My shot at animal portraiture

[Ryan Hall]

This morning I decided to try animal portraiture (is there such a thing?). After all, there is nobody else who will let me sit and take pictures of them! These are the two that I thought came out the best. Let me know what you think.

1. Sadie (wife's inside dog, terrier, schnauzer)

2. Annie (my outside dog, lab, american bulldog)

 

[Samanax]

Both pictures look a little overexposed. The second one seems to have a yellowish color cast to it...white balance issue?

Be aware of the direction the light is coming from.

Nice looking dogs.

 

[ann]

there is such a thing, and the good ones earn a lot of money.

i think the top shooter for animal portraiture made over 1/2million dollars last year.

 

[Ryan Hall]

Both pictures look a little overexposed. The second one seems to have a yellowish color cast to it...white balance issue?

Be aware of the direction the light is coming from.

Nice looking dogs.

The lab shot is yellowed due to white balance. I'll get it right next time.

One question though, did you see a problem with the position of the light source? I made sure the sun was behind me, so the dogs were illuminated by the sunlight, and I would not be pointing the camera towards the sun. Do you have a suggestion about this?

Thanks!

 

[kn4ds]

I think the crop is a bit too tight on #1, but the lighting is good.

On #2, I'd rather see the entire dog, instead of the right side being cut off. The color has been addressed by others... I'd also point out the deep shadow - you can balance that using a reflector to provide light into the shadow areas.

 

[kundalini]

Here's my take on it. A simple 5-in-1 reflector would have made a big difference for you IMO..... and another pair of hands. One the first one, you could have used the reflector as a diffuser which would have softened the harsh light on the right. On the second, having either the white or silver side showing and positioned camera right, it would have bounced the light back and filled in the shadowed details.

Again on #2, I'm not fond of your crop particularly. The hind quarter is cropped unpleasingly to me. Perhaps have a go at cropping so that the hind leg is not in the frame, but the front legs are. This may require some cloning methinks.... and while you have the clone tool active, how about removing the collar protruding out of its neck.

Lovely dogs and I really like #1's intensity. but that's a terrier for you.