Angelica Oung
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Sleepy dogs
- Thread starter Angelica Oung
- Start date
Asher Kelman
OPF Owner/Editor-in-Chief
Hi Angelica,
Welcome to OPF! I hear you are a user of the K10d? Well, that's great. I like the idea that Pentax is making such an innovative small camera with great new limited lenses and water-protected too!
Your picture is very warm and sympathetic with feelings of safety, comfort and security. The composition with the circular disposition of the close bodies provides movement for the eye in such a restful picture.
It also depicts trust between the powerful and the vulnerable. The colors are great and the shading makes the dogs real.
Some pointers, from my perspective. The caveat is I have no idea what your experience with image processing is. This may be just a snap shot. However I see it can be more. You may have considered processing further and chosen not to bother. Then, just ignore what follows!
The pillows being crumpled, while honest, is distracting. That might be better blurred. Some ways to achieve that, of course.
Anyway, I like the picture and believe it's well worth working on it so that the dogs are clearly presented. Let us know how you processed the image and did you use any adjustments in photoshop or sharpening?
Asher
Welcome to OPF! I hear you are a user of the K10d? Well, that's great. I like the idea that Pentax is making such an innovative small camera with great new limited lenses and water-protected too!
Your picture is very warm and sympathetic with feelings of safety, comfort and security. The composition with the circular disposition of the close bodies provides movement for the eye in such a restful picture.
It also depicts trust between the powerful and the vulnerable. The colors are great and the shading makes the dogs real.
Some pointers, from my perspective. The caveat is I have no idea what your experience with image processing is. This may be just a snap shot. However I see it can be more. You may have considered processing further and chosen not to bother. Then, just ignore what follows!
The pillows being crumpled, while honest, is distracting. That might be better blurred. Some ways to achieve that, of course.
- Use a narrow depth of field by opening the lens to the widest aperture. That way only the dogs are in focus.
- Select the background with a feather of say 5-10 pixels, copy and paste, then and use a Gaussian Blur filter and add back a percentage to soften the background.
- Use selective lighting to the dogs and keep the sheet unlit
- Use a black background
Anyway, I like the picture and believe it's well worth working on it so that the dogs are clearly presented. Let us know how you processed the image and did you use any adjustments in photoshop or sharpening?
Asher
Angelica Oung
New member
Thanks, Asher. The more I read and post on this forum (all of two days) the more I'm starting to see photoshop not as a luxury but a necessity if I want to get on with digital photography. I guess it does everything we used to do in the darkroom in the printing process and more.
I think working with the image is a lot easier than working with the dogs. The possibility that they'll cooperate for a shoot by reenacting the pose again is slim. But I am curious...how would I put light on the dogs without putting light on the sheets? If I use the flash on my camera, that would be worse than nothing, no?
Using a freeware tool called Toyviewer, I tried to execute some of your suggestions. However, toyviewer only allows you to blur in rectangular blocks so it is obviously not suitable for a final image. Still, I think you're right basically -- taking out a little of the wrinkles (I think I way overdid it) would really make the shot look more focused and more intimate.
Also, looking at the exif data I realized that this was not one I took with my new Pentax K10D but with my husband's canon powershot s400 that was lying on the nightstand! A little embarrasing, but goes to show that having a camera when you need it is more important than the camera itself sometimes!
I think working with the image is a lot easier than working with the dogs. The possibility that they'll cooperate for a shoot by reenacting the pose again is slim. But I am curious...how would I put light on the dogs without putting light on the sheets? If I use the flash on my camera, that would be worse than nothing, no?
Using a freeware tool called Toyviewer, I tried to execute some of your suggestions. However, toyviewer only allows you to blur in rectangular blocks so it is obviously not suitable for a final image. Still, I think you're right basically -- taking out a little of the wrinkles (I think I way overdid it) would really make the shot look more focused and more intimate.
Also, looking at the exif data I realized that this was not one I took with my new Pentax K10D but with my husband's canon powershot s400 that was lying on the nightstand! A little embarrasing, but goes to show that having a camera when you need it is more important than the camera itself sometimes!
Asher Kelman
OPF Owner/Editor-in-Chief
Hi Angelica,
Where are you located? Do you currently own photoshop? It might be that there are inexpensive courses near you. It would take all of 1-2 hour at the most to get you comfortable with the level of work you need. This help is availablr inentry level digital photography forum and you'll get lots of help there.
This is not like software programming. Everything is pretty simple and rather intuitive once you are shown around the playground, so to speak!
Concerning lighting, the simple way is to have the dogs on a dark sheet and near a window. You can use a large white card (or reflective cloth disc) to direct more light to the front of that setup beforehand and then get your dogs to snuggle together again. It's like a date, they may need a lttle alcohol first! Just joking! Don't do that!
If you choose a fabric that doesn't get creases you are better off. Gentle overlapping folds in a covering can be very attractive. However, there is no purpose in having the background of your dog portrait, white and bright (unless you have that in your artistic design), at it might make the b.g. more important than your dogs!
The important thing is that one takes this picture, prints it out, puts it in a ring binder and then mark up the picture with what is good and what you might improve.
The start of a great picture Angelica is the concept! That's really good!
Asher
Where are you located? Do you currently own photoshop? It might be that there are inexpensive courses near you. It would take all of 1-2 hour at the most to get you comfortable with the level of work you need. This help is availablr inentry level digital photography forum and you'll get lots of help there.
This is not like software programming. Everything is pretty simple and rather intuitive once you are shown around the playground, so to speak!
Concerning lighting, the simple way is to have the dogs on a dark sheet and near a window. You can use a large white card (or reflective cloth disc) to direct more light to the front of that setup beforehand and then get your dogs to snuggle together again. It's like a date, they may need a lttle alcohol first! Just joking! Don't do that!
If you choose a fabric that doesn't get creases you are better off. Gentle overlapping folds in a covering can be very attractive. However, there is no purpose in having the background of your dog portrait, white and bright (unless you have that in your artistic design), at it might make the b.g. more important than your dogs!
The important thing is that one takes this picture, prints it out, puts it in a ring binder and then mark up the picture with what is good and what you might improve.
The start of a great picture Angelica is the concept! That's really good!
Asher
Angelica Oung
New member
No, I do not currently own photoshop. It looks like a necessary purchase, however. Is photoshop elements good enough for photo editing needs? If I need extra help I can always swap some English conversation lessons for photoshop ones. I'm lucky to live in Taipei where the English conversation practice is always in good demand!
Thanks for the lighting advice. I'll grab a big white card and keep it in my bedroom. Maybe I'll try some blue sheets. That'll still look normal enough in the bedroom but will hopefully provide a less distracting backdrops if the dogs decide to snuggle again.
And I'll follow your advice about the printouts. I don't get my photos printed out often enough. Usually they just get passed back and forth as email files.
Thanks for the lighting advice. I'll grab a big white card and keep it in my bedroom. Maybe I'll try some blue sheets. That'll still look normal enough in the bedroom but will hopefully provide a less distracting backdrops if the dogs decide to snuggle again.
And I'll follow your advice about the printouts. I don't get my photos printed out often enough. Usually they just get passed back and forth as email files.