Nox (Dog Pictures)C&C Please

[dvjproductions]

Couple random shots of my puppy. He's very hyperactive and getting him to sit still long enough to get a decent focus can be tough. I have a photoshoot coming up with dogs as my subject matter, so I would really like some feedback on these as I feel they are my best shots with an animal to date. Thanks guys and gals.

 

[robbins.photo]

Well I don't normally do C&C but I do take a lot of animal shots - a whole lot of animal shots as it turns out.. lol - so my recommendation would be much higher shutter speeds. Looking at the EXIF data looks like both of these were shot at 1/10 shutter speed, I recommend you do at least 1/200 and higher if at all possible. Critters have a really annoying tendency to move, causing motion blur. Looks like you set your focal point for the eye which is perfect, that's exactly what you want - though you might want to decrease the aperture just a bit more because dogs have schnoz's that are quite a bit bigger than a human and the additional DOF will keep his entire face in focus - usually I find 3.2 is sufficient, the tip of the nose won't be razor sharp usually if your focused on the eye but the sharpness fall off isn't too bad and it keeps the aperture wide enough that you generally get decent bokeh out of it.

 

[WesternGuy]

They are not bad, but for me they are a little tightly cropped, but I guess that is maybe a style difference between how you photograph them and how I might do it. In the left one, his ear is fuzzy, (out of focus?) and in the right one, it only seems to be his eye and the area around it that is in focus. I am not sure if this is of concern to you, but if you are shooting animals, unless the owner is in to a more artsy style with the appropriate amount of bokeh in the right places, then I would suggest that you want to get all of the animal in the image very sharp. Also, for me, the right one is a little strange as I can only see his left eye. If this is meant to be a "portrait", then both eyes should be showing and they should be sharp with perhaps, a bit of a catch light in each one. The first one bothers me a bit, because when I first saw it, I thought maybe the dog was ill or something - not sure - but he looks all wrapped up which, to me, is a bit unusual for a dog, but maybe not for yours. I am not sure if you have done it, but if you haven't, I would suggest that you do a Google search on "dog photography tips" and look through some of the articles and images that you get.

You mentioned that your dog is a puppy and that - He's very hyperactive and getting him to sit still long enough to get a decent focus can be tough - why not use that to your advantage? Increase the shutter speed, increase the ISO a bit if necessary and get pictures of him being "hyperactive". Sitting still is not the norm for most animals, well, except maybe cats as with their very high metabolism, they sleep a lot. For dogs, they are all active - use this to your advantage - check out the web and you will see what I mean. HTH.

WesternGuy