# Pet Photography????



## dogsinfocus (May 16, 2013)

I'm using a Canon EOS 5D Mark III with a Canon 70-200mm f/2.8L IS

When shooting Pet's Outside what kind of options would you use on the camera  as far as metering mode there is 4 options on the camera and for AF Modes there 3 options and for picture style witch would you use 

Right now I'm using [FONT=arial, sans-serif]centre-weighted average for metering mode and for AF mode using AI Servo picture style Faithful white balance Daylight since I'm mostly outside -- 

and to get the best pet pictures you shoot in morning and late afternoon right and the sun is still pretty strong so i guess option is to find spots with shade in the parks right

What F stop would you use for outdoors F10 to F16 in those area's and for ISO I leave it around 100 and for Shutter speed well the AV fixes that but in Manual mode what would you put it at so its properly exposed thanks

thanks hope you can help


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## dogsinfocus (May 16, 2013)

anyone hehehe


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## CowgirlMama (May 16, 2013)

I leave mine on evaluative, then make calls on whether or not I agree with it's readings.  

Settings would depend greatly on what the light is like in a given location. However, I wouldn't put my F stop nearly that high. I shoot between 3 and 8 for most things. You don't want a busy, distracting background, so the lower numbers are better. They give you a nice blur, where a wide range of focus will give you crystal clear, individual blades of grass that show up behind your subject. (Here's a comparison of shots my friend and I took at the same time, with different settings--marked on the image.)

You have several factors to consider when choosing settings. 1) How bright is the environment? More light means faster shutter/lower ISO/higher F stop will work. Less means the opposite. 2) How much will the subject move? Dogs move a lot. Slow shutters will show motion blur, so you need to keep it pretty fast. Probably at minimum 1/200, but you'll have to experiment to know for sure. I don't shoot animal portraits normally. 3) What style are you looking for? Motion blur or sharp, frozen motion? Clear background or soft?

I typically, when doing human portraits, keep my ISO as low as I can, shutter speed as fast as I can and the F stop between 3 and 5. And remember that changing one setting affects others.  If I raise my shutter speed, I'm going to need to open my aperture more or raise my ISO to make up for it, light-wise.


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## dogsinfocus (May 16, 2013)

I'm looking to do more sharp and frozen motion 

and what about these options 
 AI Server AF 1st and there is 2nd image priority what option do you use Release priority or Equal priority or focus priority ??

Perfect thank you will be sure to keep my F stop between 3 and 8 

Also you use AV Mode or TV Mode or Manual mode and setup your shutter speed and f-stop and iso 

thank you for your help 

I really want my pictures too look amazing ​


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## dogsinfocus (May 16, 2013)

where you able to see my reply thanks


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## TCampbell (May 16, 2013)

Most of the time my camera is on "evaluative" focus.  I come out of that mode selectively and here's how I decide...

The "evaluative" mode cause the camera to use all of it's metering "zones" and then try to look for patterns to determine what type of scene you are shooting and how it should meter the light.  It's pretty smart -- not foolproof -- just smart.  When I'm shooting a scene where I KNOW there are elements that are going to fool the camera (and this is MOSTLY scenes with either a LOT of black in the background or a lot of WHITE In the background which tend to fool the metering system) then I switch to a center-weighted or spot metering mode so the camera will meter ONLY on my intended subject.  When I REALLY want to nail metering... I pull out my hand-held incident light meter (because reflected meter readings -- which is all a camera can do -- are not so much based on the actual amount of light falling on the subject (which is what you really should be metering for) but rather based on how much light the subject reflects back to the camera.

The more you learn about light and metering, the more you learn to realize when a subject is either more reflective or less reflective than the meter expects and is therefore likely to throw off the accuracy of the meter.

If the pet (or any subject really) is outside during the day then I'm probably using the flash.  Like you, I have a 5D III... and a 5D II and a few other cameras.  But I have a small pile of Canon speedlites.  If I'm outside in bright sun then I have a speedlite with me.  

If someone were to tell me they owned a Rebel body then I typically recommend a 430EX II speedlite -- a real workhorse.  But as you own a 5D III (so clearly money isn't "tight")... spring for the 600EX-RT (I have two and am seriously considering buying a 3rd.)  But once you own at least one decent speedlight, when shooting outdoors, set the flash compensation to -1 when shooting in E-TTL.  That causes the flash to just fill in the shadows rather than attempting to overpower the sun (which it can do... but that would be bad lighting.)  Using a flash in bright sun is called "fill" flash... bright sun (as you've already noticed with your house photo) has a HUGE difference between what's in sunlight and what's in shadow.   By using a "fill" flash, all you're trying to do is weaken the shadows so that they're gentle rather than extreme.


