dog C&C

Barname

oshead

I like the shot. The POV is good. A couple of things come to mind. The ground is at an angle. Donno if he's on a hill. But he looks like he leaning to the right slightly. The images is slightly soft. You could try and sharpen in PP around his head, mostly across his stop.

Diabhal_Glas

Its a nice shot agree with oShead. Pity there wasn't a bit more light in the head area. Maybe using flash or if he was sitting more in the sun.

Misa-san

I really quite like it as far of pictures of dogs go; many look naff - but this has a really nice feel to it.

It'd be nice if the eyes were sharper though ... Dogs, like people, to emote a lot with their eyes

Scamp-

He looks so wise!

AnimalRights

Nice Dog but as a Photo C&C I would have to say it's pretty poor, you need to start off by focusing on his eyes and in this picture they are pretty soft.

Heebie

For that shot, you could add a fill-flash to get some detail in the shadow side of the Dog's face, or some kind of reflector to do the same.
and.. focus-wise.. I agree that focusing on the dog's eyes is a good idea. I like where the depth of field is, though.. probably wouldn't screw around with that in order to get the eyes.. I'd more likely focus on the eyes, hold the shutter button 1/2 way then re-compose to center and then shoot. (I'ts generally easer than screwing around with selective focus points on the camera.)

VisionaryP

Colours are nice, but it's far too soft and cropped a little tight. With an outdoor shot like that you could get away with pushing it out to f5.6 and get a much sharper picture of the whole dog.

AnCatDubh

I think they guys have covered most of it at this stage.

For me the principal issues / elements to consider are the sharpness. He's a reasonably short haired fellow so you should be able to see some fine detail in his coat. I think your point of focus is the noise rather than the eyes, this has been suggested above. The light I think is an issue. You could probably pull a little out of it 'as is' in postprocessing with some fill light, but better to change your positioning / see if you can get the dog to look towards the light.

the other thing that i'm curious to is the crop ratio that you've used - it just looks a little odd / more for getting the whole animal in the frame than what your original intentions on shooting were.

But all that being said, it is quite a nice image. I like the bokeh and the saturated colours of the background. Perhaps a little more depth of field to catch the detail in his coat.

Anyhow, well done.

Thecageyone

Nice dog And he makes for a good picture, though as said, the DOF is a little short, you probably could have kept all of him in focus. You took it from his shaded side too, the side where the light hits him might have worked out better?

Nice colourful image though, well done.

K_user

Hi Barname, its a great attempt and a great subject. I know full well how hard it is to get a good shot of an animal, its not easy - and I have a fair bit of practice!

A lot of what I have to say has already been covered. Sharpness in the eyes, unless you are trying to focus on something else, is critical. When going for a full body shot you have to make sure that everything else is straight - again easier said than done. And you have to look out for blown highlights and areas that are pitch black, all depending on the fur/coat of the animal.

Here are a few samples of mine:

Eyes sharp:





Or sharpness on nose, not eyes:



My best advice is to go back again and again and again and again...
In an ideal situation I would try to spend a good hour, at least, on each animal, but sometimes that isn't possible.

Barname

Thanks to all for the c&c

much appreciated.

love your images 'k user' they are excellent - .....surely not a k user?

the_monkey

I think it's a nice photo .. nice dog too.

K user they are excellent photos aswell .. so sharp .. what camera / Lens did you use ?