This is Sky and he is 3 months old German Shepherd. He was so calm around my studio gear and I got some good (I think) photographs of him and his sister (will post her later).
The session took place at his home so I tried to make it work as good as I could. Any advice, comments and/or critique on the photographs are appreciated.
These photos simply melt my heart. Good thing he doesn't live in the U.S., I'd come steal him!
I think your lighting and exposure/focus is simply outstanding. Was this a single umbrella or did you also have a toplight?
I think that #2 would be my favorite, though I would really just set my computer to rotate through all of them on a continuous basis (and then get nothing done all day long).
The lighting was two flashes through umbrella. Had them approx 20-35° angle on both sides and had them on a slight angle downwards. The lighting ratio was 3:1 and the key light was little bit closer and on steeper angle to the puppy than the fill but not so steep that I lost the catchlight from it. I found that it was very important to have the stands as close in height as possible to decrease the possibility that the catchlights would be in awkward positions on his eyes.
Will probably post his black Labrador "sister" over the weekend, so stay tuned.
You have a beautiful puppy. #3 and #5 get my vote. You caught a good head tilt in #1.
For the past 10 years, I've used my dog as my model so much so that she now turns her head away anytime I point a camera at her. My photographer friend's Doberman has become that way too. Experienced models demand more but I'm limited on how many cookies I can pay them for their work.
Thank you all for your nice comments. Really appreciate it.
Konablue, yes it is probably sometimes difficult to have a photographer as an owner hahah... However, I always try to have the sessions with my own dog ( Venus, there's thread or two with photos of her here on FM ) rather short, maybe 10-15 minutes tops, to try to avoid that the camera will mean something boring or difficult in her mind. She also get lots of treats when we are doing sessions.
Venus is 4 years old and when I put up my gear she knows what to do and often chooses good spot to pose on.
Does anyone else see stair-stepping gradients in the 2nd and last image in the blacks around the dog? I don't think it is the actual photos, I am just trying to figure out if its what FM does to uploads or if its my monitor.
*Did some further testing and it seems to be the compression this site uses. Move along nothing to see here.