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## dogsinfocus (May 16, 2013)

wow thank you for such great info -- I do own 1 600ex please tell me how to setup the compensation -1 in the flash settings in E=TTL Mode do you leave your flash on the camera or on a trip -- I'm also gonna get 2 more flashes if you think it would be best money is not the issue for that part


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## dogsinfocus (May 16, 2013)

Tim do you mostly use AV or TV or Manual mode and what about these options 
AI Server AF 1st and there is 2nd image priority what option do you use Release priority or Equal priority or focus priority ??

also if i use my flash the white balance you set it to flash or daylight ​


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## dogsinfocus (May 16, 2013)

I figured it out for the 600ex says -0.3  there no -1 i don't see that


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## TCampbell (May 17, 2013)

dogsinfocus said:


> wow thank you for such great info -- I do own 1 600ex please tell me how to setup the compensation -1 in the flash settings in E=TTL Mode do you leave your flash on the camera or on a trip -- I'm also gonna get 2 more flashes if you think it would be best money is not the issue for that part



There are two ways to enable flash exposure compensation when the flash is in E-TTL mode (not manual mode).  

Using the flash:

On the back of the flash just below the LCD there are four buttons.  They do whatever the label on the bottom row of the LCD says they do.  While it's possible to cycle through the menus, by default, the 2nd button from the left has a [+/-] label above it.  Press that button.  You'll notice the LCD display updates and has an indicator with a lightning bolt and +/- symbol followed by a number (0 by default).  Turn the dial on the flash counter-clockwise until the number reads -1, then press the set/sel button in the center of the dial to lock in your choice.  

You can also control nearly any feature of the flash by using the camera menus.  

Using the camera menus:

Press the menu button (on the 5D III) and use the control wheel at the top (the one near the shutter button) and scroll left so that the first menu on the camera is the one you're on (you'll notice the 6 "tabs" along the top... the left most tab is a red camera icon, there are four boxes below that (to indicate that there are four pages of menus).  To the far right of those four boxes is the name of the menu page.  The page you want is the one named "SHOOT1"

Use the rear-dial and scroll down to "External Speedlite control" (this will only be available if the speedlight is connected to the camera and powered on -- and remember the speedlite will go to "sleep" if you haven't used it in a while, but a half-press of the shutter button will wake it up.)

In the "External Speedlite Control" menu, scroll down to "Flash function settings"

In the "Flash function settings" menu, scroll over to the "Flash exposure compensation" setting (the icon is the lightning bolt with the +/- next to it... the bottom of the screen will say "Flash exposure compensation" if you've highlighted that icon.  

Press the "set" button (in the center of the rear dial).  Scroll the rear dial left or right to change the compensation.  E.g. scroll left until it reads "-1".  Press "set" to enter that value.

I use a baseline of "-1" when I want my flash to be "fill" lighting and not the main light.  -1 means you want the flash to provide HALF the amount of light it thinks it needs (each full value decrease the power level by half... or double if you're going to the + side.)  I say "baseline" because I may salt-to-taste... I may only back it off by -2/3  ... or I might back it down to -1 1/3.  

REMEMBER... the flash now stores this setting until you change it again.  That means if you power off the flash, remove it from the camera... and a few weeks later you use the flash again, it will STILL be at that -1 setting (it doesn't get cleared out when you power off the flash.)  Since this is only an appropriate setting for "fill" flash, you'd want to return it to "0" when you're done so that the next time you grab the flash to take a photo in a hurry, it'll be ready to go (lest you end up scratching your head -- wondering why all your indoor shoots seem dark even though you used a flash.)


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## TCampbell (May 17, 2013)

dogsinfocus said:


> Tim do you mostly use AV or TV or Manual mode and what about these options
> AI Server AF 1st and there is 2nd image priority what option do you use Release priority or Equal priority or focus priority ??
> 
> also if i use my flash the white balance you set it to flash or daylight ​



I actually vary and use a little of everything... I use P, Av, Tv, and M and it completely depends on the situation.

When I approach a shot, I size up my options and whether I think I'll be constrained.  

