Chloe

[deelee]

I'm kind of new to this so I want to get some C&C on these photos I took of my dog. Please let me know how they are. Thx!

[tonydee]

Probably a good idea to post the EXIF data. If possible given available light, a deeper depth of field (i.e. a small aperture, hence slower shutter and/or higher ISO) would have improved it for me. They seem sharpish around the eyes, but that's not enough area to satisfy the viewer's desire to look around your dog's face. And somehow, the eyes themselves aren't providing much contrast... even between the brown outer ring and the black centre it's an effort to look at. Whatever you can do with lighting and post-processing to bring out more in the eyes gives the viewer more to "connect" to.

Finally, crop the pictures closer to your dog's left ear... there's too much dead space on the right, which is distracting, leading the eye away. Try it out and the result will seem tighter, keeping the focus on your dog.

Cheers,
Tony

[deelee]

I cropped it and post processed a little. For some reason the originals I posted look more vibrant in iphoto than on here. Anyways the first one is 50mm 1/50 2.8 iso 100, the second one is 24mm 1/250 2.8 iso 100. Any other suggestions? THX!

[tonydee]

Ooops... you cropped from the wrong side. By dog's left ear, I mean it's actual left ear and not the ear on the left in the photo. As a rule, you generally want people, animals, cars etc. looking/facing into two-thirds of the image... gives a sense that there's somewhere for them to move or see into.

I'm not sure about iphoto... is that Mac software?

f/2.8 and is probably your lens' largest & fastest aperture... you'll get more depth of field by using a smaller one, and a sharper shot too down to about f/11. Given 1/250th of a second is much faster than necessary to avoid motion blur on a dog that's lying down and presumably being pretty still, you could stop down quite a bit. Could pop the ISO up to 200 without much adverse affect if the shutter speed is starting to get too slow.

Cheers, Tony

[jenabean4]

Pretty dog. I would recommend shooting her in front of a light background. I think it will make her colors pop more.

[deelee]

Thx for the input. Will continue to work on photos.

[HappySnapper90]

The contrast in your original versions were fine. You must not have a calibrated monitor because your reposted versions are far too dark.

My critique would be to have only posted one photo since they are very similar to each other. Being able to see 2 versions and "pick" one is something anyone that takes pictuers needs to learn.