Dog Shots, complete noob!

[Mepher]

I just recieved my Rebel XT tonight and its my first DSLR. In fact, prior to this I only had a crappy P&S that I rarely ever used. Photography is completely new to me. I spent the last week reading these forums non-stop while I waited for my camera to arrive. Once I got home from work today and the camera was here I immediately put the battery on to charge and then set to taking about 100 pics of my dogs.

So without further ado, let me know how good or bad these are.

50mm, 1/25, F2, ISO 400

http://shadyswashbucklers.com/photos/Picture-001.jpg


50mm, 1/50, F1.8, ISO 800
http://shadyswashbucklers.com/photos/Picture-033.jpg


50mm, 1/60, F1.8, ISO 800
http://shadyswashbucklers.com/photos/Picture-037.jpg


50mm, 1/60, F1.8, ISO 800
http://shadyswashbucklers.com/photos/Picture-055.jpg


50mm, 1/40, F1.8, IS0 800
http://shadyswashbucklers.com/photos/Picture-066.jpg

I have no previous experience at all with a SLR of any kind so im learning exposure entirely by trying things. These were all taken this evening with no flash and only moderate room lighting. All were taken with a 50mm f1.8.

[Titus213]

Welcome to the forums! Based on these images I would think this is not your first run in with an SLR, they look pretty good to me. They are sharp, well lit, well composed, and cute. Very nice stuff, especially for a beginner. The DOF is rather narrow on a couple but it works for me. That last one is really nice.

[Mepher]

Based on these images I would think this is not your first run in with an SLR, they look pretty good to me.

Hehe I will take that as a great compliment since it truely is my first time every using a SLR. I used a Minolta Maxxum 7000 a few years ago when I was in Vegas for a week but I had absolutely no understanding of exposure and the shots look like garbage. I just spent an absurd amount of time reading these forums this week while I was waiting for my camera to show up.

When shooting with such a narrow DOF am I better off manually focusing. I noticed the first couple shots didn't focus on the subjects quite as much as I would have liked. I have to say though I love that Nifty Fifty for indoor low lighting conditions. Today im going to play with the kit lens and a friends 75-300USM in good lighting and try some nature shots.

[dlphotography]

Nice pics!

Here is my one and only dog shot:

http://www.tanggfx.com/photo/pics/dog.jpg

haha don't laugh - i know it looks like a bunny

[Dilligaf]

Very good first shots. I particularly like the way the lighting has worked. Reminds me of those animal drawings that are set in a pub around a snooker table, do you know which ones I mean ?

[Mepher]

What type of dog is that dlphotography?

[Picture North Carolina]

Welcome to potn, Mepher.

I don't know if it was intentional or not, but the white balance is off on all pics due to the ambient room lighting as the corrected pic below shows. If it was not intentional, you can get a better white balance rendering by using one of the white balance presets (I assume the XT has them) depending upon the lighting you are in. /Dan

[Mepher]

No it wasn't intentional at all. I will play around with the White Balance today and see what I can come up with. Maybe its just me but I actually liked the warm colors in the original but it wasn't anything I did intentionally.

As soon as I got my camera I put it right in AV mode, played with the F-stop settings, ISO and shutter speed. Never once even messed with the WB settings.

[MikeMcL]

I really like #3 it is especially nice.

White balance is what is causing the yellow tint, as said above. They are exposed well and very nice.

[Titus213]

Shoot raw. You can always fix WB after the fact. I like my images on the warm side, warmer than an accurate WB would give me I think.

[ladrones]

How did you get your airedork to sit still?

[Mepher]

Well the Aierdale (sp) and the tri-color Cavalier belong to my father. The Blenheim is mine. So when they all get together the Cavaliers play and the Aierdale pouts. She pretty much just sits and watches the other two.

[ladrones]

Thats cool, my airedale likes to romp so it's hard to get a photo. Nice pics btw.

[pagefile]

I would agree with CannedHeat that your WB is off. His edit made the shot look much better.

[Mepher]

Messed around with a couple more this morning. Instead of using Auto WB I changed it to tungsten and shot some pics. WB is still off and I changed it a little after. Are these shots looking better? Im not worried about composition, im just trying to get my WB settings right.

[Jubilee32]

Nothing beter than Cavaliers. Last attempt looks like the color is off. The shot looks wide open so nose is in sharp focus but eyes are off. I prefer the opposite since Cavs have large protruding eyes but the shot is fun. (Ours is black/tan)

[Ryan93se]

i dont mind the wide open shots (although i tend to like a smaller DOF than most) however i think next time you should focus on the eyes and then let everything else go out of focus. nice shots :)

[thrumyeye]

I like your last 2 posted photos better as far as color. The first were too warm for me also. These shots are great for color balance, in my opinion.

As for the focus, I like the nose in focus and the rest out of focus, but I'm guessing the eyes in focus would provide for a great shot as well.

Great job identifying and then correcting the white balance!

[Dan-o]

Looks good. I too only have one dog shot.
http://stantoneagles.com/me/d1.jpg

[Mepher]

I think I have a much better grip on my white balance issues now. Took this shot tonight with the focus on the eyes like you guys suggested. Btw...whats the best way to shrink jpegs without losing too much color? Shrank this to 800pixels and it was still too big for an attachment and saving lower quality just looked off in the colors so I ended up just shrinking it to 600p width. Is there a better way?

[thrumyeye]

In Photoshop you can use the File>>Save for Web option. Although I have no technical explanation of what it does - I know it's what everyone on the forum has said and it works to preserve your details, while decreasing the image size.