Boxer Dog

[dirtydawgpaw]

Sony Alpha
Exposure 1/30
Aperture f/4.5
Focal Length 130 mm
ISO Speed 400
Flash Off

Critique please. I'm new to black n white photography. Thanks.

[karen_s]

He's adorable. I bet he's a character too.

Overall impression, I like. You have some very nice contrast and managed the exposure well. It looks like a rather contrasty scene and those can be difficult to properly expose. The conversion looks pretty good to me as the details that are important are there.

My only thought, if this were my photo, is that I might try cropping in from the left of the image just to see how it looks. His head is centered (centered is not wrong by the way and I kinda like this version) but I wonder if cropping some of the left out and getting his head to the left third, if it might make the image a bit more dynamic. I think it's the brightness on the left side that distracts my eye from his bright face. If that area were darker, I might like the centered better. Just an idea to experiment with.

Anyway, quite a nice image and worthy of a nice frame and some wall space

Edit: While it's very hard to say for sure, the image looks just a bit soft. (Could be that I don't have my glasses on though.) Your shutter speed was quite slow considering the focal length and the image might be showing a bit of camera shake. A nice rule of thumb for avoiding the issue is to set the shutter speed number at or above the focal length number ... ie. 200mm:1/200th. That kinda thing. Every person is different and IS (image stabilization) will affect what you can get away with but I find this rule of thumb as a good starting point.

[dirtydawgpaw]

Good points, thank you! And yes, he is a character!