Thank you Louise Jollyman and Martin Barrow of Brymwylf for being the first contributors to this series. Do you have a really great image that you’re especially proud of or you think would be especially instructive to other photographers? Then, please send it to me , along with a brief description of what went into getting the shot, with an emphasis on planning, actually taking the photograph, including lighting conditions and other challenges, and any post-processing. Please send before post-processing and after, so we all can get a sense for your process and why you made the choices you did. Send them to bj@bjspanos.com.

On to Lou and Marty’s photo of CJ and the Rag: What I really like about this photograph is the perspective, which is one I haven’t seen before; that is, taking a full frontal photo of CJ just getting ready to bite the sleeve. So, here in Lou’s own words is how she and Marty got the shot and what she did afterwards.

CJ and the Rag: Original Photo As Taken

CJ and the Rag: Edited Photo

We started out with a beautiful sunny day and thought we would try to get some shots of CJ doing some ragwork. By the time we had chosen a spot at the back of our property, a few clouds came over, so Marty took a few test shots and adjusted the F stop accordingly. Marty took the photo on his [Canon EOS] 7D, I was the “rag bearer.” I had to make sure I threw the rag in the optimal arc for the shot!  Marty set up, knelt down about 30 to 40 feet diagonally to the side of the tree which CJ was tied to. The expression and outstretched front paws is all CJ’s own special style!  The timing on the shot was a bit of luck. I think Marty took a hundred or so shots of which we kept nine. Post processing, I used Photoshop Elements, and, using the quick edit, I did a little bit with the “lighten shadows”, “darken highlights” and “midtone contrast” and also a little “sharpen.”

Camera: Canon EOS 7D
Lens: Canon EF 70-200 mm 1:2.8 L
Camera Setting: Av (aperture priority)
ISO: 640
F stop: f/4.5
Exposure 1/2000 sec

So, going back to previous discussions about composition. What do you see? For me, Lou made an excellent decision to crop in and fill the frame with CJ’s top half. If she included the entire dog, the drama would have been diminished. The short depth of field nicely blurred the background so CJ pops out of the photo. Behind CJ are two posts that frame her in the center of a “V” shape, further drawing the eye to CJ and her intense and focused eyes. The rag and and the lead it’s attached to bisect the entire image, so above the rag is CJ’s marvelous expression of determination and below the rag is her impressive body language and launch to get that rag! Nice work, Lou and Marty!

A number of available charts that provide aperture and shutter speed settings based on the Sunny 16 Rule are very helpful and are a great starting place for calculating exposure for different creative looks. Just do a search for “aperture shutter speed chart” and a plethora of charts and resources will pop up. The most helpful charts from my perspective as a Schutzhund photographer are those that do not rely solely on the Sunny 16 Rule or ISO 100, but include entries for a full range of ISO settings and calculates the shutter speed for a full range of aperture settings at different EV values. Fred Parker developed one of the better ones that I have come across, as noted in part 1. Copyright restrictions prevent me from re-publishing the chart, but it is available on his website and his article that accompanies the Ultimate Exposure Computer is well worth reading.

Also as explained in Part 1, exposure values can be assigned to different lighting conditions. Using the corresponding value to the expected lighting conditions, photographers can then look at Fred’s Computer to determine which settings would be the most likely to produce a good exposure for the creative goals. Others also have published charts using EV values and can serve the same purpose, but they may only include settings for ISO 100. For example, say it is a sunny day or even a hazy sunny day, the EV values would be 15 and 14, respectively. According to Fred’s Computer, at ISO 200 at f/2.8, the shutter speed would need to be either 1/4000 or 1/8000 for proper exposure. If you dial the aperture to f/5.6 or f/8 – both excellent settings for catching action and depth of field – the shutter speed would be 1/2000 or 1/1000. Do you notice the trend? As the amount of light is cut in half with each step down in the aperture size (higher number), the shutter speed must correspondingly slow down (lower number) in order to allow enough light to fall on the camera sensor to achieve proper exposure. The minimum shutter speed for stopping action is 1/500, according to the experts. But I’ve found that 1/640 to 1/1000 to be workable minimums. You can also adjust to a faster film speed (higher number) to keep the shutter speed where you want it, but then the aperture would have to be adjusted to compensate.

