It's A Hard Life Being Beautiful... (Critiques welcome!)

WardQ · May 1, 2014

Today, I decided I was going to work on more creative/eye-catching shots, as well as try to process the hours of information I spent reading this forum last night. I also really love taking the dogs out for pictures after it rains. Since my dog is both very photogenic, and easy to pose (for a Great Dane), I made him my primary guinea pig. The others just tagged along for exercise/possible morsels I have in my pockets.

Here are my favourites. The rest are on my Flickr photostream, if interested. https://www.flickr.com/photos/124051391@N04/

f/4, 1/1000, ISO - 100

f/4, 1/400, ISO - 100

f/4.5, 1/250, ISO - 100

f/4, 1/500, ISO - 100

f/8, 1/200, ISO - 100

Aside, from cropping and backlighting them, I haven't done much editing. Anyone know how to clean up his dirty collar? I knew I shouldn't have gotten white...

tirediron · May 1, 2014

Nice set; I think they could all use an exposure bump, say 1/3 - 1/2 stop, and I think a closer crop on the pug wouldn't go amiss. Also, in future, consider your options for backgrounds and consider some that are a little less busy than some of the ones here (esp. #s 1 & 2).

Raj_55555 · May 2, 2014

That's one majestic dog, the first shot would have been perfect if you could have taken the entire body. Also you should feed more to the great dane in #4, looks like he is suffering from severe Malnutrition. :lol:

I like #3 the best, great shots but as tirediron said a bit underexposed.

WardQ · May 2, 2014

tirediron said:
Nice set; I think they could all use an exposure bump, say 1/3 - 1/2 stop, and I think a closer crop on the pug wouldn't go amiss. Also, in future, consider your options for backgrounds and consider some that are a little less busy than some of the ones here (esp. #s 1 & 2).

I agree that the backgrounds are pretty busy in this set. #2 I was in a tree house coaxing him up, so sadly nothing to help with the background there.

Usually I have a tendency to overexpose, so I think I went a little too far the other way today. This one was actually one of my favourites of the day, but I couldn't get past the blinding white strip down his nose.

Raj_55555 said:
That's one majestic dog, the first shot would have been perfect if you could have taken the entire body. Also you should feed more to the great dane in #4, looks like he is suffering from severe Malnutrition.
I like #3 the best, great shots but as tirediron said a bit underexposed.

I wish I hadn't cut his butt off, but I was back all the way up to the fence on the other side of the road and still couldn't fit it in. A disadvantage to such a large dog, I suppose. EDIT: Of course, I could have just moved down the road to my right, couldn't I have? :lol: