More Lighting Practice - Yes It's a Dog.

[Caity]

More practice tonight with the external flash... Think I'm getting it.

Also, yes I know she's a dog. And I know there are a lot of dog pictures here. Pretend she's not a dog if that will help you get past that and give some C&C.

How is the lighting in this? What do you see wrong? I want to learn, I really do.

What I see: It's dark on the left of her face... But it looks like "good dark" if that makes sense? Unfortunately her ear to the right was cut off, and her dog tag kind of throws it for a second as this black dot amongst all the tan/blonde. You can see her name on the tag, but do you think this should be sharpened so it's easily readable, left alone, or blurred (probably not the right word... less clear)? I'm not sure I could edit it out completely or even if this would make the picture any better.

Thoughts?

 

[Linkin]

ok I'm forgetting it's a dog hehe
I think you're doing well Caity. The lighting is nearly there. To me it's looks maybe 1 underrexposed (if that makes sense) (either that or my screen needs to be calibrated... I HATE this screen at work... stupid crt)
You know, if you got the ear in, you could print this and show it off. As a beginner, I sure would be proud of a photo like this.

I like that the lighting is soft! What did you use? Light from the window?

Tip for photographing animals... focus on their eyes.

 

[GFreg]

But its a cute dog!

So were you just using a hotshoe mounted external flash or were you firing from off camera? The exposure looks pretty good, maybe a tad under exposed. I understand what you mean about a "good shadow". I personally like using shadows like that. I think it is visually interesting.

As for the tag. In this particular photo I would probably just leave it alone. I dont think you need to sharpen it to help read the name. Completely removing it will very time consuming not to mention difficult to fix. Hair is a really tricky thing to fix because colors can vary so much. Either try to remember to take the collar off next time or just don't worry about it.

 

[Photo Lady]

what a cutie!! Great pic... love his smooth sweet looking expression

 

[HonCBRf4i]

you do realize it is her left ear right ?? Did you bounce the flash off the ceiling on this shot??

 

[Casshew]

There is a lot of pet hate around here, I'm terrified to post my cats.


I love your dog, the fur on the right side of the pic looks a little strange. (sticking out from neck/shoulder)

 

[GFreg]

Unfortunately her ear to the right was cut off.

you do realize it is her left ear right ?? Did you bounce the flash off the ceiling on this shot??

This is just splitting hairs really but she mentions that it is the ear to the right, not the right ear. Implying that she is talking about the ear on the right side of the frame.

I mainly just want her to respond and find out how she lit the shot. I am pretty new to using flash so I am curious.

 

[bazooka]

I like it a lot, it feels soft and fuzzy in a good way. Save the ear and maybe get something on the dark side of the face to bounce some light up. The tag doesn't bother me so much as it is.

 

[TylerF]

There is a lot of pet hate around here, I'm terrified to post my cats.


I love your dog, the fur on the right side of the pic looks a little strange. (sticking out from neck/shoulder)

i think its the tail laying on the floor behind him/her

 

[Shockey]

Yeah it looks pretty good. From the catchlights it looks like you were above to the right. Definitely on the right track.

 

[DogGoneGood]

I think it looks great. The only things I see are the few minor ones mentioned, like the tip of the ear missing, and the tail in the background. But the lighting is great, and the pose of the dog is perfect.

Beautiful dog! And I agree about the pet hate here, lol. However, anything by me that needs CC'ing, will be of my dogs. It's mainly all I shoot right now, cause they're my babies.

 

[Big Mike]

What I see: It's dark on the left of her face... But it looks like "good dark" if that makes sense?

Yes, that makes perfect sense.
When shooting a portrait, one of the main concerns is the lighting ratio on the subject's face. That is the ratio between the bright side and the dark side of their face. Sometimes you want a slight difference (small ratio) and sometimes you want a big difference (large ratio).

Besides the cut off ear, I think you did well with this shot. The high light angle works well with a dog's face, but for a person, I'd probably want to see the light more in front of them....depends on the pose, angle and all that stuff.

Is the White Balance OK? It looks a bit warm (yellow/orange) but it's hard to tell because the dog is already a warm color.

 

[Caity]

Thank you everyone for all the critique... I REALLY appreciate it! I was worried I'd get no responses since she is a dog. Eventually you guys will see people, but my wife is in picture taking "hell no" as I like to call it. When I can trick her (um... ask her nicely?) you'll get to see people shots instead of dogs/rats, haha.

When you say high light, what do you mean? The fact that I was standing and the dog is lower to the ground? For a person, I'd be on their level, would that be the right way to go about it?

Yes this was lit with a flash attached to the camera's hot shoe. I bounced the light off the ceiling, and she was a bit to the left of one of the flourescent lights in our basement. No natural light at all... Which is weird to me, haha.

I think I need a third light source... Which after reading is something I should have been doing. *doh* Now maybe I can help with these shadows...

It's hard for me to tell if it's warm because our carpet is that color, and Karly is that reddy-blonde color... To me it looks true to life. When I changed the white balance, it made the pictures look too cool.

How would I fix it in PP if it is underexposed slightly? I am not used to doing much PP at all... But very willing to learn!

Now, COMPLETELY ignore everything that is going on here in these besides the lighting. I sneak attacked a friend and he wasn't willing to actually do anything, and really I just needed to practice this lighting stuff. I want to get it nailed down at least halfway decently before I try to take actual "photos" of people. Also ignore his location haha. Just... ignore everything except how it's lit.

Is this "more right"?

I think I need that third lightsource some kind of bad... Shadows... :/