By understanding how these relationships work – either doubling or halving –  photographers have a lot of options and flexibility. Remember it’s a sliding scale. In researching this topic, I also came across several other resources and cheat sheets that may help you keep all this straight. Don’t worry if it seems confusing and hard to remember. Even the most experienced photographers rely on memory aids!

• The Photo Argus Cheat Sheets for available light (aperture, shutter speed, EV values, ISO); 49 Photo Tips; Photography Cheat Sheet (aperture, ISO, shutter speed); and more
• PhotoBert Cheat Sheets for photography settings and different camera models
• Photopoly 22 Useful Photography and Photo Editing Cheat Sheets
• Web Design Ledger 13 Super Useful Photography Cheat Sheets

There is some duplication from site to site, and some are for sale while others are free downloads. I also recommend Bryan Peterson’s books on Understanding Exposure, Understanding Shutter Speed, and Learning to See Creatively.

Let me know if these resources are helpful!  Happy shooting!

Before reading further you may wish to review my earlier post Figuring Out Aperture, ISO, Shutter Speed in Changeable Weather Conditions, as today’s post builds on the information presented there. Also, I wish to acknowledge Fred Parker of Fred Parker Photography, who penned a great article that explains EV values, along with shutter speed, aperture and ISO. His article is the primary resource for this post, and I encourage you to read it sometime. He also has an “Ultimate Exposure Computer” that is very helpful.

Often, you will see the ISO, aperture and shutter speed relationship depicted as an exposure triangle. Varying these settings allows photographers to manage exposure and creatively change the image. After reading Fred’s article, as well as some other sources, I see this relationship more like a square, with the fourth side reserved for lighting conditions (see the figure at the end of this post). Various lighting conditions are assigned numerical values (called exposure value or EV) on a scale of 1 to 23 (for ISO 100 film) (see bullet list below). Each step up represents twice as much light and each step down equates to one-half the light falling on the subject. This value is then converted into aperture and shutter speed settings to achieve the proper exposure for the chosen film speed.

Most daylight subjects / conditions fall within the rage of EV 11 to EV 16, as follows:

• Light sand or snow in full or slightly hazy sunlight (distinct shadows):  16
• Typical scene in full or slightly hazy sunlight (distinct shadows): 15
• Typical scene in hazy sunlight (soft shadows): 14
• Typical scene, cloudy bright (no shadows): 13
• Typical scene, heavy overcast: 12
• Areas in open shade, clear sunlight: 12

For a full listing, including evening, night and indoor lighting values, see the Wikipedia article on Exposure Value.

To review, film speed (or ISO) represents the sensitivity of the film to light or in the digital world the sensitivity of the light sensor in the camera. These speeds are 25, 50, 100, 200, 400, 800, 1600 and 3200. Each step up from 25 to 50 to 100 to 200 and so on is twice the preceding number and represents twice the sensitivity to light. With all other exposure settings the same, each step up will take half as long to reach the same level of exposure as the previous step. Conversely, each step down equates to one-half the sensitivity to light of the previous step and will take twice as long to reach the same level of exposure. Remember that the faster the ISO, the more noise in the picture. The equivalent artifact in film is called grain. For a great explanation of digital noise and ISO, see the Cambridge in Color’s tutorial on Digital Camera Image Noise. Most experts recommend keeping the ISO as low as possible. This doubling or halving the light holds true for aperture and shutter speed settings as well.

Shutter speeds are expressed as a fraction of a second (except those for very long exposures that are more than a second): 15, 8, 4, 2, 1, 1/2, 1/4, 1/8, 1/15, 1/30, 1/60, 1/125, 1/250, 1/500, 1/1000, 1/2000, 1/4000 and 1/8000. As you move to the right, each value is approximately twice the preceding value and represents half the light or moving to the left twice the amount of light. Shutter speeds at 1/1000 will stop most action, while slower speeds such as 1/8 will blur even slow moving subjects. Here’s useful tip from Fred to avoid motion blur:

“If your shutter speed is slower than the reciprocal of the focal length of your lens, you must use a tripod…For example, if you are using a 200 mm lens, your shutter speed must exceed 1/200…If your subject is moving, double this shutter speed…If you are moving, triple the speed.” 

