First of Fen

[scatternobrains]

This is the first picture I have taken of our dogs (well one of about 20 shots I just took). I would be grateful for any comments re the focus and the colour (even though she is a black dog).

Thanks
Kerry

Canon EOS350
Canon 50mm 1.8
1/125
f4.5

[karen_s]

He(she?) is adorable. What a great expression.

As for focus, the eyes look a smidge soft (despite that, still a keeper shot). It looks like the focus might have fallen a little in front of the eyes, maybe on the snout? What were you focusing on? I almost always go for the eyes then recompose if needed. The nose is soft too although that is not a big deal for me. If you want to get the eyes AND nose in focus, you'll have to narrow the aperture (bigger number).

Color looks pretty good. Even though your dog is black, the highlights give clues to the color and those look pretty good on my monitor.

Overall, very good shot. The exposure seems about perfect and that can be a challenge with a black dog.

[scatternobrains]

I had focused on a particular point and placed that point on one of her eyes (can't remember which one in this shot) but guess she could have moved and I just missed it :-(

The nose being out of focus annoys me a little, think I will try again a little while and will post the second attempt.

Thanks for your comment, hopefully it will help get the next one even better.

[karen_s]

When I first started using the focus and recompose method with a digital, I had to make sure I had a single spot focus (one point) along with not having continuos focus activated. Just makes sure you have you camera set that way. (I eventually switched to back button focus which is perfect for my style of shooting.)

Also, depending on your distance to the focal point and the aperture, the DOF can get pretty slim and result in one eye in focus and the other out. It is easy to do and I have gotten quite a few shots like that. Just keep experimenting and trying different apertures, you'll eventually get what you are looking for.

[scatternobrains]

My second attempt taking on board your comments, I prefer the nose as it is more focused but not sure if the eyes are any better?

I will keep practising, thanks for the advice

[karen_s]

What a great model you have. Makes me smile.

I think it looks good. The eyes look like the sharpest part of the image and the nose looks pretty good too. Did you try some different settings?

And just a tip, maybe you already know, when you see super sharp eyes in photos, it is often a result of post processing. The idea is to sharpen just the eyes, just enough, to set them apart and draw the viewer right to them. Viewers eyes gravitate towards the brightest and sharpest part of an image. If you are in the mood to spend some time with Google, you can do a little research on unsharp masking and sharpening eyes.

Anyway, great dog and I love the look. Mine does that whenever he hears a new sound or chases flies.