How To Take Better Photos Of Fido

Nothing gets an “ahhh” quicker than a cute pet photo. Unfortunately, it can also be one of the most frustrating ordeals to get that photo. Below are some tips to make pet photography more enjoyable for both you and your pet.

Consideration for your pet
Before we go further, most important thing to remember while taking pet photos is the welfare of your pet. Yes, your pet will tire of being the subject of your study and he/she will tire even quicker if they are not enjoying the photo shoot.

Strike a pose
If you have a new pet, begin to train that pet to pose for photos right from the beginning. You can condition your pet to strike the pose when you say a command word such “picture” or “camera” or anything else you choose to call it. The key is practice, practice and more practice. Practice both the posing and the actual taking the photos so your pet will get used to the camera. Whenever possible take your photos with the flash turned off. Pets quickly tire of having that bright light repeatedly flashed into their eyes.

Rewarding good photo behavior
PAfter taking your pet’s photo, be sure to reward that acceptable behavior with a treat your pet enjoys. Make the photo session an enjoyable experience for both you and your pet. Also, if your pet knows a treat will follow a photo session, he/she will be more willing the next time to do it again.

Indoors or outdoors
Whether shooting indoors or outside, use natural light whenever possible. Normally it is a softer, less direct, light resulting in photos with less harsh shadows.

If you are shooting outdoors, try to control your background or throw it out of focus if it is distracting. If your pet is not of the cage or habitat variety, you can make a simple non-distracting background from a solid color bed sheet, bath towel or craft paper. If you pet is a tree climber, you can use the blue sky as a background.

If the weather is not conducive to taking photos outside, you can always pose your pet near a window or patio door and take advantage of the soft light filtering in. If you are going to shoot in an area not normally frequented by your pet, spend a few days getting your pet used to this area before the photo session.

Selective focusing
With any of the photos, you can blur the background by zooming in with a telephoto lens. These lenses inherently have a small depth-of-field so the background will blur. A telephoto lens also gives you more room to work without having to be right in the animal’s face. Be sure to focus on your pet’s eyes. If the eyes are in focus, the picture is a successful shot.

Viewpoint

Another technique is shoot from your pet’s eye-level instead of always shooting down. If the sun is in back of your pet, you will have to turn on your flash to fill flash mode to fill in the shadow areas and balance the light on your pet’s face.

Props
Props are widely used in pet photography. Fido, with one of his favorite toys, will make a picture you will long endear for years to come. If you are not using a favorite toy, the key to using props in pet photography is to introduce the prop early, so your pet has time to become familiar and comfortable with the prop.

Controlling eye direction

You can control the eye direction of your pet in many ways. For dogs, you can train them to look a certain direction when a whistle is blown a set number of times. A flashlight can also be used and they will normally look in the direction of the light.

For cats, usually a dangling toy will work or they will respond by looking in the direction a voice came from.

Caged animals
If your animal is of the caged type such as a reptile, you can create a photography box to use as a mini studio. Line a cardboard box with a solid-color fabric or paper to avoid having to work around the wires of the cage. On the open side, place a piece of glass or acrylic. You can shoot down into the box or through the clear panel.

The best way to light this setting is with a bounced off-camera flash. The bounced light will be softer and the flash will freeze any sudden movement of the animal. If you are shooting through the clear panel, avoid flash glare by either using a polarizer filter or shoot at an angle to the clear panel so the light will bounce away from the flash and not back into the camera. Here again you could move the photography box near a window or patio door and take advantage of the natural light instead of using the flash.

Aquarium animals
For pets living in water, such as fish, you can use a flash, but it is better to use it off-camera and held over the top of the aquarium and pointed down into the water. If you have a light colored gravel on the bottom of the tank, the lighting will even out with light being reflected off of the bottom. If the bottom of the tank does not have light-colored gravel, try surrounding the outside of the tank on three sides with a light colored paper to get the light distributed as evenly as possible. If the tank happens to be near some natural light, you can try to use that also.

The key to pet photography is to make the photo session as enjoyable for both you and your pet. Part of that enjoyment is ensuring nothing you do to take the photo will harm or endanger your pet. Otherwise, all of a sudden it is no longer fun for your pet and it will be reluctant the next time to pose for pictures.

