how could i have made this better??? DOG

[stonecoast]

Should I have used a polarized lens, or just not have used white in my background?


I have another that the background was really overexposed.... please advise.
Thanks in advance.

[diablo]

Hello,
From reading books on photography, I reckon this is a classic case of contrasting reflected light. I tried to simulate the same at hoome with a black bag against a white wall in a brightly lit room.
I had to take multiple shots of the same with various aperture values to arrive at a picture that I thought was the best of my efforts.
However, the exposure control on my A100 alpha did help me out by under-exposing and using fill in flash (from a distance).
I am not sure if that was the correct way. And I would like to know the best way to handle such situations too.
I am however convinced that the polarizing filter may not be able to resolve the problem. IMHO, since the polarizing filter stops lights incident from an angle greater than 90. The bright wall is closer to 90 and hence imho the prolarizing filter will not be effective.

Please correct me if I m wrong.

Cheers
Diablo

[wulf]

It is tricky, because the subject is very dark - to get the background looking stronger you would have to risk the dog being underexposed. Either take your dog portraits against a darker background (for example, a patch of shade, even if the dog is sitting out in the sun) or use tricks on the computer to help (eg. underexpose the dog but selectively bring out the highlights or even take a second shot exposed for the background and blend the two together).

Wulf

[diablo]

Hey Wulf,

Thanks for the tip. I understand that in an analog SLR camera one can do multiple exposures (er, two exposures on the same frame) and achieve it (overexpose for dog and under expose for bg). However, on dSLRs I understand it is not possible.
Now, I dont have Photoshop and I work off GIMP, coz thats what works on my linux computer. So I would like to know if there is something on camera that can be done while composing the shot? I use a dSLR (sony A100 alpha) and I have read just a bit about exposure bracketing. Though I dont understand exposure bracketing, do you reckon it can help fix the problem? What is exposure bracketing BTW, could you point me to the right direction?

Thanks

Cheers
G

[hitkaiser]

polarizer probably wouldnt have done anything

The white background helps because it lets to distinguish between dog and background but a less distracting background (all one colour be it grass green or white wall) would have helped

To get your dog well exposed, you probably need the use of fill in flash (there is a recent article on it on dps) or the use of a reflector (one of those metallic paper like things.. you can get some for cheap on ebay)

Another thing to try, aim the centre of your viewfinder at the dog and hit the "exposure lock" button (will vary depending on camera), this tells the camera to meter according to the dog and will ignore the rest of the photo (as a result the background might be washed out.. but the dog is the important bit right?)

[knickers71uk]

Of courseyou could just crop the top bit off, I think it actually adds to the photo, as I tried it at home and I thought it made the dog more of a focus.

[AZ4Runner]

Another thing you could have done to make the picture better (or better the next time you use this dog as a subject) is to shoot the picture in the early morning or late evening when the light is not so harsh. If you are limited to shooting in the middle of the day, move the subject under the cover of shade. The light is more balanced and diffused there and won't create such a harsh light on the subject.

[wulf]

I don't think there are any cameras that do a live blend of two different exposures. Some DSLRs allow "exposure bracketing", where they take several shots at different exposure levels so you can combine them later (look for "HDR" on here) but it is down to post-processing.

BTW, it is good to learn how to take a better-exposed shot in the first place but don't worry about using The GIMP on Linux - that is my set up, too, and I can do plenty in the digital darkroom.

Wulf

[Dazyl]

I'm very much a novice, so I'm a bit nervous contributing to a critique thread... but I've also struggled with accurately capturing my black dog against anything bright.

I've found (after much reading and playing around) that one has to pay very careful attention to the histogram feedback during the shoot. The best article I found about this (histograms and dark subjects) was here. Some adjustments to aperture, and fine-tuning with exposure compensation, and it still required some tweaking in post-processing software, because I tend toward under-exposing these a bit and then carefully bringing up the shadows.

It also seems to help, in bright situations, to use as shallow a DOF as possible.

I have a set of my own black dog up on Flickr, here. Most of them (except for the one against grass/deep greens in the background) required a fair amount of "tweaking".

[knickers71uk]

dazyl some of them pics are mad lol!!