dog photography and tips

[makario]

Hi,

I was asked to take a few piccys at a local dog school for my neighbour's dog and was wondering if anyone had any tips for me. They have a small obstacle course that they will be going through and hence I am looking to get some action shots.

Thanks
Cheers
'Mak

[dviv]

Dogs move very, very fast - especially in agility so make sure you have as high a shutter speed as you can.

Also, get down low, lying on your stomache is good, the dogs will look much better than if you are standing.

[Glen]

Bring a cat?

[dviv]

Bring a cat?

That'll get their attention!

[Matt. K]

Take some Shmackos.

[ATJ]

Take a bitch on heat.

[gstark]

Take a camera

[ATJ]

Take a camera

And at least one lens.

[NeoN]

Take a camera

And at least one lens.

.....And a dozen smelly sausages ..!!
NeoN

[gstark]

Take a camera

And at least one lens.

.....And a dozen smelly sausages ..!!

Small pieces of cheese work really well.

[radar]

Mak,

shutter speed is important when doing the agility. Get a fast shutter speed to freeze the action. Shoot in shutter priority. Probably around 1/500s for the faster dogs.

Be careful on the background when taking the photos. Try to pick a spot for yourself where the background is not too busy.

Not sure what lenses you have but a 70-200 f2.8 would be the best as you can use it pretty much wide open and get sharp shots. That has the advantage of blurring the background nicely as well.

As was mentioned, get low down so you are at the dogs eye level.

Be there early, if possible, to check out the best location for yourself. Take plenty of practice shots on other dogs prior to your neighbour's dog. That way you can make sure you have your settings right. If possible, side lightning makes for some depth to the shots.

Have fun,

André

[digitor]

If possible, side lightning makes for some depth to the shots.

Have fun,

André

And a MUCH more interesting pic!

Cheers

[makario]

Thanks everyone for the tips... yes its an agility course and I am hoiping to get some action movement.

Andre: I do have a 70-200 f2.8, I am hoping to take some practise shots this weekend with my dog.. let see how I go.

as for the 'bitch on heat' suggestions... not sure my nieghbour wants those kind of action shots

Thanks again

Cheers
Mak

[makario]

Ok i went to an off leash dog park and here are the best 2 from the 30 odd I took. I am not too happy with the results, in fact I can go so far to say I hate the results. can anyone advice me on what I am doing wrong.

I used my 17-85 (didnt listen to andre and take the 70-200 kicking myself now) lens with a 350D. its was about 6PM and hence I had to use a high ISO 800 from memory. these photos are heavily cropped to zoom in.

1/320
ISO800
f5.6


1/400
ISO800
f5.6


Thanks
Mak

[dawesy]

I've never actually tried to do this myself do take this with a jar of salt.

I think there are 3 issues
1) the light is flat. As this was late I guess that will probably be less of an issue if you are shooting during the day for real
2) in #1 the view is down at the dog, I think it would be better if you were at the dogs level, which is better in #2
3) I think this suffers from a busy background, but the angle is much better

To be honest while I can see why you are disappointed I think you are pretty close. Get low like in #2, keep the background simple like #1, and try and get some more interesting light, which should be easier if the sun is still up.

Cheers.

[Matt. K]

I like the second picture. Dogs are bloody hard to photograph and yes.....the 70 - 200 was the lens you needed. Do dog portraits the same way you do people portraits.

[Bluebell]

Some good advice there already
One more thing I think would help is trying to stay side on to the dog,
as in the second image.
Dogs look more graceful and agile from the side or front.
The first image is shot from 3/4 and the dog looks a bit ungainly.
Good luck, looking forward to seeing how it goes.

[makario]

I am prep-ing for tomorrows shoot and had a question with regards to IS on the 70-200 f2.8 IS, which IS mode do I put it in? I wont have a tripod as I envisage lying/sitting on the ground to take the shots...

Thanks in advance.
Cheers
Mak

[hangdog]

If you have a tripod that has a very low minimum height, it can make things less tiring, because I guarantee that you will have to take several shots from each position in order to come up with a few good ones. It also means you don't have to keep readjusting your composition and focus.

Manual pre-focussing at specific parts of the obstacle course, such as the middle of a hoop or the exit of a tunnel, will yield the highest percentage of "keepers". Put the camera on continuous shooting, and anticipate the dog's movement, i.e., activate the shutter just before the dog reaches the action zone, not when it is already there.

Because dog obstacles only have a limited number of good but accessible angles to be viewed from, pick those out first, then choose the vantage point that has the fewest distractions in the background.


Cheers,

Chuan

[surenj]

Could use a wireless flash to freeze the action and provide the extra light ... But you will need a voice activated light stand...

[PiroStitch]

don't bother with using IS unless you really have to. To do side movement, it's mode II.

If you keep the shutter speed at say 1/400 or 1/500, you'll have keepers. As has been said already, anticipate the movement. Also get down to the same level as the dog so you're shooting horizontally and not completely down on them.

[makario]

thanks eveyone for the tips, off to put them into practise this morning. Wish me luck!

[makario]

ok folks I am back from a reasonably successful photo shoot. They liked my photos which was good.

In terms of my own critique, I find that most of my photos are soft and have a bit too much of grain... here is an example and since I want to improve, please help me understand/identify why I getting this.

F2.8
1/500
IS0-100
IS turned off



100%crop


My question
1) is it me? I was using a fast shutter speed 500 and above, more than double my focal lenght and hence I should get tack sharp photos, ISO100 should not be so much grain. .

2) is it the lens - f2.8 on the 70-200F2.8IS lens should be good.

3) is it the camera - 350D, sunny White balance, ISO100, 1/500 of a sec

[ATJ]

was using a fast shutter speed 500 and above, more than double my focal lenght and hence I should get tack sharp photos

Mak,

The rule of thumb for handheld where shutter speed is more than the inverse of the focal length is only a guide. It assumes good handholding technique such as tucking your arms in to your side and good stance. Even at 4 times faster than the inverse of the shutter speed you can still get camera movement if your handholding technique is not good. I would expect if you are down low and tracking a moving subject, it might be a lot harder to limit the camera shake.

To my eyes, the lack of sharpness looks more like a focus problem than movement. Were you using AF? Where was the focus point? I'd also ask what you focus settings were, but I don't know enough about Canon cameras to comment.

[gstark]

This looks to me like foxu error as well.

Look at the obstacle that the dog is jumping over. Could you please post an enlarged crop of the crossbar? I suspect that areas of that may show us your focus point.

[Matt. K]

Your problem is F2.8. Not enough depth of field. You can see that in the focus on the grass areas. Also F2.8 is not your sharpest F stop. Your shutter speed was certainly fast enough to freeze motion. Whenever I do action photography like this I will use ISO 400 and F5.6 at 1/500 if possible. Still a good image and the owners should be happy.

[makario]

thanks for your help folks, the crops of the crossbar are below, also why is there so much grain even though I was using ISO100 on a 350D.

The way I took the images were,
IS->off,
One-shot AF on camera,
Auto AF on the lens,
Focus was achieved through half depressing the shutter button (should I have used the Custom function to Lock AE through the AE/AF button or pre-focus using manual focusing)



Larger photo
http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3225/2895847435_8e1cf26b9f_o.jpg

[Antsl]

I am surprised no one has mentioned the dog photography from this years APPAs.... the winning folio was a collection of four dog photos.... for more info visit here

[makario]

I have started a new thread with a more meaningful subject that reflects the progression of the discussion. Thanks for all your tips so far, please keep them coming.

http://dslrusers.com/viewtopic.php?f=25&t=34160