Av:  If nothing is moving (so I have all the time in the world to take the shot) and the subject isn't particularly black nor particularly white (the light meter is likely to get a fairly accurate reading) then I'll use Av mode because now I can pick the aperture I want (for the depth of field control that I want) and let the camera deal with the shutter speed.  I could have used manual mode, picked my aperture, took a reading and let the meter guide me into adjusting the shutter speed until a correct exposure is indicated on the meter, but that would just give me the SAME exposure that using Av would give, but it would take longer.  So I use Av.

Tv:  If I need to freeze action ... or if I want to deliberately imply motion, then I need to make sure I get the shutter speed I want.  I'll set my appropriate shutter speed and let the camera deal with the aperture... BUT... aperture is one of the most limited controls on the camera (because lenses don't have an infinite aperture adjustment).  So I do still need to be aware of the limits of the lens (e.g. you wouldn't want the camera needing to go to f/2 when the lens only goes down to f/2.8).  ALSO... aperture is a major factor (but not the only factor) in depth of field.  I do have to make sure my subject does not require a broad depth of field.

M:  If I'm suspicious of the accuracy of the meter, I may meter the scene with my incident meter.  Often if I have "all the time in the world" to take the shot, I may use the incident meter anyway (that's a hand-held light-meter... not built into the camera.  You hold the meter in the light that will be falling on your subject and take a reading.  Incident meters are VERY accurate whereas "reflected" meters (which is all a camera can use as a built-in meter) can only see the light which reflects off the subject and into the lens -- and those can be fooled if the subject is reflect more light or less light then the average subject reflectivity.   

HOWEVER... I ALSO use manual mode when I want to over-ride what I know the computer will do.  There are MANY cases when the computer's default behavior isn't what we want and it's better to use manual.  This is a learning process and you'll be picking up tips and learning little nuances for years.

One of the nice things about using an Av or Tv mode vs. the M mode is the speed at which the camera can react to variable conditions.  Say I'm at a concert and the lights are flashing as part of the light show.  It'd be tough to dial the exposures up and down in manual, but in Av or Tv mode the camera can react to the light which exists in the moment.  You do have to be careful because the default mode is to meter, lock settings, and then stop metering.  You can force the camera to meter on-demand (which is what you should do if you've got wonky lighting.)

I will sometimes use P mode -- not very often when shooting, but I think of it as a "safe" mode to park the camera in.  When I'm done shooting, I return the camera to safe settings with the following line of thought... I don't know when I'll next need the camera and if I'll need it "in a hurry".  But if I do need it in a hurry I need to know that the camera is just "ready to go" and I wont be shooting and then discover that I had customized all the settings the last time I used it.  I want the camera to be back to settings that will generally just work without thinking about it.  P mode is basically a lot like full auto mode (the green box) except that P mode allows you to override things (full auto does not.)

My other half does not know how to use many camera controls.  If I hand the camera to someone else .... I usually turn it to full auto so that the camera WILL work and they can't inadvertently override some setting that ends up blowing the shot.


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## rpcrowe (May 20, 2013)

I agree with Tim.... I always leave my camera in Programmed mode with the ISO at 320.  Single shot AF and evaluative exposure.

That way, i I have to grab the camera for a quick shot, I am pretty sure of success with these generalized settings.  What I generally shoot with is totally different.

BTW:  I always shoot RAW so I don't usually worry about white balance or picture style.  

I do a lot of my shooting with the Canon 7D and the 70-200mm f/4L IS lens and shoot wide open much of the time to take advantage of selective depth of field...





As does Tim, I use fill-flash with high speed sync most of the time outdoors.  Using HSS allows me to shoot at a higher shutter speed (thus a wider aperture).


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## dogsinfocus (May 21, 2013)

Thank you for those tipsrpcrowe do you have other tips about pets to give me for outside with settings 
I'm using the Canon 5D Mark III

Do you have your big flash on top of your camera on or a stand outside?

You leave your white balance on auto ?
what is your normal shutter speed you use the most and f-stop with dogs outside ​


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## Big Mike (May 21, 2013)

Some good information in this thread already.  

But I just want to add that I think you're going about it all the wrong way.  You shouldn't be asking about specific settings, on your specific camera, for specific situations.  Because really, every situation is going to be different...and everybody's goals are going to be a little different.

So my suggestion would be to learn more about photography / exposure in general...and then you can apply that knowledge to your specific situations as they occur.  

I hope I don't sound derogatory.  We all have to start somewhere...but I've this situation many times and you'll just confuse yourself if you ask for such specific tips...when you should be asking/learning about the basics first.


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## dogsinfocus (May 21, 2013)

Thanks Mike


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