Renato

Hello Diego I like how you've got down to the dog's level to take the photo, rather than standing over him / her and looking downwards. Getting down to the dog's level lets the viewer connect much more and see that cute face. Speaking of the face, it's a real shame that some of the coat is covering the eyes! It's the same principle in an animal 'portrait' as for human portraits - the eyes are the windows of the soul - if your viewer can't see the eyes, it's harder for them to emotionally connect with your subject sometimes. (Having said that, averting the eyes (humans) and not having that direct eye contact can be a very effective tool in an image ...) I'm wondering whether you could have stepped a little one side or the other, to get a better angle. Either that, or brush your dog before you take photos of it :D Composition wise, I do like how you've left space on the left of the image as it allows the background to give a context to the image. However, what's actually in your background is as important as your actual subject! Here, for example, I see a very cluttered room behind the dog which actually distracts to a large degree - I'm spending more time looking at that background than I am looking at the dog, which isn't what you want I'd imagine! So a couple of solutions - (1) go in close to the dog as you can, and try to get rid of the background as much as you can when you compose the image at the time of taking; (2) choose a natural background (for example, when you're out walking the dog) and make it part of the overall image. It looks like you've taken this at nighttime, using room lighting, which has given the image a very warm colour cast (one of the disadvantages of tungsten light unfortunately). If you'd set your White Balance to 'Tungsten' instead of auto, the camera would have thought "Oh okay, he's taking the image under tungsten light - I'll add a bit of blue to cool things down a bit" :) If you'd taken this in RAW format, you could have adjusted the white balance much more easily afterwards - JPEG doesn't give you that same leeway, unfortunately. In my mod, I've cropped quite closely around the dog's face to remove a lot of the background. As the colours of the background are quite vivid, I've also chosen to go black and white to take away those distractions. I've cloned the right hand eye and used it on the other side, so that the hair covering the eye on the left of the image is minimised. I've also done a little bit of noise reduction (you used a high ISO value, which will introduce digital noise (grainy artifacts) to your image) and also sharpened a touch. Have a look and see what you think. Tanya

Hello Diego

I like how you've got down to the dog's level to take the photo, rather than standing over him / her and looking downwards. Getting down to the dog's level lets the viewer connect much more and see that cute face.

Speaking of the face, it's a real shame that some of the coat is covering the eyes! It's the same principle in an animal 'portrait' as for human portraits - the eyes are the windows of the soul - if your viewer can't see the eyes, it's harder for them to emotionally connect with your subject sometimes. (Having said that, averting the eyes (humans) and not having that direct eye contact can be a very effective tool in an image ...)

I'm wondering whether you could have stepped a little one side or the other, to get a better angle. Either that, or brush your dog before you take photos of it

Composition wise, I do like how you've left space on the left of the image as it allows the background to give a context to the image. However, what's actually in your background is as important as your actual subject! Here, for example, I see a very cluttered room behind the dog which actually distracts to a large degree - I'm spending more time looking at that background than I am looking at the dog, which isn't what you want I'd imagine!

So a couple of solutions - (1) go in close to the dog as you can, and try to get rid of the background as much as you can when you compose the image at the time of taking; (2) choose a natural background (for example, when you're out walking the dog) and make it part of the overall image.

It looks like you've taken this at nighttime, using room lighting, which has given the image a very warm colour cast (one of the disadvantages of tungsten light unfortunately). If you'd set your White Balance to 'Tungsten' instead of auto, the camera would have thought "Oh okay, he's taking the image under tungsten light - I'll add a bit of blue to cool things down a bit" If you'd taken this in RAW format, you could have adjusted the white balance much more easily afterwards - JPEG doesn't give you that same leeway, unfortunately.

In my mod, I've cropped quite closely around the dog's face to remove a lot of the background. As the colours of the background are quite vivid, I've also chosen to go black and white to take away those distractions. I've cloned the right hand eye and used it on the other side, so that the hair covering the eye on the left of the image is minimised. I've also done a little bit of noise reduction (you used a high ISO value, which will introduce digital noise (grainy artifacts) to your image) and also sharpened a touch.

Have a look and see what you think.

Tanya

I think Tanya's nailed it in every way here. I've done a colour mod, tweaking the white balance, and not cropping quite as tight. I notice there's a slight tilt - look at the curtains, sloping to the left. There's not enough space to correct it without slicing off parts of your furry friend - see my second mod.

I think Tanya's nailed it in every way here.

I've done a colour mod, tweaking the white balance, and not cropping quite as tight.

I notice there's a slight tilt - look at the curtains, sloping to the left. There's not enough space to correct it without slicing off parts of your furry friend - see my second mod.

Tanya has covered it. Getting down to his eye-level is the important thing, but another time have a brush handy, and brush the fur away from his eyes. Then you have a star model, only asking to be paid in biscuits! Moira

Tanya has covered it. Getting down to his eye-level is the important thing, but another time have a brush handy, and brush the fur away from his eyes. Then you have a star model, only asking to be paid in biscuits!
Moira

This is good and all covered above. I will add, - you were lucky the "force" was with you, as at this very slow shutter speed, and being close to Renato, a terrier, a blurred shot would be the most likely result. Its worked quite well, and we can see the personality of the terrier here. I also uploaded two mods. W

This is good and all covered above.

I will add, - you were lucky the "force" was with you, as at this very slow shutter speed, and being close to Renato, a terrier, a blurred shot would be the most likely result.

Its worked quite well, and we can see the personality of the terrier here.


I also uploaded two mods.


W

Nice family doggy shot. You have pushed the bounds of technicality and just about got away with it. It does the job. ideally, colour a bit warm and you needed more depth of field. The eye is commendably sharp in the circumstances, but The nose is soft. Standard doggy problem, that one. Paul

Nice family doggy shot. You have pushed the bounds of technicality and just about got away with it. It does the job. ideally, colour a bit warm and you needed more depth of field. The eye is commendably sharp in the circumstances, but The nose is soft. Standard doggy problem, that one.

Paul

Thanks to all! You help me a lot! I am very satisfied with your advice. Everybody teach me something new, specially TanyaH, you have really clear concepts. THANKS!;);)

Thanks to all!

You help me a lot! I am very satisfied with your advice. Everybody teach me something new, specially TanyaH, you have really clear concepts.

THANKS!