Portrait of my Girl and my dog

[Wolfsburg]

Took the dog to the park to throw the Frisbee around. This was taken in the shade around 7pm. There was still plenty of light out but I thought direct sunlight might be too bright. Looks like there is a spec of something smack dab in the middle of the photo too. I don't have a computer right now hence I don't have the software to clone that out. I adjusted the contrast and highlights briefly in windows live photo gallery, the histogram looks good to me. Critique my composition, exposure, camera settings please. Be tough on me or I cant learn.



Canon EOS T1i
f/5.6
1/100sec.
iso 400
131mm
partial metering
Manual

[NotDadsW41]

I like the comp. You are right it does appear to be a spec of dust there in the middle. She's squinting a little to much for me as well. Now to the dog. I'm guessing here... Is that an akita?

[MrJones]

while usually you shouldn't place the object in the middle of the photo, here you've got too much to the left. to me it feels like she's trying to get out of the photo. I would have liked to see more space at the top and bottom as well.
as for the squinting.. I actually like it. it looks like she's trying to tell me something.
now for the dog.. you chose to call it "portrait of my girl and my dog". it took me a few seconds to realize where the dog was and it's more of something that got stuck in the background than a dog. you can't really call it a portrait of the dog as well.. he's hardly visible.
if you did want to include him in this photo, you should have brought him closer to her and used a higher F value.

[IMpalace]

I also quite like the squinting effect, adds a bit of intrigue to the photo.

I would definitely like to see the dog slightly more in focus. I do like the effect of the shallow depth of field with the dog in the background, but I feel like the effect is a little to severe. At first, as another has said I didn't even realise the dog was there.

[roostabunny]

I agree, there's not quite enough DOF to know right off the bat that there's a dog there.

I'm a sucker for sharpness, and you've got that in spades on your girl, but it kinda looks like she snuck up on you. Actually, more likely it was the other way around. Regardless, I don't mind framing her falling out of the shot, but if it was mine I might try to crop in closer to the dog on the right, even if it meant taking more off the top of the girls head. I think you'd get a better-balanced image that way.

Still, the mystery blob/dog is tough.

[Wolfsburg]

In my head I had an image where the dog would be more clear. But with how dark it was beginning to get I decided to go with f5.6. I felt the picture would be too empty without the dog in it though. Either way he is too out of focus I agree. To answer your question NotDadsW41 my dog is actually a mix between lab/german shepherd I think. Here is a better shot of him

[First Light]

Not a fan of the squinting, but clearly it is a matter of taste. It does, however, make it look like she has something to tell you, just not something nice. She looks cranky to me. Women squint when we're cranky. I know this. I am one. LOL!