Taking pictures of dogs shaking

T

timboellis

Suspended / Banned
Messages
282
Name
Tim Ellis
Edit My Images
No
I have been trying to take pictures of my dogs when coming out of the water shaking so looking to freeze everything.

I assume this would be a job for a flash I tried the onboard flash but not strong enough however am I right in saying the fastest I could get with flash will be 1/250 but that too slow

Or am I missing somthing do I get a bigger flash?
 
Not necessary a flash job, Tim. I suggest that you set up an against the light shot.
Pick somewhere (plenty lochside paces near Thurso) where the dog will come out of the water with it between the sun and you. Shutter speed 1/250 or 1/500. Get yourself a low viewpoint and meter for a mid grey tone prior to taking the shot. Good luck.
 
timboellis said:
I have been trying to take pictures of my dogs when coming out of the water shaking so looking to freeze everything.

I assume this would be a job for a flash I tried the onboard flash but not strong enough however am I right in saying the fastest I could get with flash will be 1/250 but that too slow

Or am I missing somthing do I get a bigger flash?
Click to expand...

Is there any reason you feel the need to use flash Tim? I assume you are not taking the dog swimming at night :shrug:
 
Are you shooting in reasonable daylight?
If so shoot at a high shutter speed (shutter priority). I would try 1/1000 for starters and see how that goes.

If you are shooting at night and using a flash for all your lighting then the 1/250 doesn't really matter that much. If you do not have enough light from your flash then you wil need a flash gun with a higher light output.
 
In all honesty Tim you may have well answered this question in your " What lens / Camera " thread. As technicaly there is no mirror shutter sytem in your camera you should be able to shoot at up to 1/1000 in daylight with flash. You might also want to consider the advantage of focus tracking, servo modes etc in todays DSLR`s, all of these things will help towards freezing the action of shots which you want to take. I am not saying it is impossible with the Sony, perhaps just a little harder to achieve on a regular basis.
 
timboellis said:
This may be a really stupid question but back in the day when I had my canon AE1 when using flash above 1/250 the developed pictures used to come 1/2 black due to the shutter?
Click to expand...

Think you will find sync speed was 1/60 on the old canon, your shutter could not keep up with the flash output.
 
If you look at those photos of dogs shaking that really work, you will probably notice that they are under good strong light.

Try it at the brightest time of day. Get as close as you can as this allows you to open up the aperture more on your R1. Shoot at F2.8 if you can and up the ISO as much as possible to get your shutter speed high.
 
You may try by closing down the aperture so the flash is then freezing the movement instantly, shutter speed is not much of a factor, but you will loose out on ambient light getting in, which may not matter too much.
 
I have to say I can't remember ever seeing an advice thread on TP with so much misinformation. Apart from these 2, there's a lot of nonsense and irrelevant twaddle.

To capture water droplets you need some backlight, and to capture the dog without blur you need a fast shutter speed. and to keep the attention on the subject you need clean backgrounds. Simples..:)
arclight said:
Not necessary a flash job, Tim. I suggest that you set up an against the light shot.
Pick somewhere (plenty lochside paces near Thurso) where the dog will come out of the water with it between the sun and you. Shutter speed 1/250 or 1/500. Get yourself a low viewpoint and meter for a mid grey tone prior to taking the shot. Good luck.
Click to expand...

RichardtheSane said:
If you look at those photos of dogs shaking that really work, you will probably notice that they are under good strong light.
...
Click to expand...
 
As ever, "it's all about the light" and perhaps you just need more! In an ideal world, nice bright sunshine to really make the droplets 'zing' but under a bit of cover so the exposure is even.

As said before, it's going to need a fast shutter speed to freeze those droplets.

Might sound daft, but why not experiment with a mop, or something? Would help you to get the settings near enough and then bracket the exposure when you take it, if worried?
 
Moos3h said:
As ever, "it's all about the light" and perhaps you just need more! In an ideal world, nice bright sunshine to really make the droplets 'zing' but under a bit of cover so the exposure is even.

As said before, it's going to need a fast shutter speed to freeze those droplets.

Might sound daft, but why not experiment with a mop, or something? Would help you to get the settings near enough and then bracket the exposure when you take it, if worried?
Click to expand...

