Low Light: Indoor Dog Shows

I get so frustrated with the lighting in the venues for the Dog Shows and Agility Trials I attend. I LOVE to try to get shots of the dogs and the occasional candid.

Here's a sampling from the last Dog Show I attended in Timonium, MD. last month:

Show dogs have it so RUFF...



This is Capri. She was relaxed with her ears down. That is until I picked up my camera and aimed it at her. First one ear popped up. Then the other. She knew how to work the camera. (Just wish I had been able to focus on her eyes more than her nose.)
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An Irish Wolfhound, anticipating his treat...


​Sometimes the pups cannot contain their excitement... Here, this Bernese Mountain Dog leaps on his handler...

How many of you have seen a Cane Corso with natural, un-cropped ears? I don't know the judging criteria for Cane's but I was surprised to see the ears un-cropped. Maybe someone else knows? (Yeah, I could Google it... )


Cane Corso, intent on getting his yummy...
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Waiting on the Aussies to show, I turned around and found the Dalmations in the ring behind us...


This Aussie wasn't showing. It may have been there for the Obedience competition(s) though. While waiting ring-side for the Aussies to show, this one's mommy walked away. Notice the look on this face... my own Denali, a real momma's-girl, has been known to give this look as well as if to say, "Mom??? Are you coming back???"

I would look to dog magazines for examples of composition. The technique you will learn soon enough but you must have something to hinge it on eg composition. Good stuff in your gallery. Camera makes nice colors so settings are decent. Shooting RAW? Post production at all?

Last set for tonight.
This is Yoshi with his owner/handler Tom. Yoshi ended up winning the Australian Shepherd breed this day. LOVE his happy demeanor!


A German Shorthaired Pointer... in a "dilute" coloring. Kind of blends into the concrete flooring.

Eye-level said:

I would look to dog magazines for examples of composition. The technique you will learn soon enough but you must have something to hinge it on eg composition. Good stuff in your gallery. Camera makes nice colors so settings are decent. Shooting RAW? Post production at all?

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Yes, shooting RAW.
Post Production with Lightroom.

I'm not able to afford a fast zoom lens right now, so for indoor shots, I'm using my 50mm f1.8G... and then cropping. Sometimes the lighting in the rings can vary so much from corner to corner. Some shots will come out decent; others pink tinted with lots of grain.

One of these nights I'll add some shots I've taken at Agility Trial(s).

I know the feeling I can't afford any lens right now.
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Cropping a 50mm shot?

Very interesting...what sort of zoom do you have? What ISO are these made at? Have you played with the white balance in post?

German short hair is looking pretty good...

I will now have to study my dog books tonight!

Why do women almost always seem to be more "natural photographers" than men?

Eye-level said:

I know the feeling I can't afford any lens right now.
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Cropping a 50mm shot?

Very interesting...what sort of zoom do you have? What ISO are these made at? Have you played with the white balance in post?

German short hair is looking pretty good...

I will now have to study my dog books tonight!

Click to expand...

What sort of Zoom do I have? You mean my zoom lens? It's a AF-S DX NIKKOR 55-300mm f/4.5-5.6G ED VR It really is not fast enough for this type of indoor lighting. AND because the lighting varies so much within a show ring, I set my camera to Sports Mode, Continuous Shutter Release and click away, hoping for something good to come of it.

Of the shots I've posted in the above posts, the iso varies between 2200 and 3200 (automatically determined by the camera on Sports Mode.)

I have played with White Balance. But mostly I like to bump up the brightness and add some clarity, sharpening, etc. If I ~know~ what type of lights we're under, I'll see if I have a setting for it in Lightroom. i.e. if I ~know~ I'm under fluorescent lighting, I'll change it to that. Or if it's a cloudy day (for outdoors) I'll change it to that and see if the colors look similar to the way my eye saw it.

Lakeside Annie said:

Of the shots I've posted in the above posts, the iso varies between 2200 and 3200 (automatically determined by the camera on Sports Mode.)

Click to expand...

Oh dear, sports mode might be ok in good light but definitely not suited to these shots IMO.
I wouldn't chose sports mode even for something like car racing.

Sports mode in low light will not use the best aperture, it will not use the best shutter speed because the aperture is probably not fully open and it will raise the ISO above what you would have chosen.

What depth of field do you want? What shutter speed do you need?
You might need to compromise by using a full open aperture, losing some depth of field or using a shutter that is just enough to get most shots good.
​Your camera cannot evaluate the scene in this way.

As an example I just took a shot in sports mode with the 35mm 1.8
It gave,
1/750
f2.8
ISO 800

For the dog shots a 1/250 should be plenty fast may be able to go faster.
f2.8 will give more depth of field but I might want to chose f1.8
With the above shutter and aperture my ISO would be low.

I would use manual mode with an auto ISO set to 3200 max, others will want to control ISO too but auto ISO keeps your metering easier.
Chose your aperture, chose your shutter, watch your exposure meter and shoot in raw (as you were) to allow better post processing.

Can you post exif data from some of your shots, I'll bet you could have chosen much better settings than what your camera did in sports mode.

Great series of pictures. Unfortunately with this type of venue, the variable aperture kit lens is not going to cut it unless you augment it with a strong flash like the SB 910. A Nikon 85mm f1.8G might be able to add the reached that you might need but if you are sitting on a chair, then you definitely need the versatility of a zoom lens.

Invest on a "used" Nikon 70-200mm f2.8 VRI. Around $1,300 to $1,400. I would have love to shoot during the event.

For indoors, since the lighting is pretty much consistent, try shooting in M mode, f2, 1/80, ISO1600.

gqtuazon said:

...Invest on a "used" Nikon 70-200mm f2.8 VRI. Around $1,300 to $1,400. ...

Click to expand...

It's on my wishlist.