Aperture settings are the ratio of the focal length of the lens to the diameter of the lens diaphragm opening, hence the term “focal number” or f/stop or f/number. The designation “f/2″, for example, means the diameter of the aperture is 1/2 the focal length of the lens. These are expressed as 1, 1.4, 2, 2.8, 4, 5.6, 8, 11, 16, 22, 32, 45, 64. Each number to the right is one half the amount of light; conversely, each number to the left allows twice the amount of light. The lower the number, the more wide open the aperture and the more light is allowed into the camera sensor. Notice that the progression of f/stops approximately doubles the numbers 1 and 1.4: 1, 2, 4, 8, 15, 32, 64 or 1.4, 2.8, 5.6, 11, 22, 45. Combining the two series yields the entire range of aperture settings or f/stops: 1, 1.4, 2, 2.8, 4, 5.6, 8, 11, 16, 22, 32, 45, 64. With ISO, shutter speeds and aperture settings, there are intermediate steps as well. To keep things simple, they are not addressed in these posts.

Exposure Square - Double or Half the Light (or Sensitivity to Light - ISO)

So, how does a photographer put all this together? Well, you’ll have to wait for my next post, which will be up later this week!

Photography is a grand adventure!

Today, in the quietness of Christmas Eve, I have been thinking about my Schutzhund (Dog Sport) friends, especially my photography friends.  You are an inspiration to me as we strive to capture Schutzhund dogs doing what they (and we) love best – being on the field training, trialing and just having fun. Just as Schutzhund is a team sport, so is photography. I have learned so much this past year, particularly from you as we talk over camera settings, share frustrations over difficult lighting, figure out the best angles and congratulate each other on getting “THE SHOT” of the day. So, thank you for sharing in my adventure! Here’s to 2012 and many more photography adventures!

Best wishes for a Merry Christmas and a happy and healthy New Year to you, your families and your furry friends.

BJ Spanos

Rectangles, triangles and squares play a big part in Schutzhund. Next time you’re on a Schutzhund field, look around you. The field itself is a rectangle, bordered by six triangular shaped blinds. The scaling wall is made up of two rectangles to form a A-frame (triangle). The inside of the find blind, as discussed in the previous post, is triangular in shape with rectangles forming the sides of the blind. The one-meter hurdle is a square, as is the Group formation in most trials. The tracking, obedience and protection routine patterns also are filled with these shapes. These patterns may be a little hard to show in a photograph, but they can be shown in video.

So, what does this have to do with Schutzhund photography?

Robert Hirsch in his book, Light and Lens: Photography in the Digital Age, explains: “Shape is often the chief structural compositional element, as it enables a viewer to immediately recognize a face, a structure or an object in a picture…A combination of different shapes can provide variety. For example, an outdoor scene can be made more attention-grabbing by contrasting the sharp, jagged shape of a fence with a soft, smooth curves of clouds and hills.”   According to Hirsch, there are four basic shapes:

• Geometric shapes, such as circles, rectangles, squares and triangles
• Natural shapes, such as plants, rocks, humans and animals
• Abstract shapes are altered to their fundamental essence.
• Non-objective shapes do not correspond to anything in the natural world but often are whimsical and delightful to view

As visual images, geometric shapes also have symbolic meanings, as follows:

• Triangle: Three forces in equilibrium, the number three, aspiration, movement upward, a return to origins, sight and light
• Rectangle: Rational and secure, grounds objects
• Square: Firmness, stability, the number four

These meanings have direct relevance to Schutzhund, which is all about demonstrating stability of a dog’s temperament and balancing the dog’s performance in three phases, all of which are tied together by firm and happy obedience. And, while dogs are in constant motion, many of the elements that make up the Schutzhund field are very well grounded, which creates drama and “attention-grabbing contrast” as Hirsch points out.

Shapes also can define images by providing a frame. The picture below serves as a useful example.

The picture frame is a rectangle, which accentuates the effect of looking down at the dog and into her eyes. The dog’s face is triangular in shape as are her ears. Yet, the rocks are natural and of varying shapes, which offers a nice contrast with the geometric shapes. The image is both whimsical and soul searching, as any dog lover will tell you, looking into a dog’s eyes is to see h/her soul.

