Blonde

In the light of Julie's orange curtains.

doug anderson said:

In the light of Julie's orange curtains.

Click to expand...

Doug,

The lighting is warm and autumn-like. Your subject is in good shape and has a wonderful coat. I am troubled by the fact that the dog is leaving the picture, by his direction. The left side is not balanced. Essentially this setting is great but perhaps it might be more effective with the dog on the left, at the start of the picture. Otherwise we have to scan across emptiness before reaching the main subject.



Better turn dog to face right again, forget about your furniture! I just sketched it.



Also there needs to be some light to the face. It's good to have white card around. I always have various sized cards (white one side and black the other) and it can make a real difference in building this shot. Consider how to simplify the scene. Given the interesting subject and soft setting, you would get rewarded handsomely for the effort.

Asher

Asher Kelman said:

Doug,

The lighting is warm and autumn-like. Your subject is in good shape and has a wonderful coat. I am troubled by the fact that the dog is leaving the picture, by his direction. The left side is not balanced. Essentially this setting is great but perhaps it might be more effective with the dog on the left, at the start of the picture. Otherwise we have to scan across emptiness before reaching the main subject.

Better turn dog to face right again, forget about your furniture! I just sketched it.

Also there needs to be some light to the face. It's good to have white card around. I always have various sized cards (white one side and black the other) and it can make a real difference in building this shot. Consider how to simplify the scene. Given the interesting subject and soft setting, you would get rewarded handsomely for the effort.

Asher

Click to expand...

Asher: what's a white card? A gray card for digital? A reflector?

I lightened up the photo, including the face, in PS; but the face was just too dark to begin with.

Question: what about negative space? The cropped version is nice, but the full frame also has its advantages.

Thanks for posting, as always.

By the way, you have my permission to re-post my shots any time you want.

D

Hi Doug,

One can buy from a camera store some very nice car which has white on one side and matt black on the other. This comes in various sizes up to 4'x8'! However one can get a card just about 24" x36" and that's a convenient size. You can use this card to increase the light on a subject and open the shadows by reflecting natural light or light from a flash. Also you can turn the card to the black side and use that to hold back or more gently add the reflections coming, for example on the contralateral side of a model or subject by the window.

You also can use such cards for blocking stay light or trimming light from a softbox or window. It's a very simple and easy to store accessory and once you have them you will use them more and more and come to rely on them for distributing light without buying more strobes or reflectors.

In any case, I like your subject. What's Julie's breed and her age? I hope you will start again and do this over and over! A light dog by the window is a challenge. Simplify, remove anything that might cause clutter. You have a worthy subject.

Asher

Doug, I save the nice white 1/4 inch foam packing from shipping. When I use off camera flash on one side of my dogs I put the white foam on the opposite side. It gives a nice fill light thats not over powering. Works for me.

I had my wife pick up about the same thing at Wal-mart to make a nice soft box.