Portrait of my snookums

[Scooter Pie]

forgive the title! when ever i think of my dog i just get all gooey inside. His name is solomon

I'm wondering a couple things i hope you folks can lend a hand with.

Composition - Did I crop too tightly from the top and is it too off center? should i have gone in closer?

Color - should it be a hair warmer? sometimes i think its too cool..then again ive been staring at the photo for a good while and if the consensus says its fine..i'll leave it be

thanks a bunch!

exif

70mm
1/125
f2.8
iso 100

[mrteacherdude]

Hey Scooter Pie -

Nice looking dog!

Composition: I like how comfortable your snookums looks here, and I like the long grass he is posed in. Conventional guidelines would suggest your photo would be better balanced if he was located toward the lower left frame rather than where he is currently placed though. That way there is more negative space in the direction he is looking rather than behind him. I also notice that my eyes are being drawn toward the light spots behind, and thus away from Solomon.

If you truly want a portrait, I'm thinking that a tighter crop would be beneficial as it would remove some of the background and allow you to focus more directly on the dog. Also, you may want to try getting him with his mouth closed and his tongue inside [looks like he's been playing ] Personally, I think the tongue things that dogs do (except for slobbering all over me) are one of their endearing qualities and lends something to the personalities of the dogs. But, I do notice when I take photos of dogs for my wife and her friends (all who show dogs), they immediately reject anything that has a visible tongue. I've noticed that it does tend to look better in portrait situations. But when they are playing or doing other dog things, different situation as far as I'm concerned and I like to see the tongue flopping around. Just a thought.

Color: I'm not sure I can really comment on this as I tend to struggle with this aspect as well. It looks fine to me on my monitor, but the lighting and what looks like shadows in the photo suggests to me that you have taken this in the late afternoon (exif data says about 6 pm - is that correct?). One of the things I look for when I shoot later in the day is the warmer light, so it probably wouldn't hurt to try warming up the photo a little bit to see what happens.

Hope this helps

[Scooter Pie]

Originally Posted by mrteacherdude

Hey Scooter Pie -

Nice looking dog!

Composition: I like how comfortable your snookums looks here, and I like the long grass he is posed in. Conventional guidelines would suggest your photo would be better balanced if he was located toward the lower left frame rather than where he is currently placed though. That way there is more negative space in the direction he is looking rather than behind him. I also notice that my eyes are being drawn toward the light spots behind, and thus away from Solomon.

If you truly want a portrait, I'm thinking that a tighter crop would be beneficial as it would remove some of the background and allow you to focus more directly on the dog. Also, you may want to try getting him with his mouth closed and his tongue inside [looks like he's been playing ] Personally, I think the tongue things that dogs do (except for slobbering all over me) are one of their endearing qualities and lends something to the personalities of the dogs. But, I do notice when I take photos of dogs for my wife and her friends (all who show dogs), they immediately reject anything that has a visible tongue. I've noticed that it does tend to look better in portrait situations. But when they are playing or doing other dog things, different situation as far as I'm concerned and I like to see the tongue flopping around. Just a thought.

Color: I'm not sure I can really comment on this as I tend to struggle with this aspect as well. It looks fine to me on my monitor, but the lighting and what looks like shadows in the photo suggests to me that you have taken this in the late afternoon (exif data says about 6 pm - is that correct?). One of the things I look for when I shoot later in the day is the warmer light, so it probably wouldn't hurt to try warming up the photo a little bit to see what happens.

Hope this helps

wow really? visible tonuge = bad? had no idea. But we were both sitting with our tongues hanging out as we've just been running and romping all over the park. I'll certainly try a tigher crop on the left though.

Ya i did talk it around 6pm - warming up the photo..will give it a shot...ill repost once i made the changes

Thanks alot teacherdude!

[fjrgonzalez]

The expression of the dog is good in the picture; however, the placement of the subject is what I have a problem with. Having the dog in the upper right corner of the frame has two problems. First, it seems to cram up the frame because the dog has now head room. Second, I would have panned the camera so that the dog on the left side of the frame so that the dog has room to move in the direction it is facing.

[cranraspberry]

My only other piece of advice would be to take off the collar (especially if it's such a huge prong collar - in fact, you shouldn't let your dog play with others with that thing on, as it could lead to injuries and lost teeth!) if you're planning a portrait shot. Right now the collar is the first thing that my eyes are drawn to, while you should aim for the focal point to be the eyes (or something else, if you're feeling creative in a non-traditional way).

I also personally wouldn't agree with the whole "tongue=bad" idea. In studio lighting, or if you need an exterior shot for a show dog yes, but in an outdoor shoot in the summer you are bound to get some tongue, and it is definitely not always a bad thing.