Winter Shooting Advice

Aedai

No longer a newbie, moving up!
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I just adopted a beautiful border collie / heeler mix puppy five days ago and I wanted to take some shots of him outside.

I have a Nikon D3300 with a 50mm lens that I got for Christmas.

I one day wish to be a photographer but I'm still a far ways off, so I'm hobbying it until I'm more comfortable.

Back to my problem - I YouTube'd some tutorials on shooting in the winter time however this little rascal is FAST and I'm having a hard time getting him in focus. I have the lighting right for what I bet would be great for landscape photography.

I'm shooting in Manual mode but maybe I'm just not ready for that yet. Tips, tricks, and advice anyone can offer me?

This is my baby, by the way (shot with just my phone, but you can see why I want some real shots of him while he's still little, he's GORGEOUS!) His name is Newt!
tumblr_oivtn3oJVI1u6gbhro1_1280.jpg
 
how do you have your focus set, single, continuous, automatic, or manual? The best setting would probably be single point continuous. Cute doggy
 
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Awwwww. Newt is adorable. Will he be a herder?

Try continuous focus. I like single focus point and I pick the center one. If you have decent light, use shutter priority and start at 1/125 second, otherwise use sport mode (to start off with). You may need to go with auto ISO. Once you get more familiar with the exposure triangle, start dabbling with manual.
 
Oh my good, Newt is really "kewt" ;) I love the B&W border collies even more than the colored ones with the bright eyes. He will become an awesome dog - well, he is already ;).

Do you have snow outside? Snow and the white fur of a dog doesn´t mix too well, and may in general lead to underexposed images. Snowbear of course is right, your main issue besides focus will be shutter speed. 1/125th is still rather slow if the dog moves. You might have to go up pretty much.
Manual is a quite good start, but using shutter priority with auto ISO as snowbear suggests could work too - it depends a little how the camera handles snow. If you shoot manual, set the shutter speed to the desired value, the aperture to the lowest possible value and the ISO to 100 to start with. Take a test image and see where that gets you by checking the preview on the monitor (make sure you can trust your monitor though so before your first dog shooting take a few testshots and understand if the brightness of your monitor is similar to what you get when checking the image on the computer screen - be aware that in bright lighting condition, it is difficult to judge the camera monitor, you can use a piece of black cloth to put over your head to block the light to be on the safe side). I don´t want to bother you with the histogram for now (because your puppy is only that little for a few days or months, so learning photography is not your priority ;), but if you want to get serious, learn to know what the histogramm can tell you.
If the first image is too dark, rise the ISO.
Second Problem: focus. No secret, the better (and more expensive and more focus-specialized) the camera, and the lens the better the results. I don´t know much about the D 3300, but don´t get frustrated if you don´t have too many well focussed images - keep shooting and you´ll get the one or the other image in focus. More is more in this regard!!!
For these kind of shots I use continuous focus with a single focus point and of course try to focus on the one eye that is closer to the camera.
And the last suggestion is regading framing: get down to the dogs perspective - that will not only give you a more natural image, but may also help you with the dog not merging with the snow, but rather separate from the backgound - search for elevated spots (like small hills), where you may be able to photograph him in front of the blue sky, etc.
Here is an image of a border collie I shot recently. I used 1/2000sec | f4.0 | ISO400 - it was slightly overcast, but still rather bright. So on a sunny winters day you could even reduce the ISO, or increase the shutter speed even more (but as you see it isn´t necessary).
But it is much more difficult to get good shots of a puppy, because it is hard to know where he will be going to next ;)
Even with this image, you´ll see the problem of white fur. It looks as if it doesn´t have any detail on his nose and between the eyes, while in fact it is nowhere near pure white.
dog.jpg
 
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I like the above comment about keeping your finger on the trigger. "More is more". YES!!! KEEP shooting...just keep trying to get good framing, keep following him, and shoot,shoot,shoot, review LATER, at the computer. Do not miss shot opps by dinking around and chimping too much. Shoot!
 
Cute puppy. Remember that a snowy background can cause the camera to under expose. Add a stop or two of + exposure compensation and see what that does for you.
 
Notice that the snow is gray, not white there in post #5.

The light meter is calibrated for an average reflectance of 12% - 18%, and with a much higher actual reflectance from the snow the camera under exposes the scene. The opposite happens, over exposure, if the scene has a much lower than normal reflectance, like when taking a shot of a pile of coal.

We have to override the camera and add some Exposure Compensation (EC) if we want the exposure to be closer to accurate.
You can read about how to set exposure compensation on pages 118 & 119 of your D3300 Reference Manual that is on the software disc that came with your camera.

The default EC adjustment on your camera is in 1/3 EV steps.

Of course, you can also add exposure post process using whatever image editing application(s) you have.

Here I have added 1 stop (1 EV, or Exposure Value) of exposure to the entire photo (global edit) using Photoshop's Camera Raw.
newtedit_by_sweetlysecret-datvo38.jpg
 
Since Newt is FAST I think the primary thing you may want to watch is your Shutter Speed. The Shutter Speed is what stops motion, thus you don't get blurred shots. You may mistaken a blurred shot from a non-accurate focus.

If Newt is standing still 1/125 may be enough to get a nice and sharp image.
If Newt is running them 1/125 will only have a blurred shot. Using something faster such as 1/640 or 1/1000 will stop the action and provide a sharp image.

more info ==> Using Camera Shutter Speed Creatively
 
There are so many HELPFUL people here I love it!

Starting off, maybe I should've added this before - my SOOC:
DSC_0075_zpsaeumftai.jpg

My edit:
newtedit_by_sweetlysecret-datvo38.jpg


I've been using Photoshop since I was 12 so I did a fair amount of editing on the photo... That might be a bad thing though? (Regardless I had fun...!)


Notice that the snow is gray, not white there in post #5.

The light meter is calibrated for an average reflectance of 12% - 18%, and with a much higher actual reflectance from the snow the camera under exposes the scene. The opposite happens, over exposure, if the scene has a much lower than normal reflectance, like when taking a shot of a pile of coal.

We have to override the camera and add some Exposure Compensation (EC) if we want the exposure to be closer to accurate.
You can read about how to set exposure compensation on pages 118 & 119 of your D3300 Reference Manual that is on the software disc that came with your camera.

The default EC adjustment on your camera is in 1/3 EV steps.

Of course, you can also add exposure post process using whatever image editing application(s) you have.

Here I have added 1 stop (1 EV, or Exposure Value) of exposure to the entire photo (global edit) using Photoshop's Camera Raw.
View attachment 132577

So I suppose maybe this is a post processing error on my part? I'm not familiar with what is a desired look yet so I just went with what looked good with my eye, but seeing your edit here makes me realize that my eye needs some training! Thank you!

Since Newt is FAST I think the primary thing you may want to watch is your Shutter Speed. The Shutter Speed is what stops motion, thus you don't get blurred shots. You may mistaken a blurred shot from a non-accurate focus.

If Newt is standing still 1/125 may be enough to get a nice and sharp image.
If Newt is running them 1/125 will only have a blurred shot. Using something faster such as 1/640 or 1/1000 will stop the action and provide a sharp image.

more info ==> Using Camera Shutter Speed Creatively

Thank you so much for this information! I will use it wisely!

I also just acquired some Photography books that I will have to look into - there's so much to shooting that I never realized before.

Any more advice tips comments or CC is APPRECIATED! I'm so overwhelmed, everyone is too kind!
 

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