A dog, yesterday.

[cyprus]

Used the dodge tool on her tongue to make it pinker.



f/10
1/25 sec
ISO-3200
55mm focal length

[cyprus]

This thingy too...

[{{909}}]

second un is a reasonable portrait and the lighting gives it some depth, with the first one, you need eye contact and its too blurred for me.

[cyprus]

I keep trying to tell myself it's the lens but I know I have a lot to learn still. Thanks for the c&c buddy

[{{909}}]

judging by the exif I just noticed you posted, your settings are a bit off with the dog picture. I'm guessing that you were indoors at the time so using f10 isn't a good idea as light isnt abundant. With most consumer level cameras, image quality at ISO3200 isnt great and you will lose contrast and sharpness so aim for a much lower setting, ISO800 at the most I'd say. With a picture like that, use a wide aparture, the widest you can really to keep the shutter speed up (1/25 sec is a bit slow, especially for animals), get the animals eyes in focus and your wide aperture will give you a shallow depth of field, meaning the eyes and face will be sharper than the rest of the image. Bobs your uncle, a masterpiece.

[cyprus]

To be honest I liked the grainy look of the dog, I felt it gave it a more moody feel than a typical crystal clear 'a pic of my dog' type photo. I will try your suggestions though as my pics are still very hit and miss and the hits are usually luck anyway!

[cyprus]

How do you find the framing? Rule of thirds being adhered to?

[{{909}}]

rule of thirds is working well on the second one, but with the dog, I would have tried to have the face on the cross of a third, usually the upper right one leaving the rest of the frame for the body. Without the eye contact, composition is lost for me though.

I wouldn't ignore the 'typical' shots when you are taking photos, its important to get the usual stuff out of the way, get used to how it usually works before you try and do something more unusual, especially if you are new to camera settings and so on. I've tried to be arty in some situations and failed miserably, gone back to the same subject, shot it how its been shot a million times already and been far happier with the result.