2nd attempt at dog portrait

[niccapo]

You may have seen my first post (portrait of my dog - please critique) and I'm taking a second try at photographing my dog. This time I got down on the dogs level and got better eye contact. I used burst mode in order to pick the perfect shot out of a bunch.



Flickr page

Camera: Nikon D90
Exposure: 0.006 sec (1/160)
Aperture: f/4.8
Focal Length: 45 mm
Focal Length: 44.9 mm
ISO Speed: 640
Exposure Bias: 0 EV
Flash: No Flash
Lens: 18-105mm f/3.5-5.6
Exposure Program: Manual

[Jake T.]

I'm not going to critique the shot but, I think the dog is great! I like the expression.

[Chip]

Noticeable improvement! Like you said, much better eye contact and perspective. Good DoF and sharpness, too.

My main suggestion is to try next time for a more uniform - and therefore less distracting - background. Something like all grass, all trees, a solid and out of focus fence, etc. Having an uncluttered background will make your subject stand out even more.

You're much closer!

[niccapo]

Originally Posted by Chip

Noticeable improvement! Like you said, much better eye contact and perspective. Good DoF and sharpness, too.

My main suggestion is to try next time for a more uniform - and therefore less distracting - background. Something like all grass, all trees, a solid and out of focus fence, etc. Having an uncluttered background will make your subject stand out even more.

You're much closer!

Thanks a lot. Took another couple photos today. Something about the frost covered grass makes this picture (in my opinion) look amazing.

Even though the dog is not looking at me I love the way she's looking directly up in this picture.

[Spinnerette]

only thing I'd change in the picture is the background.
like on the two pictures above, I'd take the dog to the grass and try it there.
can you imagine how lovely he'd look with his black coat on the really green grass?

[Chip]

The frost covered grass does look cool. I like these 2 new shots.

Have you done anything to them in post, or are they straight out of the camera? It seems that they could both benefit from a levels adjustment (to make the blacks as dark as in your fist photo in this thread) and some overall sharpening.

And as additional refinements to that second new photo, what would help is to brighten and sharpen the eyes a bit. Also, not cutting off a part of the tail would help quite a lot with the comp.

You're improving. Keep it up!

[niccapo]

Originally Posted by Chip

The frost covered grass does look cool. I like these 2 new shots.

Have you done anything to them in post, or are they straight out of the camera? It seems that they could both benefit from a levels adjustment (to make the blacks as dark as in your fist photo in this thread) and some overall sharpening.

And as additional refinements to that second new photo, what would help is to brighten and sharpen the eyes a bit. Also, not cutting off a part of the tail would help quite a lot with the comp.

You're improving. Keep it up!

Thanks! There's no post processing involved - these are straight out of the camera. I shoot with Active D lighting enabled (Nikon D90), would that have a major effect? I'm going to edit these in Lightroom later today.

EDIT

I actually used Photoshop.com for these minor edits. The exposure has been decreased and I sharpened the photo just a little. If you have any more suggestions feel free to edit my photos (only for DPS). Thanks again.



Large size

[DChadwick]

Nice Shot, Like the eye direction. Try at some point to center your dog closer to the bottom left of the photo to give him even more space to look into. Otherwise, nice picture

[niccapo]

Originally Posted by DChadwick

Nice Shot, Like the eye direction. Try at some point to center your dog closer to the bottom left of the photo to give him even more space to look into. Otherwise, nice picture

Thanks, I'll try that in the future.

New edit with Lightroom- awesome bw preset. See blog post dog portrait awesome b&w « Nicholas C for link to preset.

(by the way - the picture looks really bad at 500x332 pixels below - see full size)

[Sterling]

Has the dog's face been over-sharpened? It just seems really speckled (even at the large size).