Man's Best Friend

It's been a while since I've gotten a good picture of our puppy, so while my wife and son were napping today, I thought I'd try to get one done.  I set up my new backdrop behind the couch and called her up to the seat.  She is typically eager to get on the couch as much as possible, to the point that we've got a blanket over 1/3 of our couch, specifically as her 'spot'.  She loves sitting up there with us.

We've got a large set of windows in our family room and I knew it would work well for a natural light photo.  While it was kind of cloudy outside and not overly bright, I knew the camera I was using (Canon 1D mkIII) would be able to pump up the ISO to keep it properly lit.

I grabbed some treats, to keep her attention and went about trying to grab a shot of her.  I dangled the treat above the lens to keep her looking at the camera and made noises to get her ears perked up...once I saw them perk up, I snapped a couple shots.  This went on for a few minutes until I could see that she was losing interest pretty quickly.  Finally, she just laid her ears back, put her head down and quit responding to treats and whistles.  I got a few images in the 5 minutes the shoot took and this one was by far the best of the group.

In post processing, I put a couple of textures on the background that I found on-line.  I wanted to at least give it a little bit of interest, but not make it dominate the picture.  I lowered the opacity of the layers down to 15-25% each and blurred them to keep them looking like background, rather than a separate layer.  I was pretty pleased with the way the layers came out, but wished I could make them slightly blurrier without making them weird.

I really like the tones and colors of the image.  I like the combination of the different textures of the couch, dog and background and how the image is just slightly darker overall with the emphasis on the puppy.  It is a very casual pose for her, but I think that she still looks pretty cool.

Let me know what you think.

T.