and feedback, and to apologise for not replying and thanking you sooner. I posted these up a couple of nights before I moved house. It was bedlum for a week or so. And then it was Christmas. And then New Year. Then away for a week. And now I'm back at work and have finally got back to CinC and found it has already been over a month. I've read through your comments and while I haven't had a chance to re-edit the photos, I've taken on board your suggestions. I do like to push the brightness as far as I can. It is a style I like. None of the whites were blown, but looking at them now, the details were getting lost in the brightness and certainly should have been brought back a bit. I too need to recalibrate my monitor after my move... but damned if I can find my Spyder yet.
Anyway... thank you for taking the time to consider, to play with and to give this feedback!

[Letrow]

Lovely shots Trace, sharpness looks fine. I agree with Richard on the crop and the overexposure. The first three llok ok, but the last one is a bit overexposed. The crop is personal taste, but I noticed myself looking for the legs.

[mknittle]

Thanks Trace, nice shots.