Coco and Isabelle - Mini-Dachschunds - C&C Please

[PMatthes]

All taken within about 5 minutes...w/ a single 580EXII bouncing off the ceiling. Very minimal PP, nothing more than adjusting levels.

C&C Please...

1. Coco
http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3265/2730773994_37e251be1c_b.jpg

2. Isabelle
http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3130/2729946699_53857a86d5_b.jpg

3. Isabelle's face closer...
http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3117/2729963603_576f8ecb5d_b.jpg

[Radtech1]

They are all... well... let's just say the phrase "Room for Improvement" applies.

Not even taking into account the focus issues, the lifeless lighting, the poor background choice (brown on brown?), the major reason why these shot have very little interest is that you have taken them from the same point of view we always see pets (and children) and that is with the camera (viewer) looking down on them and them looking up.

Do you want me to get interested in the dog's world? Then PUT ME in the dog's world. Get down to their eye level and shoot horizontal.

Rad

[PMatthes]

They are all... well... let's just say the phrase "Room for Improvement" applies.

Not even taking into account the focus issues, the lifeless lighting, the poor background choice (brown on brown?), the major reason why these shot have very little interest is that you have taken them from the same point of view we always see pets (and children) and that is with the camera (viewer) looking down on them and them looking up.

Do you want me to get interested in the dog's world? Then PUT ME in the dog's world. Get down to their eye level and shoot horizontal.

Rad
Thanks for the comments... just for the record, these were just "spur of the moment" shots, so I didn't have a chance to set up umbrellas for better lighting. These were taken within about 5 minutes, which explains the lighting with a single bounced flash. It was in a kitchen with about 5 other people in it, so getting perfect angles was a challenge. I absolutely agree with the eye level comment, and will try this next time... I should be doing a formal photoshoot with props, lighting and backgrounds sometime this winter...

As for the focus issues, do you believe there are issues in 1 & 2? I know 3 was slightly OOF and soft, but thought the other two were pretty good...

[Radtech1]

As for the focus issues, do you believe there are issues in 1 & 2? I know 3 was slightly OOF and soft, but thought the other two were pretty good...


Even though the dog's faces are in focus, there is too much of the dog that is out of focus. The percentage of in focus to out of focus is the problem. Now you can get away with that, if the background is the part of the shot that is out of focus, but it is much harder to aesthetically justify the subject being that out of focus.

Put another way, if the whole dog is in the shot, the whole dog is the subject and should be in focus. If the subject is the dog's face, then don't show me the whole dog. Decide on the subject, and compose accordingly.

Rad