Dog photo help?- focus and exposure

[jnbradley]

Maybe someone can help me with my rescue dog pics. I take pics of small dogs- usually Poms or Chihuahuas on a chair in my living room with a medium purple blanket (wifes preference) over the chair. Little or no daylight available- only a ceiling fan light in room. These are just for the web, but it's very annoying to not get great pics with the equipment I have(rookie!).

I have a 50D/50mm 1.4 with 580ex that I bounce off the white ceiling with the bounce card up for catchlight. One problem here is that even with the flash compensation cranked up to +3, I am usually underexposed. Most shots are f5.6, 6.3 and 1/160 or 1/200. Camera is about 6ft. away from subject. Seems like I'm making a major goof here to not be able to expose this right. Any suggestions?

The other continuing problem I have is with focus. If I have help/handler/wife to position dog, I can hold the camera and of course focus on eyes and get good shots. But often I am left on my own, so I attach the remote shutter release so I can keep dog on chair and it's attention towards camera. I've been turning all focus points on because I have no way of knowing where the subject will be in the frame with this method. So, obviously it's very hit and miss, some dogs have just the right color/contrast to attract the focus to a good spot, others it's potluck as to where the focus point ends up. Is this the best I can hope for like this- just take lots of shots and hope for the best- or is there a way to improve on this?

I hope I've given you enough info to decipher my mistakes- thanks for any help anyone can offer.

Jim

[advaitin]

My first thought is manual focus--prefocus on the spot where the dogs head is normally. Use manual setting or AV with your aperture at f16, adjust your ISO until you get pleasing results with the flash, using your remote release. It's just a matter of experimenting a bit. You also might have to take the flash off auto.

[skygod]

I reccommend you spend some time at strobist to learn more about using your flash. Here is the link:
http://www.strobist.blogspot.com/
I think your images will improve greatly using off camera flash with light stands and umbrellas.
You can learn everything you need to know from the strobist website.
Try using just one focus point and manual focus with the eyes as the primary point of focus.
As a rule of thumb to start with I measure ambiant light. Lets say f2 at 1/60. I then set my camera to manual and shoot 2 stops underexposed which would be f2 at 1/250. I then adjust my flash for the look I am trying to get.

[BaliHai]

Hi Jim, I do the shots for our local humane society both dogs and cats with an occasional rabbit to put up on the website. I shoot with flash bounced and push the ISO as needed to get a good exposure at 5.6 to 7 depending on how in focus the tip of the nose needs to be when focusing on the eyes. These are not ideal conditions but you make do in rescues. I always shoot with help, good photos cannot be achieved when you have to wrangle the pet as well as work behind the camera. These photos are what gets the adopter to come in to the shelter and adopt so we do all we can to get them there.

[advaitin]

Just for the heck of it, here's my pound puppy, Babe, a general mutt. I was testing a closeup filter on the 70-200mm f4 L IS mounted on a 50D. ISO 3200, no flash, under fluorescent lighting, 183mm, 1/13s @ f14.

The focus starts on the hair just in front of the eyes and barely includes the eyes. As you can see I had the kind assistance of my wife.

[jnbradley]

Sorry, I didn't check back on this sooner. Thanks all for the great suggestions.
I'll definately try to not do it all myself- that is adding to my problems.

Since I'll then be able to hold the camera- I can go back to one focus point- but I don't see manual focus being very useful. Dogs are a moving target- you have to anticipate the look in the direction you want and then it only lasts a split second- or less. OK- maybe one caveat- if it's too dark for the auto-focus it will be very slow- got it!

I have had the flash off camera and bounced but in TTL mode and not with the ambient in mind. You're talking "dragging the shutter"- right? The flash will stop the action even though the shutter speed is slow- if I have that right.

I have read on Strobist some but it obviously hasn't sunk in. I'll try these ideas and see what happens.

I was contemplating an umbrella to use with the flash- but I'm thinking that not understanding the why right now is more of a problem than needing more "stuff".

I'll go see how I can do now- Thank-you all very much.

Jim