Shadows: Dog Photography 52 Week Challenge - Week 30

We are in week 30 of the 52 week dog photography challenge and this week our topic is shadows. I love photos with a lot of moody shadows. Let me be more specific: I love looking at them. I'd love to know how to create them. I'm not there yet.

Trying to create shadows was a bit of a shot in the dark (no pun intended) for me for several reasons:

1. I've never really tried before
2. I just got everything I needed to try off camera flash (OCF)
3. I'm experimenting with back button focus (BBF)
4. I got a new lens :)

I'm not sure I'd really recommend the path that I have taken the past couple of weeks but this is how I got to the photos in this post. Many of you know I want to learn OCF. I've also been curious about BBF. So many great dog photographers I know use it and I've heard a few people call it life changing so for some reason, two weeks ago, I thought was the time to bite the bullet and give it a try. 

I've gotten used to BBF for the most part but I'm not sure it is improving my photography. I would like to try it on some action shots but I've not had that chance yet. Once I do that, then I'll decide if I'm going to stick with it. These are the first photos I've posted on my site that are BBF.

While this week is called shadows, for me it should really be called "OCF and a 105mm macro." I finally got everything I needed to give OCF a try so Moose has been modeling for me. I don't have a studio. All of these shots are of him on his couch basically ignoring me. I posted one of these on instagram and someone said, "I wish I knew what he was thinking." I'm pretty sure Moose is thinking, "if you're not petting, feeding or walking me then please let me go to sleep." Yep... that's what he was thinking. He might have been using some colorful language too. I bet Moose could let the 4 letter words fly. :o

I started watching a creative live video by Lindsay Adler called "Seeing and Shaping Light." I learned a lot in the few hours that I watched it even though it was geared towards studio lighting. I didn't get to finish it though. They offered it for free for 24 hours... and now I'm missed my window to watch anymore of it. These photos were taken using a bit of what I learned. I was going to say thi is loop lighting but now I'm not sure. Maybe I didn't learn very much...!

In creating these photos, the first photo is sooc. There is no editing at all except for me removing some eye boogies and his dander. In the 2nd photo I increased the shadows so you can see his right eye. In the 3rd photo, I kept the shadows the same as the 2nd photo and I decreased the blacks. In the final photo, I adjusted the tone curve slightly. Which do you prefer and why? If the answer is none, that's okay too. :) I'm just happy I figured out how to make the background black. 

PS I think I'm going to love this 105mm!

This is a blog circle and next up is Linda of DogShotzPhotography serving the Indianapolis IN area. Be sure to click the link at the bottom of each post to see what the other photographers did with our topic shadows.