Puppy playdate and a new camera

This was my first outing with the new camera and the dogs' first outing together in the snow. The little black dog (my Bella) is fast and she was hard to catch on camera (I have a lot of shots of her back half...) I do have some lovely stills of my neighbors' dog, Maggie, but I'm more interested in figuring out how to catch the action.











Thoughts/comments? (First post here in this forum, I'm eager to learn.)

I have a hard time getting animals to do what I want them to when I have a camera. Thank goodness for digital cameras, where you can just eliminate all the pictures of the backs of their heads! My very, very amateur advice would be just to take a whole lot of pictures and you might find some great ones in the bunch.

It looks like you had fun snapping these, and the dogs look like they are having a great time in the snow. I think some of these capture the action. Could you let them off their leashes, or would they run away?

I know what you mean by 'thank goodness for digital cameras'. I couldn't afford to develop the pictures I took in that one session if I were still using film! My dad gave me the same advice though: "take lots of pictures". Guess experience IS the best teacher.

It was a fun session but the dogs are very different and getting them both in the picture was almost impossible (the black one ran circles around the Golden). I think maybe I have to focus on the Golden and just let Bella run into the scene. :)

They're both young and not fully trained so we're using 30 ft. leads to let them play - not safe to be off leash yet.

Anyway, thanks again for the input. I appreciate it.

They look very energetic for sure!

Edit: Did I drag this thread out of the mothballs? I could have sworn it was at the top of page 1 when I responded to it...sorry

The camera is Fuji FinePix S9600 (not an SLR but more than a point and shoot). It's been a long time since I've used more than a point and shoot and any tips/advice I can get re: shutter speed, aperture settings, etc are very welcome!

I'm glad you did.

A few observations

1) Your white balance is off on these shots. This is why they have that blue tint to them. Your camera has different white balance settings. This is something to play with. Different types of light require different settings. This can also be corrected in Photoshop and some other editing software.

This was done in Photoshop Elements with one simple action called 'remove color cast'.



2) You might try raising the iso on the camera. If you shot this in a higher iso it would allow the shutter to operate faster which would stop the action better.

As was stated down thread the EXIF data is missing. EXIF is embedded data in digital photos which tells what kind of camera, when it was shot and all of the camera settings. This can be eliminated in camera or when the photo is processed on your computer. This data would be helpful in determining how to advise you.

Good grief, I had no idea all the information that gets stored with each photo! I just looked at the "Summary" tab for the file properties - this is a huge find for me to analyze shooting results and make changes accordingly! It does look like when I scaled the pictues down in photobucket, the site removed all that info. I'll be sure to edit future pics with photo software rather than in photobucket. Thanks a bunch.

Thanks for the "remove color cast" tip, too. I can tinker with graphics programs but there's a bunch of stuff I've never played with. I'd rather get the right shot out of the camera but it's nice to know how to fix it in the meantime. :)

I'll have to look for the white balance settings on the camera - not sure I've run across that one yet in my exploration.

Seriously, though, thanks for the input! This is a great help in my education.

(All the EXIF data is missing from your photos.)

In general for moving targets you need to pan with them (follow the action before, during, and after) as you press the shutter release. For the dogs you will probably want a shutter speed of 1/250 or faster until you get good with the panning. This might mean that you need to choose a wider lens aperture (smaller number) and/or a higher ISO setting.

If your camera has multiple focus modes, you will want "continuous" for moving subjects. Auto focus works in two phases, "lock on" then "tracking". If the auto focus does not lock onto your target in the first place, there will be no tracking of the subject.

Sorry to be stupid, but like I said, I'm new here. :) These are not the original photos - I scaled them down in photobucket instead of using my own software. (I didn't realize photobucket messed with your pictures.)

I got a Fujifilm FinePix S9600 for Christmas and all the shutter speed/lens aperture/iso setting stuff is what I'm trying to figure out at this point. I just bought a reference book because the manual that came with the camera was obviously written by someone who doesn't speak English. Thanks for the tips on the speeds - I'll give that a shot (no pun intended! ;) )

The camera actually has a "continuous shooting" mode which I tried to use (I think the first few pics here were taken that way) but I don't think I've quite gotten the hang of it. The last two pics here were taken with manual focus and I think they came out better.