As with lines and space, being aware of shapes and their symbolic meanings, and purposely using them can significantly enhance your photographic compositions. They also can help your viewers understand what you are trying to communicate to them in your images.

“Psychic lines occur when we forge a mental connection between two points; usually when an object looks or points in a particular direction, our eyes will follow and draw an invisible line. Digital software allows image-makers to alter the quality of lines, rough and smooth, thick and thin to reinforce emotional and/or expressive qualities in the final composition…Lines can be flowing, majestic, or undulating. Lines can convey abstract or symbolic concepts. They can show you contour, emphasis, form, pattern, texture, and directional movement. Horizontal lines can express calmness, dignity, and magnificence, implying repose and stability. Vertical lines indicate an up and down flow that implies a smooth and continuous motion…Diagonal lines, being neither horizontal or vertical, are placed at angles within a composition. They are dynamic and indicate action, energy, and movement. “

Consider the image below. Notice how the boards frame the dog and helper. Also notice the helper’s eyes locked in on the dog’s eyes, which draws the viewer to the primary focal point – the interaction between the dog and the helper. This vertical line continues down the dog’s back. The vertical wood boards, which make up the blind, accentuate the motion of the viewer’s eyes up and down the image. The wood grain, with the photo effect added in post-processing, provides texture and gives the image a gritty look. Protection work can be gritty, especially in the blind with dog kicking up dust and spraying spit.

This second image of the hold and bark shows similar vertical lines, but notice how the helper is standing. His legs are placed diagonally to his body and thereby create a triangular A-frame shape, which mimics the shape of the blind. The post running up the middle of blind, to me, reinforces the sense of the helper backed into a corner with his back against the wall. More power to the dog!

The image below combines both the power of shapes and lines. More about shapes in an up-coming post. But for now, look at how the edge of the field at the drop-off down the hill creates a visual separation between the background and the primary subject area. Also notice the handlers’ position with legs spread wide (another A-frame), which frames the dog. What is most powerful to me in this image is the vertical line from the handler’s head to the dog’s head and the parallel lines created by both the handler and dog looking in the same direction with the same intensity.

Photography teachers and masters encourage their students to visualize an image before taking it. That is great advice, but it is easier said than done when the scene is far from static. Even so, be aware of possible lines as your survey the field and position yourself. Think about how the handler or the helper stands and use it to frame the action. In post-processing, look for lines and consider how to use them to enhance your images. Also remember, the Rule of Thirds, which divides an image into nine quadrants. Recall that the intersections of these quadrants are key visual areas; where the viewer’s eyes will tend to go first. The lines in the Rule of Thirds also are key visual guides, as explained in an earlier post.

Next up – More about Shapes. Thanks for visiting. As always, I would enjoy hearing from you! Until next time….

The previous post alluded to the visual element of space. One of our greatest challenges as Schutzhund photographers is dealing with space. On a Schutzhund field there is a lot of it, and the dog and handler (or helper) take up a proportionally small part of that space. Do you zoom in or take a wider shot? What should you look for as a background? How does all this relate to the final image?

Hirsch describes four kinds of photographic space:

• Actual Space: The two-dimensional area that encloses the image within the camera’s viewfinder. Three-dimensional space “are inside and around or within the object.”
• Pictorial Space: The “illusionary space of depth that we see in a two-dimensional work such as photography” and “can vary from appearing perfectly flat to receding into infinity.”
• Virtual Space: The space within your computer screen. “It may or may not exist in any concrete form. It may be manipulated, compressed, stretched, and/or rearranged differently from how the camera initially recorded the scene(s).”
• Positive and Negative Space (Figure Ground): “How dark/black areas and light/white areas can be used to organize and define compositional space.”

Comparing the two photos below offers an interesting illustration of these concepts. These images were taken at the Brushy Mountain Schutzhund and Police Club’s 2011 trial in Statesville, NC.

