In the Dog house together

[ise438]

C+C please...

[BertRoot]

Like it mate. A little blown out on the arm of the couch and the lad sure looks pissed off.

[DB]

It is a nice shot but my eyes are drawn immediately to the yukka plant.

[ise438]

LOL...he wasn't pissed off in fact he was sort of posing with the dog...

And yeah the background could have been blur more...

[willp2003]

umm - it's a nice shot, but i'm not sure what i should be concentrating on.

[dpSparhawk]

It's a cool shot mate. I like the B/W conversion and the expressions are great. There's definitely a story there. I do agree that the plant seems to draw the attention away from the main subjects but only a little. Maybe a tighter crop on the right to put your lad more into the right hand 3rd?

Also more blurring of the background for sure.

Being a learner still I would be grateful if one of our resident experts would advise the best way of achieving this.

[B B Leo]

classic m8 poor old fella what did he do

[[wingnut]]

Like Lewis Walsh " I like it" but i think there's several things you could have done to improve it no end.
You asked for C&C so here's my view, promise I won't be as harsh as I was on Eddie101.
The image certainly tells a story be it all staged or not you got the message across, but as pointed out already there's a couple of areas that need addressing.
If it was me I would have maybe taken a lower view point to include the subjects feet and entire body, by possibly positioning yourself either directly in front of the sofa or to the right of your original position would have allowed this, it would have also cut out the over exposure of the patio window which is a big distraction, you could try burning it in PS to reduce the highlights or if it's a raw file tweak it in Lightroom to reduce them.
Straighten your horizon. if like _Belial's recent urbex shots it is intentional to go off angle then fine but always try to keep the a level as possible. The slant in the patio door is a big distraction.
Always double check the view finder, one thing I have noticed is the clump of dog hair on your boy's tracksuit bottoms, attention to details like that can either make or break a cracking shot.
If you really wanted to set that shot up again I would swing your sofa round so it is facing the patio window, if the room is small open the door and take the shot from outside looking in, use a tripod so you constantly check the image is level, the little details like dog hair's etc etc, take several shots starting with huge a aperture say f/2.8 with the focal point on the back of the dog then close it down till you hit f/16 that way you will have whole heap of different DOF's to play with. Then take the camera off the tripod and get in close, look for close up shots that tell the story, the dog's paw in the hand, the dejected look on the boys face etc etc. it may cost you a KFC or similar to keep your son happy for the 20 mins it will take but you will then get a whole heap of shots to play around with. If you are doing close up portrait shots always keep the eyes in focus at all times, use an af point to focus on either the dogs or your sons eyes, hold that focus point and re-compose the image.
When shooting with the sun behind you always watch for your shadow cast, move to a position that eliminated that and if you are going in close a sheet of polystyrene is a very cheap way of making a reflector, place it on the floor under the subject or hold it close and it will bounce natural even light on to the subject.
Fill the frame. kill the dead space, get in nice and close that will avoid the distractions of the room, ie. yukka plant.

dpsparhawk - To get a greater blur on the background it's all down to the DOF, using a wide aperture say f2/8 to f/5.6 and focus on subject close to you will result in the background being blurred, this works best with close up work, ie macro and portrait stuff, it will be evident in landscape shots and one where the main subject is a fair way from the camera but it is not as prominent then.

Hope I wasn't to harsh and you understand what I was explaining about in order to improve the shot.

[peterc4]

like it, the back ground is a little bright and a touch out of focus, nice non the less

[Bilbo_baggin]

What Wingnut said..

Nice family album shot though.

Paul.

[liveseytowers]

Can't really leave much comment other than I like it Dog looks cute

[taxi]

very nice shot and a loverly dog and very clever got one me self but lives with the ex wive

[elephantsoup]

Some great advice there from Wingnut. Nice dog.

[dpSparhawk]

Thanks Wingnut. I should have known because I knew that shooting at F1.8 (nifty fifty) gives a really minimal depth of field but it's always a good help to read it from someone elses explanation.

[[wingnut]]

No problems mate, as I always say I am more than happy to help out where possible..

[ise438]

Thanks for all the great advice guys.

This picture was basically a snapshot I was playing with my new lens 17-85 IS and my son and dog were sort of posing...althought that exactly what my son looks when his in trouble.

I just happen to notice it when looking over the shot..

Here another happier shot...it's not great just nice..