Seriously pulled into the parking lot at work and noticed the magical look to the retention pond behind the parking lot. There is beauty everywhere if you are receptive to it!

Yes, not much contrast around the ears. I have tried to extract, but a little messy. Actually, the dog is my nephew's and was visiting during a football game. No chance to reshoot. Not a problem. As you said, I am trying to master the background piece of photography. In this case after the shoot.

Thanks Suzip,

Good technique. Helps a little, but I'm still not fond of my messy table.

Thanks Mdorn,

Looks like the quick fix I needed.

Publish was the wrong word. Just going to print frame and mat for Christmas presents.

I was going back throught some random photos I have taken of family pets and there are some good ones I would like to publish. Problem is the less than idea background. I have Elements 9. Can I create a black background or some other interesting look? How would you do it? I did crop and use vignetting to minimize the background. Examples attached.

Baxter


Baxter Cropped

Mdorn,
I am an amateur in much the same position as you. I have done a few weddings, pictures for the company brochure and newsletter, just about anything, but would like to take it to the next level and quit the day job. There are a few franchises out there that I have talked to, however they are primarily volume photography (school, sports, little league, etc.). The advantage with the franchise is getting a jump start with marketing and training as well as product support. Having said that, I would be very interested in opinions from the forum as well.

DJack, Love the site. Great insight into the use of lighting.

Ouch! Taking photos with sunlight can make you squint. I read this post before heading to work and couldn't stop thinking about how effective that photo would have been if it truely had shown the warmth of the sun on their faces without blowing out the detail. So leaving work, the big bright sun was in full force and I played with the shutter and aperture settings to see if there is some means of control. Not good subject matter, but lets turn this into a learning experience. Can some of you suggest some tehniques to bring the effect of sunlight into your photos?

There you go. A scientific explaination. I guess I can stop worrying about the men in black suits.

Truely don't know what those lights are. Noticed them a couple of days later when I was going back through the photos. The UFO thing makes for fun speculation!

Thanks, I'll use that in the future.

Strange Lights

No, tripod in the driveway

Practicing photography at sunset and later saw some interesting lights on this test photo. Fun to speculate. Any ideas?

Lights