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I think its a great angle. I agree with Greg that it needs some contrast. I liked it so much I had to mess with it. I did a levels adjustment and a slight burn on the background. Sharpened and dodged his eyes a bit. I cropped a little of the top but not by choice. There was something weird with that. Looked like two layers merged at different levels right at the top? not sure. Overall Great shot!!
Darin
"There are many paths to the top of the mountain, but only one view"
"You can't depend on your eyes when your imagination is out of focus".
"Whenever man comes up with a better mousetrap, nature immediately comes up with a better mouse."
Canyon Hiker... really appreciate showing me some of your suggestions.... it's really nice.
but really...the dog's color is not that dark though... my client won't recognize him if I do that. I am trying to stay with how the dog looks in person. He is really light brown.....just like the original pic.
Hi Greg... thanks
About the background, it's a bit hard when you are chasing around dogs. I had to spend 6 hours with them to get really good shots. What was important to me during that time was the sun behind him creating that highlight around his face. I was literally moving around and looking for a good angle of the highlight ... and got him. To take away the distracting background... I could have used a shallower DOF to really blur it. this was taken at F/8 yes... I could have gone wider like F/4 (making sure the rest of his body is also in focus). This was my first...so next pet shoot...I'll do it better.
Darin,
I liked what you did but noticed you lost some highlight details by increasing the contrast and the white areas became bluish due to increased saturation. I also think that the brown areas have too much red. This is my version.
You don't want the sun behind the dog usually. If you get the light source to the side the whiskers and edge detail will still be well captured and the color will work better.
As this photo stands it needs 'fill light' to enhance the dog in the foreground. That 'back light' effect could now be added in post processing. There are numerous easy 'edge or halo' effects that will provide the same end result in post processing.
Else if the background is a must when shooting the original use a small amount of fill flash (low setting on your flash) to bring up the detail of the dogs marking and detail in the coat.
When photographing pets be prepared to make lots of pictures to get the right ones. Tracking focus, auto DOF, or very deep focus with a small aperture (greater than f8) and sufficient shutter to stop the animal. Flash can also help to freeze the animal (the image not the dog!).
If you are going to use flash in the latter method to stop the action, use a much narrower depth of field to get the background out of focus (bokeh or the like) and provide a better backdrop for the resulting image!
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