My Pup, Action Shots

[DavidG]

Hello all, first post here. I was recently introduced to Steve's youtube channel and over the last few days I have watched many of his videos. I bought a Nikon D3500 a few years ago, took some pictures for a while, kind of lost interest, but have recently gotten the itch again after a friend decided to upgrade his camera gear. Naturally I had to do the same, so I purchased a D500 to go with the Tamron 70-200 that was sitting in the closet collecting dust.

These photos are from the first afternoon I took the camera out to get some shots with it and start to get familiar with the controls. Five minutes and 250 pics later I realized this 10fps was a lot of fun! I liked this little burst as she was catching her ball so I decided I would do some work on them and make a little printed set to look back on later when I have more time through the camera and maybe do another similar shoot. Curious to hear any and all feedback, maybe a little more interested in thoughts on the post processing/camera shot settings, and not quite as much on composition (I know it isn't the greatest) but it is all welcome.

Keep in mind I am not greatly experienced so try keep the big fancy photography terms down to simple words haha.

These were taken with a Nikon D500, Tamron 70-200 F2.8. ISO 280 / 105mm / F4.5 / 1/2500 sec

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[frdjohns]

Glad to see your first post and I hope you enjoy that D500. As far as post-processing, I would offer that perhaps you should go a bit lighter on the vignetting. On tall thin images like these, close together, the vignette distracts from your subject.

Oh, and very cool looking pup.

 

[Butlerkid]

Great action shots! Try to place the subject slightly to one side or the other (i.e. not in the center), allowing a bit more room in the direction it is facing/moving.

 

[Charles Loy]

Back off the contrast and up the exposure (brighter) a tad, suggestion.

 

[bleirer]

Welcome! You didn't say what program you used for post processing, but I'd say back off the contrast so the darker areas on the dog have a chance to show more detail. Also you could try to brighten the image overall (sliding the exposure/brightness slider to the right.)

 

[DavidG]

Back off the contrast and up the exposure (brighter) a tad, suggestion.

Welcome! You didn't say what program you used for post processing, but I'd say back off the contrast so the darker areas on the dog have a chance to show more detail. Also you could try to brighten the image overall (sliding the exposure/brightness slider to the right.)

I am using lightroom classic to the post processing, at this time my method is normally to use the auto feature to get me started, maybe adjust white balance then tweak things here and there until I get something that looks good to me. Hopefully here in the near future I will check out a lightroom tutorial so I can be a little more deliberate in my approach to post processing.

I will check out that contrast for sure.

It seems my eye tends to prefer a little bit darker photo as I have had some friends mention the same thing when I send some processed pics in a group chat, but I am also noticing that looking at the pics right now on a different computer than I edited on they do seem a bit darker, maybe I need to check some settings on my home computers monitor. I will try doing a few exports of one of these tonight with some tweaks to the exposure and compare them side by side or maybe post them up in here as well.

 

[DavidG]

Great action shots! Try to place the subject slightly to one side or the other (i.e. not in the center), allowing a bit more room in the direction it is facing/moving.

A question I have regarding this, my intent was to be able to print a small set of photos to hang together that would show the motion throughout the set of photos, so I cropped it just wide enough, so she was in the picture in all of them but at the same time I wanted the background to stay the same throughout. Would you feel the better route there would be, widen the crop on all photos even though a couple of them would have a lot of empty background to one side?

 

[bleirer]

I am using lightroom classic to the post processing, at this time my method is normally to use the auto feature to get me started, maybe adjust white balance then tweak things here and there until I get something that looks good to me. Hopefully here in the near future I will check out a lightroom tutorial so I can be a little more deliberate in my approach to post processing.

I will check out that contrast for sure.

It seems my eye tends to prefer a little bit darker photo as I have had some friends mention the same thing when I send some processed pics in a group chat, but I am also noticing that looking at the pics right now on a different computer than I edited on they do seem a bit darker, maybe I need to check some settings on my home computers monitor. I will try doing a few exports of one of these tonight with some tweaks to the exposure and compare them side by side or maybe post them up in here as well.

Most home computers, especially laptops, if they are not calibrated, are too bright and too cool (towards the blue), so when we edit we go too warm and too dark to compensate. The devices to calibrate are not too expensive and easy to use (might be worth a new thread to ask about it.) You could try lowering the brightness of the monitor a bit. Maybe adjust it to look normal in a blackened room, then use that setting in a normally lit room.

Also maybe peek at the "local contrast" sliders, dehaze, clarity, texture. Its easy to overdo those.

 

[bleirer]

If you send it out to quality printing places like bay photo they have a human to adjust the color and brightness for you, within reason.

 

[coachjohn57]

There have been some good suggestions made; color calibrating your monitor is a critical step in processing your images. If you don't, you are almost assured that the printed image will not match what you see on screen (or what others may see on their screen if it is calibrated). It's a nice series of your pup!

 

[EricBowles]

I am using lightroom classic to the post processing, at this time my method is normally to use the auto feature to get me started, maybe adjust white balance then tweak things here and there until I get something that looks good to me. Hopefully here in the near future I will check out a lightroom tutorial so I can be a little more deliberate in my approach to post processing.

I will check out that contrast for sure.

It seems my eye tends to prefer a little bit darker photo as I have had some friends mention the same thing when I send some processed pics in a group chat, but I am also noticing that looking at the pics right now on a different computer than I edited on they do seem a bit darker, maybe I need to check some settings on my home computers monitor. I will try doing a few exports of one of these tonight with some tweaks to the exposure and compare them side by side or maybe post them up in here as well.

In Lightroom, try using a white background to better assess the brightness and exposure of your image. Just mouse over the background and right click in Windows. A white background is makes it easier to assess brightness and exposure while a gray or black background is better for evaluating color.

I find the Auto setting in LR applies a little too much color and darkens blacks. That's okay at times, but as a default is a bit much for my taste. The other feature I use is to use an adjustment layer and select the subject. I often want the subject a little brighter - and then copy and invert to make the background a little darker with reduced contrast. This is a common portrait technique using flash and it applies to pets or wildlife as well.

 

[DavidG]

Dropped contrast and upped exposure just a little bit. Let's go for round two.

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[bleirer]

Looks much better without the vignette and you can see more detail in the fur. You could go a little more to my eye.

Maybe go to the curve, use the selection tool to find where the dark fur is falling on the curve, click to create a control point (right click to remove any control points too close to that one), and use the up arrow key one click at a time to raise the output a tiny bit with each click.

Or use the exposure and or shadows sliders, that works too.