Pups at rest

[visualdowns]

I took this of my 2 pups as they finally slowed down.

Hows the crop? too much ground and is not having them both in focus too distracting?
some times I look at it and love it, other times I think it could be better but want to know what would improve it the most.

Exposure 0.006 sec (1/160)
Aperture f/5.6
Focal Length 55 mm
Focal Length 55.0 mm
ISO Speed 200
Starky & Pepper | Flickr - Photo Sharing!

[jeanneholverstott]

Related to your questions:
1. The ground color provides contrast to the dogs, but the ground is distracting. I'd rather focus on the dogs.
2. When I try to focus on the dogs, the front is in focus but not sharp. I'd also like the other in focus, too.

[karen_s]

The crop is ok but I am with jeanneholverstott above ... I would prefer less foreground and more dog.

For me, I think better focus would improve this shot the most. It seems to be on the left doggies nose rather than the eyes. While a focus on the nose can work at times, a shot like this tends to work better with focus on the eyes. If you know how to focus and recompose, you could focus on an eye then recompose your shot.

The depth of field (DOF) also comes into play for a shot like this. If you look closely, the dog on the right is blurrier than the dog on the left (not always a bad thing, just depends on what yer goin' for). Here are a few things with which to experiment for different results ...

1. Narrow the aperture, say to at least 7.1. The narrower the aperture, the deeper into the photo your focus will reach and the more likely both subjects will fall into focus. You will probably have to bump the ISO to 400 or more to adjust for the different aperture. (My guess is that this alone will not get both dogs in focus but should extend the DOF for better odds.)

2. Get the dogs faces on the same focal plane. In other words, move yourself a bit to the right (for this shot anyway) to get both sets of eyes the same distance from the camera. This would lessen the need for a deeper DOF.

3. Shoot with a slightly wider angle. Typically, the wider the angle (ie. 25mm or 18mm), the deeper the depth of field. If you are new to the whole DOF thing, this tutorial might get you started ...
Understanding and Utilising Deep Depth-of-Field

Besides that, you did great on getting down on their level. And even though the eyes are a bit blurry, you still made nice eye contact and caught a very sweet moment.

[crockny]

I agree with the above (and I'll be reading that tutorial myself!) -- I also find it disturbing that one dog's ear is covering the eye of the other ... cute dogs!