The speed of the little black dog is a problem. I was trying to follow her but she moves a LOT faster than I do. Problem is she's MY dog and she's the reason I got the camera - this camera has outstanding shutter lag. I will have to look at the camera's "lock on" and tracking abilities and figure out how to use it.

Thanks for taking some time to look at my pics. This is the kind of stuff I need to learn.

the 'shutter lag' is due to too low of ISO. ISO is the speed that the sensor absorbs light. It is like the film speed on 35mm film. The higher the number, the faster the sensor absorbs light and the faster the shutter can move to still give you a properly lit image. The down side is the faster the ISO the more noise (grainy) which may be visible in the image, so it is a balancing act.

I just finished scanning the quick review of it at dpreview.com. Fantastic shutter lag of only 0.01 seconds! You normally only see numbers that low with real SLRs.

I am guessing that a camera that small is going to have some problems with auto-focusing on moving targets. If that is the case, targets moving in the front-back plane will have problems due to the rapidly changing distance to the camera. However, targets moving in the left-right plane will not be changing their distance much making it easier for the camera to maintain focus.

ISO is your "film speed" or how fast light is absorbed by the sensor. Low number = low speed. The disadvantage to high ISO is more digital noise (film grain) in the pictures. (High speed = high noise) However, a noisy picture is better than no picture for most people. Software can help reduce the noise during postprocessing on your computer.

Aperture governs how much light comes through the lens and how much stuff is in focus.
Low number = big hole = lots of light = little in focus front-to-back.
High number = small hole = little light = lots in focus front-to-back.

Shutter speed (1/x seconds) governs how long the sensor is exposed to light. The longer the shutter is open, the more possibility you have of motion blur due to (1) the subject moving and (2) the camera moving.

EXIF data is all the notes about your camera and shooting settings that get stored in the file with the picture. (camera make and model, lens info, date-time, shutter speed, aperture, ISO setting, flash info, white balance, etc.) Lots of programs and websites like to remove this data. However, this data is the first thing asked for by others looking to help/comment.

And a whole lot more complicated. I couldn't swing the cost of an SLR yet and my photog skills certainly didn't warrant spending the money. We got a great deal on this one and figured it would hold me a few years while I get more experience.

The rest of your post is incredible - thank you for spending the time on it. It will take some time for me to digest - in fact, I'm going to print it out so I can read it while playing with the camera. I suspect one of the things I'm going to have to work on is where to find/set all these things on the camera quickly if I'm ever going to get a good shot of the pup. (Either that or wait 10 years until she slows down some! :rofl: )

To answer your initial question re: EXIF data the last picture had the following settings:
Apperture/F-Number: F/3.9
Shutter speed/Exposure time: 1/340 sec
ISO 200

I'm guessing from the comments here that I need to up my ISO speed and lower my app setting?

Thanks again so much for all the info.

Given that lens, the low apertures (big opening) are restricted by the zoom level (more zoom = bigger number = smaller hole). This is a common thing on consumer-grade lenses.

Try setting the f-stop to 5.6, then move up the ISO until you get a shutter speed of 1/500. That should get you a reasonable pic in good daylight. If you are already in really bright light so that your ISO is already low with a shutter speed of 1/500, then use a higher aperture number to get more in focus. The catch with the fast dog is to do whatever it takes to keep the fast shutter speed.

Your third shot is a great dog action portrait. On my monitor at least, it looks a little dark, but I just got a new graphics card and I'm not sure my monitor calibration is quite right yet.

Just built a new PC and the only thing I haven't gotten right yet is the monitor calibration. :(

As noted by some others upthread, however, I don't think it's your monitor this time - I think it's my learning curve. It was late afternoon and not only are the pictures a bit dark, they're blue! Ooops. :blush: But hey, that's why I came here - I have a lot to learn!

can be really tough to reconcile.

I was doing some reading about your camera. Very impressed with some of the comments I've seen.

is to get down at their level for the shots. That way you are not always looking down at them. (Works well for small children, too.) However, I can understand if you are not wanting to kneel in the snow. :evilgrin:

And don't worry, I have no issues kneeling/lying/crawling in the snow for a good shot of the pup!

I have trouble with white balance in the snow, as well. I usually end up doing post processing, using "fade reduction" in PaintShop - PhotoShop I'm sure has a similar function, although it probably isn't called that.