New to photography

[CamJ]

This is my first post on the forums and this photo is unedited, straight from my 2 day old Canon 1000D

What could I do post processing on this photo?

Be as harsh as you need to be on this photo.

Exposure 0.02 sec (1/50)
Aperture f/5.0
Focal Length 43 mm
ISO Speed 250
Exposure Bias 0 EV
Flash Off, Did not fire
(Copied from Flickr)

Flickr: Cam J's Photostream

[NgaiHill]

Aww! He's so cute! Firstly welcome to DPS, you'll learn heaps here, I know I have. I too have a Canon 1000D, I used it on auto for almost a year before getting the hang of stuff enough to try the settings.
As for your photo - you've got a great capture here, I know my dogs are almost impossible to pose. Colours and exposure are all good, the only thing I would say is that the dog appears to be looking out of the picture, he would've looked better on the left of the frame with some space on the right.

[CamJ]

Thanks. I have read countless articles while saving for my camera and jumped right into using the creative modes which is good i think seeing its my first time with a dslr camera.
He was actually quite still for me, the other dog on the other hand.. well i see why they say dont work with children or animals haha.
True true cheers for that, This is probably my favourite so far but then again it is only day 2 so i will post more when it comes

[inkista]

Great shot! Good composition and connection with the subject. Nice feel for the light.

Ok, couple technical things (and these are mostly about gracenotes and "polishing"; this isn't about correcting faults, just more along the lines of stuff-you-could-try-out).

It looks like there's a little tiny amount of motion blur in the shot--probably from camera shake, which gives a weird feeling of not-quite-sharp-enough. Your shutter speed is around the borderline for camera shake, so increasing the iso, or making sure you've got good handholding technique is something to check. If your left hand isn't supporting the majority of the weight of the camera/lens combination from the bottom of the camera, you need to check your grip.

More importantly, it looks like you focused on your dog's nose. With portraits--even pet portraits, a shot will feel sharper if the eyes are in focus. You're just an inch or two front-focused on this. Either stopping down (probably not good with the motion blur issue), or placing your focus more accurately by using a single AF point, or manually focusing might have helped.

The main thing I think you could do, post-processing wise is to add a bit of curve adjustments to bring down what look like blown highlights, lift some of our midtones out of the shadows, and add some contrast. Maybe also a little saturation increase.

Yes, a curve adjustment can do all that. If you don't know about them, start by learning about histograms. Then move on to levels and curves.

One more toy to try. In a backlit situation like this, you might want to try turning on your flash. Using your flash for fill will combat blown highlights and lift your shadows. Basically, using fill flash can help compress the dynamic range of the scene down into what your sensor can capture. It'll look quite different, but you might find you like having blue skies instead of white ones.

Flash. Not just for shooting in the dark.