My 3 monsters :)

[ClaudioG]

Ok..i'm not one to usually do pet photos..cos basically..i think i suck , But here's some few attempts, i've seen trully great pet images on this site, so im hoping to get alooooot of critique, i'd really like to get alot outta my pets, they have sooo much attitude between them, the more u take images of them, the more u know exactly what face its pulling. Strange how a pet has faces.. but its TRUE!!! So please..go crazy..please tell me how to improve.

Does using a black background and flash help? like a portrait set up ?

Im also struggling with the black of the peeks and the white of my husky( which im crazy about, man my dog has so much attitude, queen of all )

I find the black comes out blue? Maybe someone can give me advice on post production on the Dogs? i've played a little with levels, curves, and sharpening on eacj image. All shots taken at about 1/160th sec , f 2.8-f 8, ISO 200. with Tamron 90mm macro lens.

I believe getting down to there lvl improves photos, so gave that a shot... i think it does help ?

Would any other type of lens help?


#1 Moemfy


#2 Gizmo


#3 Gizmo


#4 Moemfy


#5 This dog, im crazy about. 1st day she completely avoided me as a pup when i got her. She's been at my side ever since.

Kisha




As you can see..im struggling with blacks..Moemfy( # 1 and # 4) looks different...Gizmo (2 and 3) is ok..i think..but not exact, and Kisha #5 is erm..yellow..not white? HEEELLPPP



Oh...and one last thing, frames... how ? what? where?

[rpcrowe]

Claudio... When I read your headline, I thought I'd see pictures of kids...

Great looking dogs! Yep, black dogs are hard to shoot followed (for the exact opposite reason) by difficulties shooting white dogs. I end up adding exposure to images of black dogs and it is handy to have a white balance target (like the WhiBal) included in one of your shots. I don't worry about that with my white dogs because I use their white coat as a white balance target. After-all, it is the dog that I want white!

Getting down to a dogs level is good. The problem with shooting at the dogs level is we often include a distracting background (see comments of DOF late in this post). I have a sloping bank of ice plant on my property that makes an effective seamless background and allows me to be at the dog's level without bending or stooping and prevents the BG from being distracting...



Having someone to help guide and control the dog is another handy thing. However, my Goldendoodle is mellow and will stay anywhere I place her. This is definitely not the case with my little dogs.

I almost always use fill flash when shooting dogs. Flash both opens deep set eyes (like on my doodle) and provides catch lights in the eyes. I will bounce my hotshoe mounted flash into a Joe Demb Flash Diffuser Pro both outdoors and indoors. Indoors, I have the FlipIt portion straight up while outdoors (or whenever there is no ceiling off which to bounce) I have the FlipIt tilted at about 45-degrees forward. BTW: I always shoot my dogs in the horizontal mode and will then crop to vertical or square format if needed. When I have a horizontal image, I can use it for a calendar picture. My 7D allows a very decent vertical crop out of a horizontal image...

I like to shoot with the least distracting background possible or use a long focal length lens and widest f/stop to blur out the background. Contrary to general opinion, you can blur the background with an f/4 lens. This was shot with a 1.6x crop camera at 165mm using f/5.6 on my 70-200mm f/4L IS lens. You have blurred the BG quite effectively in your shots.



Finally, shooting many exposures can be the ticket. I probably have a 1:10 or less keeper ratio when shooting dogs. Usually the problem is not with the photography but with the expression/positioning of the dog...



Sometimes a squeak toy will attract the dog's attention and make it look alert...

The dog will tell me when it is tired of the shooting and I don't press it...

Finally, always having a camera loaded and set up ready to grab that "great image" is important!

[Kris V]

I leave the recommendations to more experienced members. Just want to say I love # 2 and #5.
Kisha is one gorgeous dog!

[deetheturk]

Hi Claudio,not qualified on this to give advice but Richard has given you a lot of good tips.Lovely dogs mate!

Cheers David

[ClaudioG]

Thank you all for your comments and Richard a very big thank you for the great advice!! As far as shutter speeds go for some movement from my pets? If I want head sharp and rest with movement..what settings could I use? I have a Nikon D5100