Does this work for you in any way?? (C&C, please)

[Sammie_Lou]

I went to my mother-in-law's house today to visit and she was feeling under the weather, so we were pretty much just sitting around, watching TV. I pulled my camera out and decided to get a few shots of her dog in, just to play around. I have about 5 photos that I played with in photoshop and sent to her on facebook that she just loves, but I know they're not great (technically or otherwise) as anything other than a snapshot. This is the only one that I think might have some potential, but I still see some problems with it. I think Moose (the dog) might be too close to being centered. I'm not sure if the carpet space beneath him works or if I should have cropped in closer. I didn't want space above him because he was sleeping up against a step that goes down to the room we were in, so if I raised it up, you'd have the legs of her dining room table in the shot. Also, I'm thinking I should have used a different aperture so that more was in focus or maybe decreased the ISO a bit so that it wasn't so grainy. Anyway, moral of the story, some C&C on the technicalities of this photo would be greatly appreciated. Thanks in advance!



DSC_4870 by SLampear88, on Flickr

 

[naptime]

is it a picture of a ghost in a snowstorm?

 

[Sammie_Lou]

Err, the code didn't paste. lol Sorry, that's the kind of day I'm having...going back to add it now!

 

[slackercruster]

nice photo. don't downgrade yourself.

 

[Sammie_Lou]

Thanks. Not trying to downgrade myself. I just always believe there's room for improvement. In my case, a LOT of improvement. lol

 

[MLeeK]

In the situation you were working with you did good. You eliminated as much of the distractions as you could and kept the dog's head from being crowded in. I'd crop, but it would be more of the side with the blanket than the floor.


ETA: I looked at your exif on this and your shutter was at 1/80. You're bordering on too slow for hand held there, so just be careful. You did great with it and 1/80 is fine for a steady hand. Just make sure you are paying attention so you always get a clear shot like this instead of motion blur.

 

[Sammie_Lou]

Thanks! That's actually a stuffed zebra. I know I'm not supposed to chop of the subject's (dog's) limbs, but I wasn't sure what the rule is when it comes to the subject's stuffed animal. lol

 

[blackrose89]

Pretty pleasant portrait. I might have gotten down lower, Probably on my belly. Although you did get decently low.

 

[Sammie_Lou]

Thanks for the opinion! I would have liked to get down lower, but then I was risking that background. Crappy photo below, but just so you can see what I meant by a step down. If I was down on his level, you can see not only the wood of the step above, but the legs to the dining room table/chairs and things like that.


DSC_4863 by SLampear88, on Flickr

 

[Sammie_Lou]

Anybody else??

 

[Derrel]

The first shot of the dog and his/her toy animal is cute!

 

[Sammie_Lou]

Thanks! Any thoughts on how I could make it better??