Man and his Best friend

[Shotty]

Man & BF by tmshott, on Flickr

Camera Canon EOS REBEL T1i
Exposure 0.004 sec (1/250)
Aperture f/4.0
Focal Length 70 mm
ISO Speed 100
Flash No Flash

Not sure whether I should put this one here or in the "I edited this one" section, so if I'm in the wrong I apologize. What I want to know is whether I messed up horribly by even taking the picture with the sun in the position it was, creating the shadows on the subjects and whether I did a terrible job with my editing. I cropped the image and screwed around with the brightness and contrast. Thanks for looking =D

[BigFuzzy]

I think posting it here was fine.
Short, answer, no you didn't "mess up horribly". Is it perfect, no, but not a bad shot overall to be completely fair.

I would have turned them a bit (just a tad) more into the sun to shoot the shadow a little further back instead of directly to the side.

Also, the crop feels very tight to me especially on the dogs nose and the males back. I'd have liked to see more of the environment especially since it fits the whole image (ie beachy).

Also, having such a tight crop also places the subject dead in the middle, which to me is pretty boring.

You nailed the focus (not always the case here) and the background is nice and soft due to your use of f/4 and 70mm so well done there.

All-in-all a nice shot.. still has some elements that definitely need improvement (composition/crop), but I'd still be happy with it.

EDIT: Also, in a perfect world, dog would be looking at you, but I know that's damn difficult to ensure happens.

[Shotty]

Hey thanks a lot for the critique, I'll definitely keep those tips in mind when doing my next portraits. Here's an un-cropped version of the shot, I did a little more screwing around with the contrast and brightness here. Trying to learn my editing software here too!

[NicolaB]

Hi there.

It is a nice snap shot.

Catchlights bring an image to life, and if your subject has to squint, you won't get them

Choices:
Wait until the sun has lost a bit of power and he doesn't have to squint or
Go backlit. Your challenge then would be to reflect some of that golden light back into his face to get the catchlights.

Your editing looks good to me.