We took a trip out to the farm last weekend, and of course I caught some photos of Ralphie!
Ralphie had a blast being chased by Duke, my parent's dog. Duke is not a hot weather dog, lol (it was pushing 90 degrees that day) so this did not last long. This photo was taken with my 35mm prime at f/2.5 and is out of focus. It's hard catching running dogs, and I forgot to set my focus mode correctly, but I still loved their faces so much I thought I would share.
You can watch your dog run away for 2 weeks out here. Another taken with my 35mm prime.
A wild Ruff darts through the field pursuing gophers under a purple sky.
Ralphie at sunset.
Those last images were taken as the sun was beginning to dip below the horizon with my 70-300mm zoom lens, and f/5 most of the time, I believe. I've never done that before, especially with the sunset in the background, so it was tricky trying to get the settings right to capture Ralphie in the half-dark and not blow out the sky. But I managed by under-exposing the dog and landscape a bit, then editing the landscape and dog in post-processing to see the details. (Hint: Tone Curve in Lightroom is a photo-saver!)
Great job with the sunsets! I still struggle with that balance! Those are great!
Regarding motion, I'm actually taking a class right now for action photos of dogs! I can give you what my instructor recommends if it will help at all:
1/1600 or higher shutter speed (if the light is good, go as high as you can!)
f/5.6 or even higher for aperture (she recommends f/8 if it's bright enough) -- more depth of field means more of the dog in focus!
Set your ISO to whatever exposes the photo properly depending on the other two settings
Continuous focus (AI servo on some cameras, C on others...not sure what you have!)
Single focus point (as opposed to the ones where the camera gets to choose the focus point)
Leave some space between yourself and the dog, especially at first (which you did! -- mostly because it's easier to follow dogs further away)
And she also recommends trying to aim for the nose! The eyes are ideal but if you have more depth of field, then you'll get the eyes in focus too.
Not sure if any of that helps but that's what I've been doing and my photos are coming out better!
Great job with the sunsets! I still struggle with that balance! Those are great!
Regarding motion, I'm actually taking a class right now for action photos of dogs! I can give you what my instructor recommends if it will help at all:
1/1600 or higher shutter speed (if the light is good, go as high as you can!)
f/5.6 or even higher for aperture (she recommends f/8 if it's bright enough) -- more depth of field means more of the dog in focus!
Set your ISO to whatever exposes the photo properly depending on the other two settings
Continuous focus (AI servo on some cameras, C on others...not sure what you have!)
Single focus point (as opposed to the ones where the camera gets to choose the focus point)
Leave some space between yourself and the dog, especially at first (which you did! -- mostly because it's easier to follow dogs further away)
And she also recommends trying to aim for the nose! The eyes are ideal but if you have more depth of field, then you'll get the eyes in focus too.
Not sure if any of that helps but that's what I've been doing and my photos are coming out better!
It's always the remembering that's hard! God knows I screw that up ALL the time! Oops I forgot I'm only at 1/250 shutter speed, there goes those photos! Oops I forgot the ISO was set at 5000 and it's a sunny day and now those are all blown out! I once spent TWO DAYS on a dog-tastic vacation taking photos and wondering why my camera didn't seem to be focusing properly, only to finally realize it was in single shot instead of continuous focus. Ruined a LOT of photos I could have gotten otherwise. And I once spent a day shooting JPG instead of RAW because I had been experimenting with that the night before I left and I NEVER shoot in JPG so just completely forgot about it.
This is one of my favorite photos from the class that I got. No way could I have managed this a year or two ago!
(Also I really really wanted to adopt that other dog but someone got to her before me! Not that we could afford another dog but OH was she perfect and Ben adored her right away.)
