My Sister and Her Puppy

[timmeh]

I took this one a couple of weeks back with my sister and her puppy. I've slightly modified the exposure and cropped it down. Comments and criticism are welcomed.

Camera - Canon EOS 500D
Lens - EF70-200mm F/4L IS USM
Aperture - f/4.0
Focal Length - 155mm
Exposure - 1/250
ISO - 200

[lputman]

I think it is a good snapshot and could stand for a little pop in processing.

[donciakas]

i can't find the focus, and the cropping could be better (not cutting dog's ear and your sister's head)

[coldfire22x]

i think this is a really cute shot, but as donciakas mentioned, just two things i would like to see improved:

1. i feel like the depth of field is a little too shallow. i would like it a bit more if the dog's nose was also in focus
2. it is a little too cropped for my tastes

to correct the first problem, you could either decrease the aperture (higher f-stop number) or decrease the focal length. and you obviously know how to crop an image, so you could just play around with that to get more of the dog's ear and your sister's head if the original composition allows you to

[timmeh]

thanks for the feedback, i'll try to incorporate your suggestions into my future photos.

i do tend to have limited DOF in my images as I like the blurred background, but i'm yet to determine where the sweet spot is or rather the relationship between focal length and aperture when it comes to the depth of field.

i suspect there isn't a particularly useful answer to the question of 'what is the ideal aperture for nice DOF on portraits?', since my understanding is that it also depends on focal length and distance to subject.