On the one hand, in this first image, the viewer sees the re-attack and drive from the same perspective as the spectators. The viewer also gets a sense of the grand scale of the Schutzhund field. There is a visual line from the blind to the dog and helper, which helps focus the viewer’s attention to the primary action in the photo and serves as a pointer for the direction of the action. The trees in the background provide a natural border and backdrop and push the action towards the front of the image. The grass in the foreground gives the dog and helper someplace to go. All excellent points.

On the other hand, the dog and helper seem very small and diminished as compared with the vastness of the field and sky. Note that about 75 percent of the image is comprised of empty space around the dog and helper.  As a result, the primary action is lost among the grass and trees. Unless the image is blown way up, the viewer cannot really make out the helper or dog’s faces. This is a significant drawback, because in the protection work the real drama is the interplay between the dog and helper. If the viewer cannot see their expressions, a key part of the story is lost. This photo, to me, is one of a thousand nice shots of re-attack and drive, but nothing special.

The photo above is the next one in the series of images of the re-attack and drive. By cropping out most of the empty space, the action is much closer to the viewer. Again, the trees provide a natural border and backdrop and push the action forward. With less space in front of the dog and helper, the action seems more immediate and jumps out of the image. It looks as if the helper is going to drive the dog right into the viewer. The dog and helper’s expressions are much more visible. As a result, the viewer is right there locked in battle along with the dog and helper. The visual line in the first image was removed, but with the action so close, it is not a significant loss. If I were to do more work with this image, I would remove the hard wood tree and branches around the helper’s head, which distract from the harmony of the evergreens. This image, to me, successfully conveys the drama and action found in protection work; much more so than the first image.

The image below is a teaser for the next post, which will consider lines and how to use them to create dynamic photographs that “indicate action, energy, and movement” – the very things we try to capture as Schutzhund photographers. This image shows an excellent example of the visual line between the handler and dog, known to all in Schutzhund as focus! What other lines are in this photo? How are they used? Do they help or hinder?

Until next time, thank you for visiting!  Any questions or comments, send them my way.

“If your pictures aren’t good enough, you aren’t close enough.”

I have been thinking about this statement since I read it in Robert Hirsch’s Light and Lens: Photography for the Digital Age (strongly recommended resource). There is great wisdom in this one statement. Consider, which photos looks better, Picture 1 or Picture 2 below?  Which shows the most drama and captivates your eye?  The tendency is to try to capture all the action and/or the entire Schutzhund field, thus providing too much information and no focal point for the photograph. When composing pictures, think about what it is you want to show – not just the action but the mood, the drama, the overall emotional impression. What are you trying to say to the viewer or would like the viewer to take away from your photo? What I hope these questions will elicit is a shift in focus (pun intended) and for you to consider looking beyond your photographs as just great action shots, but approaching your Schutzhund photography as creating art.

Picture 1 - Dog Playing Ball Far Away

Picture 2 - Dog Playing Ball Up Close

Speaking of creating art, there is a new trend in Schutzhund photography of using selective coloring. I really like this technique, as it is a very effective method to de-emphasize the background and dramatically emphasize the key subjects (action) in the photo. Creating selective colored images is not hard. For those of you unfamiliar with the process, here is a quick tutorial. If you are not familiar with Photoshop and need more detail, please message me with your e-mail address, and I’ll send you an expanded tutorial with everything you need to know.

Open the photo in Photoshop.

1. Make any necessary adjustments to the image.
2. Create a Hue – Saturation Adjustment Layer on top of the image layer.
3. Slide the Saturation slider all the way to the left to create a black and white photo.
4. Using the magic selection brush / wand, select the area you wish to color.
5. Using the eraser tool (and make sure the brush color is white and the brush saturation is 100 percent), brush the selected area to bring back the color from the layer below. What you are doing is erasing the Hue / Saturation layer mask. By selecting the area first, you can brush freely over the area without concern that you’ll erase more than you wish to.
6. De-select the selection. You can clean up any missed areas (such as areas that didn’t get selected) by making the eraser brush smaller. If you make a mistake, change the brush color to black, which will add the Hue / Saturday layer mask back in.