It's always the remembering that's hard! God knows I screw that up ALL the time! Oops I forgot I'm only at 1/250 shutter speed, there goes those photos! Oops I forgot the ISO was set at 5000 and it's a sunny day and now those are all blown out! I once spent TWO DAYS on a dog-tastic vacation taking photos and wondering why my camera didn't seem to be focusing properly, only to finally realize it was in single shot instead of continuous focus. Ruined a LOT of photos I could have gotten otherwise. And I once spent a day shooting JPG instead of RAW because I had been experimenting with that the night before I left and I NEVER shoot in JPG so just completely forgot about it.
This is one of my favorite photos from the class that I got. No way could I have managed this a year or two ago!
(Also I really really wanted to adopt that other dog but someone got to her before me! Not that we could afford another dog but OH was she perfect and Ben adored her right away.)
That's a beautiful shot! Both dogs are pretty well in focus!
Oh and I know, so many settings to remember to change, and if they're running through splotches of shade or darker areas, you simply can't change the settings fast enough! I sometimes do auto-ISO in those situations. One less setting to worry about, and they typically come out well enough I can fix things I don't like in post-processing. On my particular camera ISO is the hardest to change quickly, too, so I sacrifice that one. But the camera chooses pretty well.
A couple of months ago I spent the day out and about with the dogs and couldn't figure out why all of my pictures were so dark. I adjusted all the settings I could think of to make it better so they at least looked decent. Near the end of the day I realized I had my polarizing filter on! Oops! So then I took it off and forgot to change all my settings back to normal. I didn't get any good shots that day :-(
That's a beautiful shot! Both dogs are pretty well in focus!
Oh and I know, so many settings to remember to change, and if they're running through splotches of shade or darker areas, you simply can't change the settings fast enough! I sometimes do auto-ISO in those situations. One less setting to worry about, and they typically come out well enough I can fix things I don't like in post-processing. On my particular camera ISO is the hardest to change quickly, too, so I sacrifice that one. But the camera chooses pretty well.
Thank you! Ben was the one I wanted in focus the most (he's the one facing the camera). In situations with splotches of shade or darker areas I just decide if I want photos in shade or light and only take photos in those spots. I find it's easier that way and I'm too much of a control freak to let the camera choose any of the settings. I end up with less photos in the long run but I'm less frustrated too. lol Really I just want nice overcast days!
A couple of months ago I spent the day out and about with the dogs and couldn't figure out why all of my pictures were so dark. I adjusted all the settings I could think of to make it better so they at least looked decent. Near the end of the day I realized I had my polarizing filter on! Oops! So then I took it off and forgot to change all my settings back to normal. I didn't get any good shots that day :-(
Oh man I feel you on that! I have made so many stupid mistakes over the years. Just the other day I was sitting outside with my dogs and had my camera with me. And my dog Ben started to roll around in the grass, something he doesn't do very often. I took a bunch of pictures. I was like "These are gonna be so cute!" Went to review them...NO CARD. My camera has no setting to stop it from pretend-taking photos when there's no card and the little "no card" thing that flashes is tiny and almost not noticeable in the viewfinder. Stupid mistakes!
Thanks! I know only have like one or two pics from my first dog as a kid, luckily having a cell with a (relatively) nice camera makes it so easy to take them these days.
Haha! My dog Ben is always looking for something particular in his buckets of toys. Has to be JUST the right one.
I have some crappy photos of my parent's dog when she was a puppy and some even crappier ones of my childhood dog. I didn't know either of my dogs as puppies and that's my one regret with adopting adults. I bet they were cute fluffy puppies!
Oh man I feel you on that! I have made so many stupid mistakes over the years. Just the other day I was sitting outside with my dogs and had my camera with me. And my dog Ben started to roll around in the grass, something he doesn't do very often. I took a bunch of pictures. I was like "These are gonna be so cute!" Went to review them...NO CARD. My camera has no setting to stop it from pretend-taking photos when there's no card and the little "no card" thing that flashes is tiny and almost not noticeable in the viewfinder. Stupid mistakes!
Are you talking to me? If so, no, she is my friends dog. My dogs, girlfriend. ha ha Practice shoot down by the water Here are a few more. H90A9996-Edit-Edit by asrotties, on Flickr
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