Depth of Field

[The Losing Kind]

The old dog is nice. I like the lighting on the revised version, his personality comes through better.

But I understand the post about telling us what you were going for. C+C is meaningless with out context. Isd this your retriever, or are you taking animal pictures professionally? Was the chipmonk a picture of oppertunity, or did you wait all day for him to come out so you could underexpose the shot? Or did a cloud cover the sum all of a sudden. It is one thing to sit in a blind all day waiting for an animal to walk by, having figured out your exposure and framing in advance, and quite another to throw the camera up and shoot in a split second for the shot of a lifetime.
That what I want to know before I can tell you what I think will improve your pictures.
Judge Sharpe

I apologize, but it honestly seemed like every other time I wrote an explanation along with my pictures, I didn't get much feedback for whatever reason. I had some explanation up when I first posted this, I believe, but I will certainly keep this in mind for the next time I post. For now..

The golden is my dog (she's a girl ), but what I was really trying to do was get a nice portrait (somewhat professional looking, I suppose) with good bokeh in the background that showed one of her "signature" faces. The chipmunk was sitting on my stoop at dusk, and was a shot of opportunity (through a window), though I did take a few seconds to frame it the way I wanted. Like I've said in this post already, I tend to like darker images, so the underexposure doesn't bother me as much as other people I suppose. And the leaves are a colour thing for me, more than a good photograph, because I know those kinds of shots are a dime a dozen. I just love how green looks juxtaposed against blue. Hope that helps?

 

[Judge Sharpe]

Exactly what I want to know. It seems, sometimes that we post just wanting others to see our work, which is great. If you like the darker pictures, thats your style and I say go for it. BUT tell me that so I don't put my values which are not as dark, unfairly on your work. I would suggest using the auto bracketing feature on your dsslr and compare the three exposures.
Keep shooting.
JS

 

[montyb1990]

Wow, I really like those pictures! The dog is really really cute. I am about to get a new camera and I am most excited because of the depth of field that I will be able to get with them... such as shown by these photos. Good job, nice pics!

 

[dadCameraGuy]

I apologize, but it honestly seemed like every other time I wrote an explanation along with my pictures, I didn't get much feedback for whatever reason. I had some explanation up when I first posted this, I believe, but I will certainly keep this in mind for the next time I post. For now..

The golden is my dog (she's a girl ), but what I was really trying to do was get a nice portrait (somewhat professional looking, I suppose) with good bokeh in the background that showed one of her "signature" faces. The chipmunk was sitting on my stoop at dusk, and was a shot of opportunity (through a window), though I did take a few seconds to frame it the way I wanted. Like I've said in this post already, I tend to like darker images, so the underexposure doesn't bother me as much as other people I suppose. And the leaves are a colour thing for me, more than a good photograph, because I know those kinds of shots are a dime a dozen. I just love how green looks juxtaposed against blue. Hope that helps?

Thank you - that helps a bunch.

#1 - it is ok, but it is squareish and there isn't much going on with the rule of thirds to make it more dynamic. Yes, there is DOF, the background is blurred, but it just isn't doing much for me. I guess you're seeing the photo as a portrait of an animal you love, but as a photo, it just doesn't jump out at me since i don't know the dog.

#2 - there are some halos around the leaves in the background taking away some of the flavor of the DOF. The subject doesn't do much for me i'm afraid. And, the background detracts from seeing the subject in the front.

#3 - DOF is good, but image seems dark and probably has camera shake making it a bit fuzzy.

hope that helps some - sorry i'm not more excited about your images tho.