Trying close ups

[BabsS]

Here is one of my first attempt at close ups.



I am new to photography other than the point and shoot kind. Here her eyes are a weird color..I only have the one lens and the built in flash. Plan to add, but need money first!
So how could I have made this a better shot?

Camera: Canon EOS Digital Rebel XSi
Exposure: 0.017 sec (1/60)
Aperture: f/5.6
Focal Length: 55 mm
ISO Speed: 400
Exposure Bias: 0 EV
Flash: On, Fired

[tingeliM]

The flash probably made the eyes turn out that way. I would lose the flash and use natural light.
I also think that this is a bit boring angle. You see way too many of these snap-shottish photos of pets. Of course it's fine if that's what you're going for, but other angles might make your pet close-ups a bit more interesting. For example, I would maybe try putting the camera floor-level facing the dog directly and see what comes out of that. Maybe play with the DOF (with wider aperture = smaller f-number). And the number 1 guide-line (in my opinion) is that you should always shoot from the same level as the animal. The 'human-point-of-view' is rarely succesful in portraying the animal.
Have a look at my experiments here if you're interested. ^__^

I miss having a dog of my own. Among many other things they make great photo experimenting buddies.

[BabsS]

oh wow..this is exactly what I needed! Ok,.. so I thought my angle was good..now I know it's a bit boring.
I heard you should put the focus point on the eye... well that and I thought leaning down was getting on the level with the dog. I would have never thought to put the camera on the floor.
I'm going to try again using all of your suggestions! Including the aperture.
Thank you for your help!

[tingeliM]

No problem ^__^ I'm happy to help and give suggestions. I have so many ideas myself but no dog to try them with.

Focus on the eyes is good, but sometimes a focus-on-the-nose-close-up can be cute too. Or if you focus on the paws like I've done in a couple of my shots. I thought it was pretty fun. But in these cases you have to sort of exaturate these angles. For example, if the focus on your photo above would be on the nose and the DOF would make other parts blurry, it wouldn't look so good. You'll have to be real close - like macro-close.
And sometimes getting even lower than the dog could be fun, if the dog is standing or on a chair or something.

My camera has a tilting display so it's easy to do camera-on-the-floor-shots when you see what you're doing before you push the button.

Just experiment experiment experiment. And there are loads of great tutorials here on DPS also.
25 Inspirational Dog Portrait Photographs
How To Photograph Pets

[BabsS]

Oh goodness, after 126 photos I still do not feel I have the look that I want to capture. I have a great one..concentrating on her nose..you can even see the detail of her whiskers... plain as day!..You can however also see a very busy background.
I need to work on it some more and get the perfect photo using your tips! Good thing I don't use film huh?

[wmbtaylor]

If you have too much detail in the background try lowering (opening) your Aperture. If your camera goes lower than 5.6 set it to the lowest setting.

Big number = little aperture
small number = big aperture.

[tingeliM]

Yep, what the person above said.
And if you have a clean wall or something, you should try taking the photo in front of that (if your dog is co-operative and settles down where you ask her to ) And if the background has loads of busy colors and stuff, try shooting b&w. Often that can help.

Digital photography is great cos you can experiment for free and see the results right away ^__^