One man and his Dog

[alexa_aux2]

I know this shot could be better, I just don't know how. I'm quite new to DSLR photography and this is my first post in the Critique section.

I wanted to create a sense of familiarity and closeness.

EXIF
ISO 640
50mm
f 2.0
1/50 sec

canon 450d

The lighting in the room was very orange even after I used a white card.

[MrJones]

well, first of all - try using a "colder" white balance or try and fix the colors.
second, if you wanted to create a feeling of closeness than you missed it with the person blurry because of the FoD.
I don't know if it was possible but I would have tried catching both of the asleep and in focus.

[Vagebond]

Hi,
Are you sure you followed the correct procedure for setting custom white balance? The EXIF data says Auto.

The procedure with the 450D for custom white balance is:
1. shoot the white card, making sure it fills at least the spot metering circle in the viewfinder.
2. press the Menu button, select the second tab from the left and select Custom WB.
3. the LCD shows the last shot you made, the white card. You can scroll through every shot on the memory card, but the last one will usually be the one you want. Press the SET button, and OK. Then press the menu button to return to the normal LCD.
4. Now you can press the white balance button and select Custom WB.

It's in the manual, page 90 of my Dutch manual, probably around there in most other languages.

[alexa_aux2]

hmmm, I thought I did, but maybe not.... I'll double check. Thanks

[Vagebond]

The next question, as you said you're new to DSLR photography, is are you familiar with the term "depth of field"? It's the distance in front of and behind the focal point that's acceptably sharp while other distances blur.

If you aren't maybe someone can give a simple explanation. Maybe even me, but I tend to get long-winded. Here's a site with a depth of field calculator. If you play around with it you can see what aperture, focal length and distance do to DoF. Input the EXIF from this picture plus the distance and you'll notice that depth of field here can be measured in inches, not feet.

http://www.dofmaster.com/dofjs.html

[alexa_aux2]

I've using my DSLR for a few months and I am familiar with DoF. I actually like the DoF on it, and maybe "closeness" was a bad choice of words, perhaps familiarity would have been better. I went back to the same room and custom white balanced with card and it still had that honeyed, orange glow, maybe it's just that room.