Photoshoot with very obedient model

[Dark Anghell]

After all said and done it cost me a couple of treats

Let me know what you guys think. I'm trying out the flash being off camera.

 

[Mgw189]

1 is the best of the three. The others look underexposed to me though. The subject in all three shots is dead center. The only thing I will say is that with the first shot you should have been at the same height as the dog I think it would have been a more pleasing shot.

 

[Dark Anghell]

1 is the best of the three. The others look underexposed to me though. The subject in all three shots is dead center. The only thing I will say is that with the first shot you should have been at the same height as the dog I think it would have been a more pleasing shot.

I agree, I tried to crop them as much as possible to move Gracie off center. 50mm prime is too long for that room. For the last two pictures I had the flash on the floor pointing up without a diffuser on...tried to go for a more dramatic light. I think if the flash was slightly higher up, they would have turned out better.
Also I'm still having hard time compensating for the flash and still getting the exposure right. Need to read up on that.

Thank you for the much needed feedback.

 

[AlexColeman]

Exposure is off in all three, and a little more composition would help.

 

[tirediron]

Exposure is off in all three, and a little more composition would help.

Very useful Alex; perhaps you could expand on that a little?

 

[tirediron]

There are definitely some exposure issues here; your model actually presents a rather challenging exposure situation because of the variety of colour in his fur. What I would suggest is to first evenly illuminate him using a diffuse light source and then use your camera's spot metering function to determine the exposure for the bright areas of fur. Expose the whole image that way (perhaps bracketing by 1/3 stop either way) and then use the levels/curves function of your favorite post app. to bring out the detail in the darker areas.

With respect to the question of composition, one of the cardinal rules of portraiture, whether human, or animal is to be at eye-level with the subject. The chair is a good idea, and could work well, but there is too much extra detail in the image which distracts the eye. Consider putting the chair in a larger, more open space, and using a longer focal length and larger aperture (to achieve shallower DoF) in order to isolate the subject.

Just my $00.02 worth - your milage may vary.

~John

 

[Dark Anghell]

I definitely need to work on my exposure. It's always off when I'm using a flash.
Composition...agree with you on that one as well. Background of the shoot: I moved the chair out of the way while photographing a vase with flowers in it, then Gracie sits down on the chair and starts watching me. So I quickly turned my flash around, and started taking pictures of her instead. I was trying to get down to f1.8, but the speed was to high for the flash...although now that I think about it, I should have just turned on the high sync setting and stayed with f1.8.
I will try doing more pictures of her tomorrow if I can get her to sit still for a little while.