Friday, May 4, 2012

Friday faces at Gettysburg

After I did a session with two greyhounds at Sachs covered bridge in Gettysburg on Friday (about which I'll share in a future post) I drove over to the vendor area to see what and who was there. It was cold and windy that day after being soaked in a brief downpour the night before.

A number of greyhounds were bundled up against the dry, brisk wind that went through the vendor tents. Greyhounds aren't as resistant to either heat or cold as, say, your typical dog. You'll sometimes hear it said in greyhound adoption circles that if you're cold, then your greyhound is cold, too. On the other hand, I've seen where greyhounds who live in northern climes are just fine running and playing in snow during the winter, and jackets aren't worn until the temperatures drop to near freezing.

I wandered from tent to tent looking for faces to photograph.Here are a few that I saw:













I haven't gotten around to fixing any of these yet. I used center-weighted metering more than I used matrix metering for the first time, I think. For dogs I like how it's better at bringing out the eyes. None of the metering choices I have (matrix, center, spot) are perfect for every lighting situation. I just have to be a little more aware of how the light is, and what mode will give me what I want. Most of the time, up till now, I use matrix. But with greyhounds I tend to have a problem with the eyes being way underexposed when using matrix. In other situations matrix does a good job of exposing the eyes properly. I'm still learning, but it's fun.

(Shot with the Nikon D300 using the 70-200mm f/2.8 VR zoom; aperture-priority, with aperture set to f/2.8; center-weighted metered; normal JPG.)

17 comments:

  1. Very cute pups. I've even started using spot metering for darker dogs especially if they are backlit. Otherwise they are very underexposed. I would rather blow out the background and expose for the dog.

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    1. i've done the same as well. and it doesn't look good in color i'll just convert to b&w and no one will know. ha!

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  2. You caught some great shots of some really cute pups! Your lighting is definitely better than mine!

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    1. ah, well, the white balance needs fixing on a number of these...that's obvious. but i'm playing around with metering to see what works and where so i can get better at it.

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  3. Great photos of beautiful pups Steve! :)

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    1. if only i could tell the difference between your two... :P

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  4. Vibrant colors .. awesome shots!

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    1. thank you. fyi, i have my nikon set to use the "vivid" picture control. it saturates colors more than the "normal" default setting, but not overly so. it's just what i prefer.

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  5. i never get tired of looking at them...just the variety in markings alone is amazing.

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  6. Although I'm late to comment, I belive the 4th one down from the top is our senior Galgo (over 8) Vento (Portuguese for wind). Great shot! How does one go about getting a copy or two?

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    1. you can purchase a digital copy or print by just clicking on the picture. you will then be directed to his picture in my gallery. just click on the "Buy" button to purchase a print (too many sizes to recite here) or a digital download ($25). if you get the download it'll be sent to your e-mail address as a zip file and you'll get it immediately; prints are delayed by 3 days so i can fix it first before it goes to my print lab.

      btw, his photo is straight out of the camera. if you want me to tweak it a bit i can do that. just let me know before you make a purchase.

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  7. What would you suggest needs tweaking? I'm definitely interested in purchasing it.

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    1. i think i'd try lightening his eyes a bit so that he doesn't look like he has two black holes for eyes. let me try that and i'll get back to you.

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    2. take a look at this, and see if you like it better --> http://smu.gs/JmieXI

      i turned down the exposure a bit, added a bit of fill lighting, added more exposure, sharpness, saturation, and clarity to his left eye, and vignetted the picture slightly.

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  8. Could there be something wrong with that link? I tried it and got a message about "These aren't the photos you are looking for" from "Smugmug's Support Heroes".

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    1. try it again. i just tested it and it's working as it should have earlier.

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