Technique assessment
BIGGER IS BETTER
Adrian says... Kaitlin was shooting with
an 18-105mm f/3.5-5.6 lens. While
this would be fine for close-up
portraits of dogs, most kit
lenses can’t focus fast enough
for action images. You often
need a wide aperture as well,
partly for fast shutter speeds,
and partly to help blur out the
backgrounds. For most of the
day we used my Sigma 35mm
f/1.4 A and Nikon 70-200mm f/2.8.CATCH THE LIGHT
Adrian says... Initially Kaitlin was taking
photos without noting where the sun
was positioned, but having the sun
to your back is important. Unlike
humans, dogs don’t squint very
much, and the catchlights in
their eyes can really make
their expressions come alive.
In the winter the light tends to be
more flattering because it’s much
lower in the sky, and not as harsh
(see right). In the summer, you either
need to shoot early or late in the day, or
failing that, in the shade or when it’s overcast.AUTOMATIC ISO
Adrian says... To start with Kaitlin
didn’t adjust her ISO sensitivity,
so even with her aperture wide
open, she was having to make
do with quite slow shutter
speeds. To get round this I
suggested setting aperture-
priority mode, and Auto ISO,
with a minimum shutter speed to
avoid blur. This helps beginners (and
pros), as they can focus on getting the
shot without worrying about shutter speed.Our Apprentice says... With aperture-priority
mode set, lots of my early shots of Jester were
over-exposed, and I wasn’t sure why. Adrian
explained that cameras can make mistakes
when metering. He suggested looking at the
histogram view. I saw the graphs stacking up
against the right, and Adrian explained that this meant the
highlights in my photos were blown out. He advised me to dial
in some negative exposure compensation, to darken things up
a touch, and this worked a treat, as the shot above shows.HOT
SHOT
#1
Introduction
Kaitlin loves to photograph her
(very lively!) Springer Spaniel, but
she sometimes struggles with her
settings and composition, so we
teamed her up with Adrian, and his
dogs Jester and Roxy, for a one-
day workshop on shooting still and
moving pet portraits on location.
Before they got started, though,
Adrian had a few pointers on lens
choice, lighting and exposure...OVER TO YOU THE APPRENTICE
EXPOSURE 1/1000 sec, f/5, ISO220
LENS Nikon AF-S 70-200mm f/2.8G ED VR68 March 2016