Help with action pet photos

fdontstop

[IMG][/img][/IMGhttp://fdontstop.smugmug.com/Pets/Goldens/11054258_BCcUW#

I would love some helpful discussion on how I could have or still can improve this photo. This a direct from camera and while I love the sense of action, clearly it is not crisp and the ball is blurred. I love taking photos of my Golden (Duke is his name) and would like to learn more about capturing action when he plays. Have canon XT and several lenses but shot this with 100 mm. Have photoshop essential but just learning. Thanks for any advice.

Gringriff

What a beautiful dog you have. I can not read the EXIF data but others may be able to. If it is not there you should include it to make it easier for folks to give advice and comments.

Just a quick observation,

The ball is a good bit ahead so if you were using a shallow depth of field to get the dog sharp then the ball would be expected to be out of focus. You could of course lower your aperture value and get more in focus (both your dog and the ball) if that is what you want but it would also bring in more of the background.

Actually the grass below the dog appears to be in focus and focus on the dog looks pretty good. What focusing settings were you using (Servo) and what shutter speed? Maybe faster shutter speed?

Again, not sure what AV you were at but if it was 2.8 maybe lowering to f/4 might get the whole dog in focus and increase focus of the ball.

Not sure what you have in mind to do in photoshop but overall it is nice as it is. Maybe a little more real estate in front of the dog to give him a place to go might help a little.

Andy

cbbr

No EXIF data for me either.

topcat374

Help with action pet photos
Hi,

I really like this shot and the dog is gorgeous! I'm not very technically minded I'm afraid but I do wonder if a slightly different angle would improve the pic. The dog seems to be looking at the camera, not the ball (which I think would make for a better action shot) but I think this is just the angle of the shot. I have more experience of photographing children in this kind of situation than pets but I always prefer the shots were the subject looks completely engrossed in the activity and unaware of the camera. Hope that's useful:)

time2smile

welcome

click on pic for exif data

very nice, all I can add is watch your focus point and maybe do f5.6 to f8 for sone more focus on the puppy. But I like it just as it is to let you know.

thanks for sharing

Gary752

If you click on the photo, it brings that photo up in SmugMug. Click on it again and it shows up from the gallery. Then you just mouse over the photo to get the EXIF. Here is the link to the EXIF data for the above photo.

http://fdontstop.smugmug.com/photos/newexif.mg?ImageID=775352169&ImageKey=wCieN

FDONTSTOP: You can add a link of your EXIF data for each photo you post by holding your mouse of the photo and clicking on the Info link that pops up, and then right clicking on the text in the upper left corner and selecting "Copy Link". Then go to your image link and highlight the whole link and then click on the insert link button and paste the EXIF link and then click on OK. Then all a reader has to do is click on the photo in your post and the EXIF data is displayed for that photo. It's a little extra work if your posting multiple images, but well worth it if your looking for C&C. Hope this helps.

GaryB

Kyle D

I'd say stop down the aperture to f/4 or even f/5.6 and increase the shutter speed to a minimum of 1/500th of a second. That will give you a larger depth of field to get all of the dog in focus and also allow you to freeze the action even more. If there is not enough light to do this you can also bump the iso to 200 or 400 as well.

chest2tank

I like it with the ball blurred. It lets me know that the dog is the subject, not the action. As for capturing it correctly, +1 on everything above. You can still do a bit to help the image in Photoshop. In my opinion, that shot is really really hot. And the exif shows that you did over expose it just a bit. I would adjust the levels.

In fact, that's a good starting point for you, since you say you're just getting going with PS. Learn Levels and Curves - both are tools that are easy to comprehend, hard (perhaps impossible) to master, and will lend a lot to a more properly balanced final image.

What does the full image look like?