A cautionary note: As this technique is easy and fun to do, it is tempting to use it frequently. Be careful not to overdo, less your photos begin to look all the same. This is definitely a technique where less is more. Also, this technique works well with photos where the selected color area is strongly contrasted with the background; that is, selectively coloring a black or dark sable dog on a dark background may not be as effective as selectively coloring a tan or lighter sable dog. Selectively coloring shadowed areas also may not work as well for the same reason. Of course, the opposite is true. If you have a very light background, selectively coloring a black or dark sable dog may work just fine.

The following two pictures are examples of this technique, as well as the power of getting close yielding good photos.

In the image above, I really like the spectators watching the training. Schutzhund cannot be learned entirely from books and videos; it is very much an oral tradition. So watching the training is as important as actually doing the training. This photo depicts this, but I didn’t want the viewer’s eye to be drawn too much to the crowd, less it take away from the dog and helper engaged in the moment right before the re-attack. Also, notice that the crowd is in the upper left of the photo. This is the first place most western viewers will look, as we read left to right. The spectators’ eyes take the viewer to the dog and helper, and the dog’s eyes lead the viewer to the point of the whole exercise to get to the sleeve (at least from the dog’s point of view).

I tried mightily to remove the truck and post from the photo above, but I couldn’t get it to look just right, so I decided to leave it in. By selectively coloring the dog, I was able to de-emphasize the undesirable elements in the background and bring the viewers’ focus (yes, another focus pun) to the dog. I also wanted to emphasize this dog’s gorgeous coloring and eyes. Another option would be to move the dog to another background.

Let me know if you have any questions and if the tips in this posting help you. As always, thank you for visiting!

One of the best explanations of color temperature comes from the Blue Crane Digital DVD, Introduction to the Canon 7D, Volume 1: Basic Controls, and is a primary source for the information for this post.

Color temperature measures the visible light spectrum. In the late 1800s, British physicist William Kelvin heated a block of carbon and observed that as the carbon got hotter, it glowed with range of different colors. At lower temperatures, it produced a dim red light. As the block continued to heat up, it progressed through the visible light spectrum to a bright blue-white at the highest temperature. This is where the term “white hot” has it origins.

The temperature value assigned to each color is in degrees Kelvin, a variation on degrees Centigrade. This value refers to the temperature at which the color was observed not the actual temperature of the heated carbon. Reds are at the cooler end of the light spectrum and blues at the hotter end. This is a little counter intuitive, as we tend to think of red being hotter than blue.

A very helpful chart is posted on Jeremy Birn’s website. I urge you to take a look at it. Jeremy is the technical director at Pixar Animation Studios and the author of the book Digital Lighting & Rendering. His explanation of color temperature is also very good and was a key source for this post.

Another key concept for photographers is the light spectrum is made up of electromagnetic radiation at various wavelengths, some of which are visible and some of which are not. The visible colors from shortest to longest wavelengths are violet, blue, green, yellow, orange and red. White light is a mixture of the colors of the visible spectrum, and black is a total absence of light.

So, at midday with a bright sun and no clouds, all the colors in the light spectrum are visible and shinning on your subject – the equivalent of white light or white-hot. No wonder colors can seem very faded, black or dark sable dogs look like blobs, and highlights blow out. Early morning or late evening, the hour before sunrise / sunset, is often referred to as the “golden hour.” At these times of the day, red or orange colors are present, because the wavelengths associated with them are less efficiently scattered by the atmosphere than the shorter wavelength colors, such as blue and purple. This creates the warmer golden hues and tones. For more information, see the NASA article “What Wavelength Goes With a Color?”  On cloudy days, yellow, orange and red wavelengths are filtered out, leaving the wavelengths towards the blue and violet end of the light spectrum. As a result, the light is more even and diffuse.

Many DSLR cameras come with the ability to adjust white balance settings. Featured settings include Auto White Balance, Daylight (sunny), Shade and Clouds for outdoor lighting, and Tungsten and White Fluorescent for indoor lighting. With each of these settings, the camera sets the white balance for specific Kelvin values to compensate for a particular lighting condition. In the more advanced cameras, photographers can set the white balance by Kelvin temperature values or by using a white balance card and the Custom setting.

Canon has an excellent explanation of white balance settings and examples of the effect different settings have on an image. Canon’s article may be viewed here.

