dogns

[dogzrule]

I've been experimenting with aperture priority mode lately as I'm trying to get out of the auto mode and try new things. Is the aperture opened up enough? I was going for a sharp rear end and a soft background. Would you crop out the window and plant in the background?

[mrteacherdude]

Just a couple of thoughts...

First - you should make sure you post your exif data along with your photo, else windrider will post a message asking you to do that.

Other than that - I did get a look at your exif data from you Flickr stream, and I looked at the largest version of the photo you have available there. The effect you are trying to achieve may be difficult under your particular lighting conditions and with the lens you are using. It looks to me like you can still open up your lens a bit which may help with the effect you are trying to get. However, your ISO is set pretty high, which is understandable for the lighting conditions and aperture size. So what it looks like to me is that rather than smoothly unfocused areas toward the front of the big guy, you are getting high ISO noise.

I think a tighter crop on all sides to get rid of some of the background and other distractions works, but you'll lose some of the big guys foot, which isn't quite all there anyway. I don't think the crop would cause one to lose the sense of warmth and relaxation as part of the window will still be visible. I am getting a sense that the window is competing with the rest of the photo though, and I find my eye strongly drawn to it. That works fine for the big guy, but is taking away from the little guy, which I think is an important part of the composition. I'm not sure off the top of my head how to deal with that. Let's hope that someone else comes along with more thoughts to offer.

btw - don't forget to post your exif data!

[dogzrule]

Originally Posted by mrteacherdude

Just a couple of thoughts...

First - you should make sure you post your exif data along with your photo, else windrider will post a message asking you to do that.

Other than that - I did get a look at your exif data from you Flickr stream, and I looked at the largest version of the photo you have available there. The effect you are trying to achieve may be difficult under your particular lighting conditions and with the lens you are using. It looks to me like you can still open up your lens a bit which may help with the effect you are trying to get. However, your ISO is set pretty high, which is understandable for the lighting conditions and aperture size. So what it looks like to me is that rather than smoothly unfocused areas toward the front of the big guy, you are getting high ISO noise.

I think a tighter crop on all sides to get rid of some of the background and other distractions works, but you'll lose some of the big guys foot, which isn't quite all there anyway. I don't think the crop would cause one to lose the sense of warmth and relaxation as part of the window will still be visible. I am getting a sense that the window is competing with the rest of the photo though, and I find my eye strongly drawn to it. That works fine for the big guy, but is taking away from the little guy, which I think is an important part of the composition. I'm not sure off the top of my head how to deal with that. Let's hope that someone else comes along with more thoughts to offer.

btw - don't forget to post your exif data!

thanx for your kind words....I've been noticing that noise in my shots lately, so I'll mess with the ISO settings more. About the EXIF settings, I thought I got that set, obviously, I didn't, so how do you set that on this site? I'm such a newbie...

[mrteacherdude]

Originally Posted by dogzrule

About the EXIF settings, I thought I got that set, obviously, I didn't, so how do you set that on this site? I'm such a newbie...

I'm not sure if there are other ways of doing this, but I take one of two approaches: I just manually type in the data; I copy and paste from either the data you can get from Flickr, or from whatever editing software program I am using on my computer at the time. If you're not sure where to get that data from Flickr (forgive me if you already know this), click on the "Actions" button above the photo when you are viewing it, and there will be an option to view the Exif data. You can copy and paste from there. If anyone knows of an easier way, I hope they share it!

[Laurenbiz]

My question is: why are you wanting the subject of the photo to be the sharpened hip/rear end of the dog?

Why not either of the dog's faces? (If you're trying to go for shallow depth of field)

[aprillove20]

Fantastic shot and I think your ISO is set pretty high.