Opinions sought, if you please.

[Lonewolf]

As some of you may know I'm trying to perfect my 'skill's' & abilities in snapping some decent photos.  So far it's either photos of the bike or the dogs that I use as models.....


I would appreciate some honest feedback as to what you all think of these.


I took the below photos a few weeks ago down in some local woods while the Bluebells were still flowering.


A happy Milo.







A low key photo of the mean and moody Milo!









Our Mac.









You wouldn't believe how difficult this shot was, both dogs sat still & looking in the same direction.

[snowy]

Absolute class in my opinion! And two well behaved mutts posing like that! 
Love to know what you shoot with, and how, manual or auto focus, it's spot on with just enough diffusion through depth of field!
I'm trying to justify the expense getting an Olympus Pen F or OM D as always used OM SLR's in 35mm days, just keep using the phone for the majority of pics as convienience!
Top job in my opinion!
In fact.........The mutts' nuts!   

[PRD]

I know nothing about photography. Used to have an instamatic 25! But I think these photos are outstanding. This could be an alternative career for you.

[pross]

Once more excellent pictures in my opinion.
I wish I had the skill and know how.
Just don't have the patience to play and learn 

[BigAlan]

My son in law is a videographer wit is own business and e Jo looked anthem and he always uses exa lights everywhere, even on a camera he uses a flas jus to fall in the dark bits, on pic 1 the left side of the face is darker than the right so a fill in would be good.

I know nothing Andre look good to me.

Alan

[O.C.]

have you been on the vino Al ?    

Steve, you know what I think as I've told you before that you have a natural ability in the world of photography. 

There is a big difference in photographing a bike and photographing dogs, the dogs being much more difficult I think.

Either way your photographs are great.

Let me ask you a question. ......which do you prefer taking pictures of ?

[Lonewolf]

Thanks for all the comments.


I've put Big Al's comments in Google Translate and I think Google just crashed!




Roger, each has its own challenges. It's good to capture the spirit of a dog and get a striking image but then I've taken some pretty decent shots of bikes recently, I've even sold a couple which was a boost.


If anyone knows anyone with some sports bikes I'd love to shoot them.

[BigAlan]

Was trying to type on an iPad wit a little prong thing while watching the Grand Prix, obviously crap at typing while not looking but I know what I meant.

Fill in flash is needed, a told extra lights always helpful.

Alan

[virginiajim]

Steve, other than your obvious fault for owning a BMW, I do think you take marvelous photographs.

[O.C.]

Thanks for all the comments.


I've put Big Al's comments in Google Translate and I think Google just crashed!




Roger, each has its own challenges. It's good to capture the spirit of a dog and get a striking image but then I've taken some pretty decent shots of bikes recently, I've even sold a couple which was a boost.


If anyone knows anyone with some sports bikes I'd love to shoot them.

look out sports bike riders, Steve wants to shoot you   

Keep taking the pictures Steve   

[virginiajim]

Wolfie, I actually think you could actually make a career of this (or a well paid hobby).  You've certainly got a talent for it.

[Lonewolf]

Jim, if I could make a few extra £'s that would suit me just fine. I ain't greedy!

[Lonewolf]

Love to know what you shoot with, and how, manual or auto focus, it's spot on with just enough diffusion through depth of field!

I'm using a Sony A7r2 mirrorless, full frame camera which has an electronic viewfinder, which basically means that what you see in the viewfinder or screen is what you will get. So as you change the aperture or shutter speed on the camera, you see the changes taking place in real time on the screen. No test shots required to get the desired exposure.
I shoot in RAW rather than JPEG which gives me total control of the images, as opposed to the limited editing ability of shooting in JPEG. The camera shoots at a staggering 43MP!


The above images are significantly compressed for uploading to the forum, the actual files are razor sharp and the prints are even better.


I then edit the RAW images in Lightroom which is a professional editing package and occasionally use Photoshop before exporting the final edited photo as a JPEG.


These shots were taken with a prime 55mm Carl Ziess f1.8 lens which in itself is an outstanding piece of equipment.


I always shoot in manual mode but do use autofocus 99.9% of the time unless I have a really tricky subject in very poor light that the camera struggles to focus on.


The above photos were shot with natural light and then I used a white reflector to bounce some light back at the dogs. Black dogs are particularly difficult to photograph because black just absorbs light.


I have a couple of Rotologhts which are constant video lights and I will use those occasionally and I prefer those over flash as you have greater control of them.


So there you go, a lot of work goes into the photos, but well worth the effort

[Debs]

I love your pics Steve, and in fact, I've already borrowed a few and used them as the background on my desktop PC. The watermill one and the waterfall..   

You should watermark everyone with your copyright Steve, then if anyone sees them, they would know they are yours and may contact you for more 

[virginiajim]

+1!!!!