I'm working on my holiday theme for the season. I'm trying to go simpler than I did with the fall theme, with less props that matter if they have a dog in front of them and such. I may have a couple of wrapped presents and one box ready to do the "gift puppy comes out of the box" type shot.

Here are a few test pics I did just to see how things are shaping up. Feel free to comment good & bad.

The lighting was just sort of thrown together for these and needs a little work once I settle in on the set, and I think the loops in the garland dipped too low.

The challenge I face on a couple upcoming event shoots is working with dogs from tiny to huge and possible the inclusion of some people.

Right now, my thoughts are to have the backdrop poles set to lower and raise pretty easily without much fuss based on dog size and people. I'll also have an ottoman for the really tiny dogs.

Any other thoughts?

I really like your display. I love the soft focus with some and with your groups it still should look nice in focus. Great job!

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Any other thoughts?

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Jim,
my experience with white is that it gets dirty quickly. That could force you to do a lot of retouching in PP.

I like the look but I think I'd be looking for something a bit darker.

Just my 2 centavos.

Jim

the last two are great!

Peggysue,

Thanks. My plan is to shoot some really shallow DoF and some at a smaller aperture. I figure variety is the key to selling more prints.

Jim,

Yep, after one shoot with our four, we have paw prints on the material! I thought about this, but the first person that booked a holiday shoot made a specific request for white. I'm considering adding "snow" to the floor to help protect the material and hide dirt. The back part shouldn't be too hard to keep relatively clean though.

Walter,

I will bel lighting the backdrop and the dog separately, so I should be able to control that pretty well. I'll also have a few shots of the set with no dogs on it so in a pinch I can do a composite. I hope to avoid that though, if at all possible.

Interesting about the light blue for T.V. I do a lot of blue-screen work (which I imagine is darker than the blue you're talking about), but I was afraid people wouldn't be able to picture the final result if I went that route.

Tony,

Thanks. That's Rust E. Bucket, our three footed wonder dog. He's awesome.


The first time out for this display will also be the first time I've been booked by a store to do a shoot for them. We've worked out all the $$ details and the bookings have started to come in.

I think if you are going to vignette high key sets, do so with a white vignette. I think the dark is distracting and almost gives a dirty look.

Other than that it looks very festive

Thanks Julie, sorry I missed your reply for so long, but I'm not getting notices for some reason.

I will definitely consider a white vignette as an option. Maybe I'll give folks a choice between light or dark.

Just my 2 cents on vignettes, they should be barely noticeable. They should draw your eye to the subject, not away. I do not vignetted white at all, as it is high key and just try and make sure everything is a smooth white. It gives a clean look.

I do vignette my colored paper and backdrops as it gives more of a spotlight look.

I definitely see your points.

I actually tried to keep some details in the white BG since it has some sparkles and pattern, but those don't show so I'm leaning away from trying to keep those details now.

I originally wanted to do this on white paper, but the store where I'll be doing my first round with this set up doesn't have a space wide enough for my roll