We just got back prints from our first Xmas portrait session and I thought I'd share one with this list. This is my first post to this forum so it's as much an experiment as a formal post.
Any time we shoot people and animals together in the studio it's a challenge but in this case, things were made a bit easier since the Rottie pup, Deakon, is a 4-month old boy that we bred and the whelping box was in the studio. So he was VERY comfortable. The Bulldog is Wilson and the owners are Brandon and Nicki.
The background looks really splotchy.
Also, there looks like a lot of CA around the man's face and the lighting looks flat across the board. Try to put your lights at a 45* angle from your subjects. If you are using a shoe mount flash, have an assistant hold a big piece of foam core (just a few bucks at hobby lobby or michael's) angled to your subjects at 45* and direct the flash to bounch of that. This will create volume and shape, adding dimension and life to their features.
Also, I would direct them to wear shirts different than the background color so they don't have floating heads.
Thanks for the comments, Chris. The background doesn't look splotchy on my monitor or on the prints. Not quite sure what the issue is there.
I shoot in the studio with AB400s set at 45 degrees to my subjects, right hand one bounced into a silver umbrella and the left one shot through a small soft box.
I like low-key and we use it a lot especially with black dogs (I own Rotties). The black shirts actually come off the background nicely both on my monitor and in the prints. It's a textural thing and I like it that way.
The key is getting both dogs' attention at the same second. Sometimes I think my skill may be more in the toy toss than in photography.
If it helps and only so yo maybe see someting others do and know its not a "fluke" in one persons monitor, I see the spotches... upper right corner, along the girls side, left of the dog on the floor, bottom right corner. It looks like you replaced the background color or uneveness with "1 1 1" (actual values for the background in photo above) and missed some spots around the edges... perhaps ??? I am viewing from color corrected monitor.
Facial lighting seems flat, shadow under his chin, lots of (misplaced) contrast for low key (from Wikipedia)
"Low-key lighting is a style of lighting for photography, film or television. It attempts to create a chiaroscuro effect. In traditional photographic lighting, three-point lighting uses a key light, a fill light, and a back light for even illumination. Low-key lighting requires only one key light, optionally controlled with a fill light or a simple reflector.
Low key light accentuates the contours of an object by throwing areas into shade while a fill light or reflector may illuminate the shadow areas to control contrast. The relative strength of key-to-fill, known as the lighting ratio, can be measured using a light meter. Low key lighting has a higher lighting ratio, e.g. 8:1, than high key lighting, which can approach 1:1.
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Her foot is cut off, if you put the dog on the floor in between his legs it would avoid the crotch shot with the shadow drawing my attention to it as it terminates in the middle of his open legs... there is also something black taking a chunk outof the dog on the floors foot... The dogs are both looking at the right side, maybe the distraction for them above the camera next time ??
Hope it helps, this is jsut what I see when I look at the photo.
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