What’s Your Preference?

First Light · #1 (**permalink**) 06-25-2011, 11:14 PM

I'm brand-new here, and pretty new to any sort of serious photography as well. I'm just trying to learn to take great pics (and edit them). Right now, my editing software is VERY limited.
This was taken with my NEW Cannon EOS Rebel T3, in natural light and on full automatic setting (I'm still getting the hang of using the camera). The only editing done was a crop & a bit of a tweak on the tone curve.

I am up for any and all suggestions on composition, editing, everything! Tear it up!

Here are the stats:
lens EF-S 18-55mm
1/640
f 5.6
ISO 3200
focal length 55mm
white balance mode: auto

sweetdani · #2 (**permalink**) 06-26-2011, 01:28 PM

very beautiful and very good shot is it urs?

JFSanders · #3 (**permalink**) 06-26-2011, 06:19 PM

Composition is fine albeit a bit boring but the dog's expression makes up for that. The focus is your biggest issue. The eyes are not sharp and in portraiture of anything live the eyes must be sharp. Tack Sharp. The camera did a pretty good job of exposure and he is a slight bit underexposed which is preferable as it is easier to pull out detail in a shadow than it is to create detail in a blown highlight and with a white dog blown highlights are not good.

The largest hurdle I see for you at this time is the lack of suitable development software. Doing subpar edits will not help you to understand the triangle of love in photography. Frustration will overwhelm you and you will quit. Now the nice thing is you don't need to go six large and get CSE5 and all that. What you need is Lightroom 3 or Capture NX2 and seeing as you have a Canon product I would go with LR3. Can be had for about a hundred dollars U.S..

Jim

First Light · #4 (**permalink**) 06-26-2011, 07:10 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by JFSanders

Composition is fine albeit a bit boring but the dog's expression makes up for that. The focus is your biggest issue. The eyes are not sharp and in portraiture of anything live the eyes must be sharp. Tack Sharp. The camera did a pretty good job of exposure and he is a slight bit underexposed which is preferable as it is easier to pull out detail in a shadow than it is to create detail in a blown highlight and with a white dog blown highlights are not good.

The largest hurdle I see for you at this time is the lack of suitable development software. Doing subpar edits will not help you to understand the triangle of love in photography. Frustration will overwhelm you and you will quit. Now the nice thing is you don't need to go six large and get CSE5 and all that. What you need is Lightroom 3 or Capture NX2 and seeing as you have a Canon product I would go with LR3. Can be had for about a hundred dollars U.S..

Jim

Thank you, Jim!

Cooperative subjects are often a task with animal portraiture, (I know I don't even have to say that) though my buddy here is one of the best! However, it is a bit of a challenge to keep the focus on the eyes during a yawn! LOL!

I purposely didn't buy software because I knew I (a) didn't want to spend a fortune on it, and (b) needed some good advice. Your tip will be a great help in that, and I've already seen many tips here on DPS on the use of LR3.

First Light · #5 (**permalink**) 06-27-2011, 11:08 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by sweetdani

very beautiful and very good shot is it urs?

Do you mean the dog, or the shot?? To both, the answer would be "yes"! This is a rescue dog, who came to us about 3 years ago. We live in the country, and he just started living on our property! Now he's part of the family!

spookie · #6 (**permalink**) 07-02-2011, 05:06 PM

Hi First_Light

I have a lessor Canon, T1i. If I may, look around, you can now find the windows version of "GImp" originally a photoshop knockoff for Linux. But like photoshop, there's a learning curve, not to bad, but there. The dogs white coat is a toughy, it makes the light want to over expose or blow out his face. As several have pointed out, better under exposed, than over, I have lost some nice shots due to this in the past, lol, hard lesson for me lol. One piece of advice given to me on my camera, was Cannons tend to over expose slightly on auto, so go one or two clicks down on exposure to compensate in the menu.

I would open the image, darken it slightly, to really suit his face, then since he has lovely hair, I would touch it with a very very light unsharpen mask. Some mistake the mask for enhance, but the target's of sharpening are different. Unsharp mask really "blings" animals with fine hair/feathers or fine features.

Like I say, I'm no pro, but I would try adjusting those two things and see what he/her looked like after that. Lol, I certainly know what you mean about animals, they don't tend to "pose" well lol.

First Light · #7 (**permalink**) 07-02-2011, 05:37 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by spookie

Hi First_Light

I have a lessor Canon, T1i. If I may, look around, you can now find the windows version of "GImp" originally a photoshop knockoff for Linux. But like photoshop, there's a learning curve, not to bad, but there. The dogs white coat is a toughy, it makes the light want to over expose or blow out his face. As several have pointed out, better under exposed, than over, I have lost some nice shots due to this in the past, lol, hard lesson for me lol. One piece of advice given to me on my camera, was Cannons tend to over expose slightly on auto, so go one or two clicks down on exposure to compensate in the menu.

I would open the image, darken it slightly, to really suit his face, then since he has lovely hair, I would touch it with a very very light unsharpen mask. Some mistake the mask for enhance, but the target's of sharpening are different. Unsharp mask really "blings" animals with fine hair/feathers or fine features.

Like I say, I'm no pro, but I would try adjusting those two things and see what he/her looked like after that. Lol, I certainly know what you mean about animals, they don't tend to "pose" well lol.

Thanks for the tips spookie. I am downloading GIMP now; didn't realize it was free! I've seen several mentions of it. It seems to me that the free programs tend to be sub-par, so I'm glad to have one recommended. At least I can learn some techniques with it if nothing else! I will try your suggestions & see how it comes out. Oh, and it's a "he"!

First Light · #8 (**permalink**) 07-02-2011, 07:07 PM

Here's the update:

I downloaded GIMP. So I darkened it a bit, used the slight unsharp mask on his face as you suggested. I also changed the crop since in an earlier post, JF said the composition was boring! LOL!

So, what do you think now? I'm so used to the idea that pics with more light are better that anything else seems dark to me, so I'm not used to thinking that darker is okay...

spookie · #9 (**permalink**) 07-02-2011, 07:32 PM

WOW, nice! I'm not sure if your Gimp is like mine, but under colors, is a cool little thing called "curves". I used to use the other things, brightness contrast, etc, but now I just pull it up and it does about 50% of what I need done. Your image looks great! His hair looks great.
You'll know if you go to much on unsharp, the individual hairs and features will take on a "glowing "edge, almost a harsh edge. I usually zoom way in, 100%-200% or so, then use unsharp, then back it back out and look at it.

Here's some quick tutorials on that and more features of Gimp.
YouTube - ‪GIMP Tutorial: Using Curves to Improve Contrast‬‏