Another (but serious) Upgrade Question

[PhotosInParadise]

My dilemma is choosing between a 7d MKII or a 5d MKIII to upgrade from my current T5i. I have upgrade my lenses and am absolutely happy with those so please don't recommend a lens to solve my issues with my photography.

Granted I still consider myself a beginner but I have taken courses, read and taken a lot of photos to further my skills. I have two dogs, long haired Shih Tzu, one is a light cream and the other is solid black. I take some portrait and some outside photos of them. Oh, I take photos of other things too but my problem arise when I take my photos of the black dog outside. I am happy with the indoor portraits I take of either dog.

I can take a photo of my light colored dog outside, I take photos in the raw format. I use Affinity Photo to PP. Anyway, I can take the photo of this light colored dog outside, bring it up in Affinity Photo and it is so good that I could just just hit develop and nothing else if I wanted to. The black dog, I must do the best I can in the Develop persona, and after getting it my best, develop. Then in the regular photo persona, I have to mask him and tweak him to get him to even show up (the rest of the photo looks great). Or if I set my camera to show him up, the sky is blown out so I have to correct that in PP.

I would like to, as best is possible, get better photos of this black dog outside with the camera (using raw) and only have to make minor improvements in post processing. Granted, maybe I just still need to find those magic (correct from experience) camera settings as I have with my light colored dog, but I want to try to do that with the best possible camera that I can.

I am well aware that many excellent photos are taken with the T5i by experienced photographers. But again, I want to learn with the best tool that I can. I just can't decide if the 7d MKII is good enough to make a difference or if I should go all the way to the 5d MKIII. The 1d will never be in my budget. Given my desire for improving my outside photos of this black dog, what would be your opinion?

 

[astroNikon]

This isn't just a "which camera"
it's a "which format" APS-C or FullFrame

You seem to have all the FF lenses (except your 18-55) thus your choice is just the body.
The 7dmII is a fast fps crop camera great for sports, or fast action (many shots)
whereas the 5dmIII is a fantastic FF camera for everything.

Your perspective of each shot is going to change due to the cropping factor vs non-cropping factor.
But your choice is between APS-C and FF.

 

[robbins.photo]

Sounds like your dealing with more of a lighting issue than a camera issue. Not certain if spending a ton of money on a new camera body is really going to solve the issue as it is stated.

Could you maybe post a couple of sample pics of your black dog and the settings used?

 

[goooner]

I agree with the gorilla I would suggest upping your exposure when taking the pictures of the black dog. See exposure compensation in your manual. Keep in mind that this could decrease your shutter speed and could cause motion blur (depending on which mode you are in). I'm pretty sure both the 7d and 5d would have similar 'problems' with the same motif. Posting examples of the black dog outdoors will also help.

 

[astroNikon]

Sounds like your dealing with more of a lighting issue than a camera issue. Not certain if spending a ton of money on a new camera body is really going to solve the issue as it is stated.

Could you maybe post a couple of sample pics of your black dog and the settings used?

After re-reading, you should also explore the different metering modes, and focus modes. learn *everything* about your camera and how to use it. That may resolve some issues. having the sky blown out is common in certain situations but you'll have to become more experienced to understand how best to minimize it.

 

[PhotosInParadise]

 

[crzyfotopeeple]

I have had both the t5i and a 5dmkiii and the 5dmkiii is in no way going to solve the problem you are having. The dynamic range on the 5d stinks. I now shoot with a Fuji and it blows away the dynamic range of the 5d in every way.

 

[PhotosInParadise]

F/4 1/1000 auto ISO. EC +3. I use 1/1000 to make sure I capture him flying around.

 

[Didereaux]

My dilemma is choosing between a 7d MKII or a 5d MKIII to upgrade from my current T5i. I have upgrade my lenses and am absolutely happy with those so please don't recommend a lens to solve my issues with my photography....Given my desire for improving my outside photos of this black dog, what would be your opinion?

Your problem is lack of understanding. The dog issues are simply your lack of knowledge concerning exposures. You will not be able to solve that by buying more gear. You could blow $50K on a Hassleblad and it wouldn't fix your problem. Do a little research, it won't take much, and learn how to expose subjects that are dark, or light, Learn why you increase exposure when you shoot snow shots for instance. This is all very basic stuff. Do your homework, pay your dues...no amount of money is going to geet the knowledge into your head.

 

[robbins.photo]

F/4 1/1000 auto ISO. EC +3. I use 1/1000 to make sure I capture him flying around.

Ok, so from the outset a shot like this will be tough, for any camera. You've got a relatively high contrast moving target, the target is dark, the background is rather light. Just from looking at this picture I'd say your camera's AF system is probably set to pick it's own focus point and because of the distance from the subject and the relatively low aperture setting this resulted in a fairly narrow DOF, which of course causes much of the subject to appear blurry and out of focus.

My first suggestion would be to stop down the lens in better lighting like this to say F8 or more, which will give you more DOF. The second question here is one of metering. My guess is your camera is probably set for matrix metering, so it's choosing the exposure based on the overall light level from the scene.

This is where it gets a bit trickier - for a shot like this probably your best bet would be center weighted metering. Spot metering is actually the best for high contrast scenes like this, however spot metering can be inconsistent because it depends on the spot being metered as to how the camera will set the exposure, and on a moving target that can get a bit tricky, so probably cwa is going to yield the most consistent overall results.

My last recommendation would be to control the camera's AF system, reduce the amount of focus points involved. I actually prefer to use just one and set that on the subjects eyes. It takes a bit of practice for a moving target, but I think it gives you the best results. To start with I'd probably reduce the number of overall focus points to say 9, and aim for the dogs face. What you really want as a focal point is going to be they eyes, but the camera probably won't choose that since the eyes will be black and so will the surrounding fur, so most likely the camera will find a higher contrast point within those 9 and choose it, but if you stop down the lens a bit that should give you a good enough DOF that it won't make a huge difference in the end results.

 

[PhotosInParadise]

@robbins.photo - thanks much, I will try your suggestions. For focus point, I usually shoot Continous Drive, Auto AF sinse I had read that was best but since I always use CW focus (on the eye) for indoor photos, I will try that for outdoor also.

 

[robbins.photo]

Here are a couple of sample shots, both of these were taken with my Nikon D7100. I don't have a black dog but the first shot is of a coati, he's got some pretty dark fur against a much lighter background:

20151015 236 by Todd Robbins, on Flickr

Shutter speed here is 1/320, Aperture F/2.8, ISO 400

The second is of a horse, cantering towards me:

20160317 800 by Todd Robbins, on Flickr

Shutter speed 1/320, Aperture F/8.0, ISO 2000

 

[robbins.photo]

@robbins.photo - thanks much, I will try your suggestions. For focus point, I usually shoot Continous Drive, Auto AF sinse I had read that was best but since I always use CW focus (on the eye) for indoor photos, I will try that for outdoor also.

Not sure about the Canon but on my Nikon even using continuous mode I can still set the number of AF points to 1, 9, 13, etc. My guess is you can probably do the same on the Canon . I just have much better results when I use a more limited number of focal points. The vast majority of the time I have it set for just one, I usually only go to 9 for a really tough moving target like birds in flight.

 

[PhotosInParadise]

My T5i has a 9 point max but I will try one next outdoor photo session.

 

[robbins.photo]

My T5i has a 9 point max but I will try one next outdoor photo session.

It can be tricky getting used to trying to adjust the focus point using the control wheel at first, so it's usually easier to leave the focus point in the center and shoot "wide", meaning include more in your shot than what you'll want in your final result, and then crop it the way you want in post.