Pictures of animals

wheetbred

Hey guys, I just purchased my camera and I'm mainly going to be shooting pictures of dogs. Dogs out in nature (park, yard) and also inside during dog shows (some movement but mostly still indoor shots). I have the 18-55mm lens that came with it and also the 55-200mm lens. Any tips for a starting point as far as settings? I have downloaded the cheat sheets, I just don't know which sheets to apply if any of them do.

bruto

For the dogs out in nature, I'd consider them essentially the same as wildlife. Watch out for exposure if your subject is not very large in the frame, in a bright environment such as beach or snow, and consider spot metering or compensation.

For more sedate animals in shows, where you're also likely to be closer up, you might try the settings for children indoors.

Moose

Hey @wheetbred - Use the "Sports / Fast Action" cheat card when photographing dogs out in nature. This will ensure you get sharp results as they run around.

As for indoor dog shows, you're going to need a brighter/faster lens. If you don't have full access, meaning you're shooting from the stands, you're going to need a 70-200mm f/2.8. This lens is really expensive, however, if you're photographing fast moving subjects in low light, from a distance, this is really your only option.

If you only plan on going to a couple dog shows a year, then I would rent rather than buy. You should be able to rent a 70-200mm f/2.8 for around $50 for a few days.

If you have full access to the dog show, you can pick up a 35mm or 50mm f/1.8G and get excellent results when shooting in low light. All the best!

wheetbred

Thanks for your responses guys. At the dog shows I attend, spectators can be as close as ringside, so I would never be more than 30-40 feet away from the dogs and their handlers. Would the 35mm lens be sufficient for that distance?

bruto

I suspect that at the distances involved, 50mm might be better. But remember you have a lens now that covers both the 35mm and 50mm ranges. Experiment a bit with your expected distance, and see which focal length seems more suitable.

For greater distances, renting a lens seems a good idea. It might be enough never to buy it, but if you do want to own one, you'll know exactly what you are buying.

Also remember that if you shoot at the highest density, and especially in Raw form, there is some cropping room. If you need the wider view of the 35mm you can still crop an image down quite a bit without a lot of loss, especially if it's going to be posted on the web.


Again, if you have time to experiment, try to figure out what size and presentation you'll need, and experiment with cropping some full resolution images to see where your quality boundaries are. Once upon a time, after all, the best DX cameras delivered a 6 megapixel image, and that could be very good. You get that by cropping out half the width and half the height of a D3200 image. You may be surprised at how much you can down sample and still have a decent image. One of the great virtues of our huge resolution is how much you can crop.

If you do crop, it works best if you start with a Raw image, and crop that. Do the JPG conversion and any post processing on the cropped result.