The following summary for outdoor lighting white balance settings is adapted from this article:

• Auto White Balance (AWB): Works best if the ambient light color temperature is between 3,000 K to 7,000 K. If there is no obvious white point from which the camera can evaluate the scene, there may be a colorcast or tint to the image.
• Daylight:  Works best in bright sunshine. It will balance for a color temperature of around 5,200 K, which is actually very slightly cooler than noon sunlight.
• Shade: These areas have a higher color temperature than sunnier areas, usually around 7,000 K.  Recall that blue has a higher Kelvin temperature value than red. This is the best setting for areas of light shade rather than very heavy shadow.
• Clouds or Haze: This setting sets a color temperature of around 6,000K. It is best used on days when the sun is behind the clouds, creating very even and diffuse light.

For more about indoor lighting and how to use a white balance card to set a custom white balance setting, see the Canon article referenced above. I have a white balance card, but in the course of an ordinary Schutzhund day, the lighting can change so rapidly that I think it is more efficient to use the camera-supplied settings.

As a test, I took photos looking into our pool area (see images below), using the following white balance settings on my camera (Canon 7D): Auto White Balance, Daylight, Shade, Clouds, Tungsten and White Fluorescent. Notice how the appearance of the image changes. The Auto White Balance image produces the true to life colors for the day’s conditions; sun going in and out of clouds and my standing in an area where the sunlight is filtered through a few tree branches. The Daylight setting added in a bit of yellow, which may be compensating for my standing in a shadier area. Shade has more blues, so the Shade setting compensates by shifting the colors back to red, which in this case appears more yellow. The Cloud setting is still yellower than I’d like, but it is closer to the correct white balance than the Shade setting. Tungsten added a lot of blue, and White Fluorescent added a magenta or red tint.

On a whim, I took a few sunset pictures the other night. The focus is not good (handheld), but I wanted to see the effect of adjusting the white balance on the sunset. You can see in the images below that the Daylight setting produced the most vibrant colors. The Auto White Balance filtered the reds and oranges out, as this setting seeks to strike an even balance between all the color temperatures.

The advantages of having a correct white balance include saving post processing time and preserving data that would be lost if the white balance is adjusted in editing software, not to mention the obvious advantage of capturing realistic colors. By being aware of the Kelvin values, you also can use these settings to achieve interesting effects, such as adding, in essence, a color filter to the image. If you have never tried the White Balance settings in your camera, give it a try and let me know what you think.

As I’ve been teasing the past few weeks on Facebook and Twitter, I am pleased to announce the launch of BJ Spanos Ink Photography, featuring:

• Dog Sports – Photographing Dogs in Action – Playing, Competing, Training
• Smug Mutts – Creating Memorable Photos and Artwork of Your Pet at Reasonable Prices
• Fine Art – Photographs, Collages, Custom Photo Editing, Hand-Made Cards and Books

The website is also accessible via bjspanos.com.  Please stop by when you get a moment. It is definitely a work in progress, but I am open for business. If you are in the Atlanta area, give me a call. I would very pleased to work with you.  Also, I am happy to travel to photograph pets and/or working dogs and their handlers one-on-one or at trials, although I am not available as an event photographer.

Which brings me to some changes on the BJ Spanos Ink website. I also am pleased to announce that the Sport of Schutzhund: A Photographic Essay book is nearly SOLD OUT. I have a few more cases left (less than 10), but since the stock is almost gone, I have removed the Art of Schutzhund Photography section from the BJ Spanos Ink website. That part of the site now features BJ Spanos Ink Photography, as noted above. You can still order single copies from Amazon or from Leerburg. The special offer for a box of books for working dogs and Schutzhund clubs is still open as long as supplies last. The gallery of Schutzhund photographs that once resided on the Art of Schutzhund Photography site has been retired. Thank you to the photographers who graciously allowed me to include their pictures in this gallery. I will be posting a collection of my own Schutzhund pictures on the BJ Spanos Ink Photography site, as time permits.

Please be assured that my dedication to the Art of Schutzhund Photography remains as strong as ever. And, I fully intend to pen more posts to this blog on what hopefully will be a more regular basis. Thank you for your encouragement and visits. May this fall bring us all opportunities to grab some great shots of the dogs we love and admire!