"Baxter and Charlie"

dpolston · Jan 12, 2008

These are my parents Christmas presents and my new brothers! I had the gear in the back of the truck (from some recent corporate portraits) and since my family was invited to dinner there, I thought I'd practice.

So... should I add "pet portraits" to the portfolio or what?

The Phototron · Jan 12, 2008

Try raising the contrast, other than that, bleeding awesome shots!

Kazoo · Jan 13, 2008

Those two are beyond adorable! Like how you can see the mottled pigmentation on the little black & tan guy's ears.

dpolston · Jan 13, 2008

Thanks. That's Baxter and he has a very unusual colored fur (almost purple in places). He is the rowdy one.

sweet skunk · Jan 13, 2008

great shots, cute little guys ya just gotta love these pics

dpolston · Jan 14, 2008

*bump*

I'm bumping to get a little more feedback on this one. I'm getting the "cute puppies" comments, but the only real critique I had was on contrast (which I tried and it didn't work well. That is a solid black fur material. And yes... that pup has a purple tint to his fur... which is weird!)

Personally, I think they're nearly perfect photos (although the nose on the brown one looks ever so soft). Taking these two together was like trying to take a photo of a bag of worms. They were very playful. But what do you ecpect from a 2 and a half month old puppy!?!

Honestly, aside from the cute factor, are these high quality "calendar worthy" portraits? Your comments might determine whether or not I add pet portraits to my session work. My wife and I had fun taking these.

BTW: THANK YOU for the cute puppy comments! (I didn't want to sound ungrateful.) =o)

kemizz · Jan 14, 2008

haha , well yeah they are damn cute,
but hey these are puppies , and I never saw one who wasn't cute

adding extra contrast won't do the trick here like you mentioned ..
I would add a adjustement layer and overlay it , and pull back the opacity ...,
and to finish burn where you want more contrast ...
but I agree as these are almost perfect and can go right on a postcard ...

nossie · Jan 14, 2008

It is very hard to improve on them. They seem a little soft to me and I think they'd be sharper if you increased the shutter speed but it could be a result of resizing them for the web.
(I'm having bad probs with sharpness lately on my 350d+24-105L and the only solution seems to be to up the shutter speed)

Could they be calendar shots - Definitely. Should you put "pet portraits" on your portfolio - yes if you like the job, they are definitely saleable shots.

and finally...
They're so effing cute!!! (I tried not to but it had to be said)

dpolston · Jan 14, 2008

okay... they are adorable. =o)

I think that it might be the resize thing (the original RAW image was cropped as a 4" by 8" image at 300 dpi, which is a 16.4 meg tiff file). I cut this one hard to get it to fit TPF.

The Phototron · Jan 14, 2008

Have you try increasing the contrast but masking parts that would blend with the background?

I don't really like the black background, one of the puppy is black (or near black). Black on black doesn't work well in my opinion. A white background would be much more effective.

IndieMe · Jan 14, 2008

Awww how adorable!

I like those shots, very well done altho I think the background would look good if it was a little more dark.

dpolston · Jan 14, 2008

(I think it's funny how subjective photos are based on the last 2 post... "white would be better" and "needs to be darker" lol)

No... I haven't tried to mask the background layer. I'll give that a shot. The black material (fur) I had was in the bag at the time (referring to the OP). I use that material to eliminate the light bounce from things to deaden the shot (mostly tabletops). I didn't want to use my larger backdrops because I didn't want them to "poo" on them (neither will fit in a washing machine).

I do need to get some other colored fake fur for these shots (maybe a light gray and a tan color?) This pet thing still makes me laugh. If someone were to tell me 10 years ago, "Hey, have you considered "pet" portraits?" I would have laughed at them. Who'd a thunk it?