Well i will keep trying walking with the dogs daily and being labs always in the water
 
Just uploaded a few of my failures a couple of days ago

Will go ahead on my next day off on Tuesday and try a few things out.

10390942274_5fa6472868_b.jpg


10390977216_761202e67d_b.jpg
 
Yeah, bare flash is going to look harsh, try the above fast shutter speeds, 1/1000th and above if you can, if not maybe a couple of off camera flash guns, triggers, soft box's, the whole caboodle for a pro photo shoot is needed, it's all about the light I tell thee:lol:
 
its not just harsh but burnt out - like the exposure wasn't correct

To be honest i wouldn't use flash for this at all , just pick a reasonably bright day, set your apperture reasonably wide (about f5.6 will give sufficient dof to get the dogs head fully in focus) and turn the iso up to facilitate as fast a shutter speed as possible.

then focus on the dogs eyes and shoot (pictures will also look stronger if you get down to the dogs level rather than shooting down at it)
 
Here's some for inspiration

These appear to have been done in a studio, but the principal is pretty much the same. As people have said, fast shutter is key. If you have off-camera flash, you could try setting this behind or to one side of the dog, or get someone to hold it. Then all you have to do is train the animal to stand in the right place and shake on command. :)
 
big soft moose said:
its not just harsh but burnt out - like the exposure wasn't correct

To be honest i wouldn't use flash for this at all , just pick a reasonably bright day, set your apperture reasonably wide (about f5.6 will give sufficient dof to get the dogs head fully in focus) and turn the iso up to facilitate as fast a shutter speed as possible.

then focus on the dogs eyes and shoot (pictures will also look stronger if you get down to the dogs level rather than shooting down at it)
Click to expand...

This ^



(or - what I said?)
 
getting there - you still have a "my dog" angle though - try kneeling and shooting straight on at their head height
 
was she below you ? - these shots definitely show you shooting down towards her (ref the filthy - take a bin liner to lie on next time
 
big soft moose said:
was she below you ? - these shots definitely show you shooting down towards her (ref the filthy - take a bin liner to lie on next time
Click to expand...

These shot were taken when i was in the process of getting down.

So throw stone in the water lay down get ready.

Will give it a bash the morrow with a small collection of stones beside me / bin bag / and ready for the shot/
 
timboellis said:
I was kneeling and laying down, I was filthy, however the shot where i was laying down she decided to hump me so those shots not so great!!!!
Click to expand...

Brilliant, this is turning into the funniest thread on TP.
 
Yes I think natural light is your friend, flashlights would freeze the droplets but only at the expense of losing ambient light. Forget studio lighting unless you have special high speed lights as they won't freeze motion. Most studio lights are less that 1/1000 and can be as low as 1/300 on the poorer ones. I tried an experiment prior to a wet studio shoot using a shower head. I found I needed around 1/1500 to be sure of freezing the droplets completely. Flash heads have very short duration flash so will work but only if it becomes the primary light source.
As advice above get as a high a shutter speed as you can on a nice bright day!
 
Backlit looks nice... low evening sun behind the dog... whatever aperture/ISO gives you around 1/250th.
 
timboellis said:
I have been trying to take pictures of my dogs when coming out of the water shaking so looking to freeze everything.

I assume this would be a job for a flash I tried the onboard flash but not strong enough however am I right in saying the fastest I could get with flash will be 1/250 but that too slow

Or am I missing somthing do I get a bigger flash?
Click to expand...

You need ultra high sync speed flash. They cost ALOT of money.
 
Your second set look like someone knew what they were doing when the took them "vast improvment" It's up to you on viewpoint/composition put as already said the norm is eye level.

Well done for sticking at it.

Gaz

edit. Just had a look at your flickr and the black dog taken at eye level really does prove the point :-)
 
Last edited:
To be honest, I don't see any real difference between this and the photos in post #23. The "new kit" isn't going to make much of a difference. What would make a difference is (a) getting the light right; and (b) getting down to the same level as the dog. Neither of those is dependent on the kit.
 
Well i agree with regards to getting down on the level, however the kit has made a massive difference , i have not uploaded most of the shots i took today, but the new kit compaired to what i had has enabled me to take a faster shutter and freezing the images more successfully than before and its more hit than miss as it was before.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top