Learner looking for advice

[AndyLoughton]

Hi everbody that cares to answer.

I'm totally new to the world of photography and I seem to be learning quite quickly , however the basics are always the soundest starting point. In the photo attached i ve taken of my dog i have tried to gain the best vantage point to light the subject but by doing this have created a blown out back ground on the wall where the sun reflection is brightest on the wall. My question is should I change the angle of taking the picture or is there some other way of improving the end result.

Regards and tanks for any replies

Andy (Cape Town)

[Linda G]

Hi Andy and welcome to the digital world!

Your exposure is perfect for your subject but, as you've found out, not for the whole image. There really is no way to get around this issue, best thing to do (as if the dog would stay still this long) is to go more to your right so the tree or whatever is dark back there is behind the dog, providing you with less difference in light between your subject and background. You could also have gotten higher, putting grass behind the dog, but I like the angle you've chosen.

[proberts]

As Linda pointed out, there's more dynamic range in the frame than the camera can capture- if you're shooting in RAW mode, you can "cheat" a bit, and re-import into the raw converter, and drop exposure a couple of stops and then combine the two images in Photoshop. If you're shooting jpeg, it might be worth setting up the bracketing function, and doing the same thing (actually, that's the best way to deal with it in raw mode too, just in case the overexposure is too high to capture any detail.)

Washing out the background isn't too bad a thing- after all, you want people to focus on the subject- the issue is that the eye is drawn to the brightest parts of a picture. You can just make the white areas darker if you want the picture to improve the shot without reshooting it.

Hope this helps,

Paul

[AndyLoughton]

Thanks Guys

The replys are being processed.

Regards

Andy (Cape Town)