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Exposure Tips for Outside

When working outside photographing dogs, I am usually using my 80mm-200mm zoom lens. Since I usually hand hold this lens, I follow the common rule of using a shutter speed setting above 1/200 of a second. This allows me to get reasonably sharp images.

Since I also almost always use fill-flash with color film, I am limited by my camera's maximum flash sync speed, which on my Nikon F100 is 1/250 of a second. Since this is above the minimum 1/200 of a second I need for sharp images, I usually just set camera on shutter priority and set the shutter speed to 1/250 of a second and let the camera set the aperture. Since I always use 400 speed film, I usually get an aperture from between F5.6 and F11, depending on how overcast it is. This aperture range is perfect for this lens. Since I always focus on the eyes, this range gives me just enough to keep a dog in focus from the tip of its nose to the back of its ears. Since I always try to position the dogs several feet from a background I get a nice blurred background that really helps the dog's features stand out.

As I've mentioned elsewhere, I always use fill-flash when photographing dogs outside, even on overcast days. I've found that a flash setting of about -0.7 to -1.3 to be about right for helping to equalize the contrast. It also adds a catch light to the eyes which helps the eyes stand out amongst all their fur.

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