http://i57.photobucket.com/albums/g211/bvd1147/IMG_1753.jpg

Flash Used: Yes (manual) Focal Length: 18.0mm (35mm equivalent: 29mm...
CCD Width: 22.28mm Exposure Time: 0.125 s (1/8)
Aperture: f/3.5 ISO Equiv.: 400


So I just got a speedlite and am still learning how to use it. This is one of my experimental shots, of our two beagles who love to sit by the fire. For this shot, I bounced the flash off my white ceiling. I used autofocus and noticed the nose of the foreground dog is a little out of focus. How can I make his entire face clearer? Center weighted metering? I don't have an editing program yet so excuse the clutter on the edge.

Good overall scene, though there's a number of technical issues. Like you said, the foreground pup's face is too soft, but I also wish that the second puppy wasn't directly behind the foreground one. There seems to be an awful lot of negative space there on the left side -- it's just missing something there (a pair of slippers comes to mind).

Not sure what you can do to fix the out of focus face. Please turn off the AF on shots like this - it's a classic case of something that's suppose to help just messing things up (90% of my shots are on manual focus btw).

G

This has some potential and you did a good job lining up the dogs and they do have great looks on their faces.

I would suggest for this image you crop from the left up to the reflection on the fireplace wall and from the right past the wall socket. As it is there is a lot of wasted space in the frame. Cropping that distracting and extra space in the image will reinforce the strengths of the image.

I also like the placement of the dogs and a crop from the left and right will improve. The flash exposure is very good. Looks natural as you have bounced it off the ceiling. You may benefit from getting a flash Diffuser to place on the speedlite to further help soften the light. I have a GaryFong LightSphere and find that it does a great job. I posted some test shots from my 580EX ll if you would like to see the results
What about Flash diffusers? (http://forums.photographyreview.com/showthread.php?t=39037)
The out of focus nose does not bother me. The eyes are in focus and thats good. In a low light situation like this where you have to shoot with a wide open aperture your not going to have everything sharp. Perhaps using an ISO 800, closing the aperture to maybe 4.0 and focusing just at the top of the dogs nose would give you a good compromise of having much of the dogs face sharp. I don't see this as a issue here though. Only thing this pic needs is a crop from both sides. A WB adjustment might improve too, but I sort of like the warm tone with this image.
Nice shot.

I love dog shots.

With that flash (580EXII) do turn on all the auto features for several shots, and then pick the best ones and look at the EXIF data to see what worked. THEN you can start playing around with various Ap priority and manual settings.

AF will be greatly enhanced, way beyond what you can do manually with a small viewfinder on an APS sensor sized camera, in marginal low light conditions with this flash unit.

Generally of course a greater depth of field will be an aid to sharpeness/focus of the photo. The dog may have been inside the minimum focusing distance of the lens under any circumstance.

Pups don't always understand not to poke their nose right up and see what is going on. I've taken photos that wind up with nose and tongue prints on the camera lens.

Looking forward to more of your 'ideal' models.

nice photos over all! beagle are very nice pups.....i find maybe the main pups face is a little out of focus though? might just be my taste.
good work though

http://i57.photobucket.com/albums/g211/bvd1147/cropeddogs.jpg

voila...cropped