Pet photography produces some of the most-treasured photos you will ever take. Using the techniques above will assist you in capturing those treasures.

If you liked this article, visit our Sunlight Digital Photography website for more tips and techniques. To further your digital photography skills, consider purchasing one of our digital photography ebooks. All of them are instantly downloadable, so you can start reading right away.

The Art of Photographing People

If you write bios or profile-type articles, you will want to include a portrait photo of your article's subject. What is a portrait photo? Well, there are three kinds of portrait photos - posed, environmental and candid.

Posed -
In the posed portrait, you, the photographer, control the pose, background and direction of light. When shooting these portraits, you will most likely use either a full face, three-quarter face or profile view:

• A full face pose is usually not the best pose to use unless the subject has a perfect face, which few do. However, this is the pose to use, if you happen to be shooting young women with silky-smooth complexions.

• The three-quarter face pose will be one you will use the most. In this pose, the subject's face is 45 degrees to the camera and both eyes are visible. This pose minimizes blemishes on the far side of the face, so have the blemished side facing away from the camera.

• The other pose you will use is the profile. With this pose, the subject's face is 90 degrees to the camera and turned away from the camera until only one eye is visible. This is also a very good pose if one side of the face is less desirable than the other.

If the side of the face toward the camera is less than perfect, reduce the imperfection by using a diffuser filter. This filter gives a photo a slightly out-of-focus look and reduces the visibility of the imperfection.

The profile pose is also good to use if the subject has "chiseled" features. Natural sidelighting from a window will bring out the texture of the subject's face and accent those features. Lighting can be either natural light filtering in through a window or off-camera electronic flash. To tone down natural light filter it through a sheer curtain if one is available or bounce the light off of a reflector.

Environmental -
Another type of posed portrait is the environmental portrait. With this portrait, you are still controlling the pose, background and direction of lighting, however, you include more of the subject's surroundings in the photo. The surroundings may be in the subject's workplace or at home while engaged in a hobby. This type of portrait eliminates the problem of what to do with the hands.

Backgrounds can add to or distract from a photo. In shooting portraits, the background should be very subtle and unobtrusive. Some simple backgrounds to use are plain wallpaper, a plain painted wall, or in a pinch, a blanket. Position your subject about four feet in front of the background and use about a f8 or f5.6 aperture. Focus on the eyes of the subject. These apertures will throw the background slightly out-of-focus, so it won't overpower the photo and distract from the subject.

If the foreground adds to the portrait, then by all means show it.  For example, if you are shooting an environmental if a person tying a fishing fly, then you would want to include some of the fly-tying bench with fly-tying materials in the foreground.

For light colored skin, use a darker background. Conversely, for a darker colored skin, use a lighter background. Maroon is a great all-around background color. Use brightly colored clothes or props with subtle backgrounds.

When deciding the placement of the subject's face in the photo, place it about in the center of the photo. Not exactly in the center, but close. Shoot both close in and farther out. Get headshots, three-quarter face, profiles and full figure shots.

When metering for the shot, use a gray card or meter off the subject's face. If you do meter off the face, come in close, push your camera's shutter button halfway down, note the reading in your camera's TTL (Through-The-Lens) meter, drop back, adjust your camera to the readings you have just taken, recompose and shoot. For light skinned subjects open up one stop. For dark skinned subjects, close down one stop. Be sure and shoot both vertical and horizontal shots. Use a tripod and a cable release. This will allow you to concentrate on the composition and not have to worry about camera movement.

Always get a signed model, location or property release, if anything is unique and recognizable in the photo. It will make your photos more marketable.

Candid -
The last type of portrait is the candid. You can take some of the best people-photos when they don't know you are photographing them. Shoot candids by photographing people doing something and not paying any attention to you. With natural lighting, you can shoot many photos without being discovered. If you are using a flash, you are limited to probably just one. Once the flash fires, the subjects know you are photographing them and they are more weary and not as spontaneous.

The next time you write a profile article, experiment with some of these portrait tips while interviewing the subject of your article. You'll be surprised how much a portrait photo adds to a profile article.

If you enjoyed this article on how to shoot portraits, you'll enjoy my ebook titled The No-Nonsense Guide to Digital Photography. You can purchase it from this link and instantly download it for your digital photography reading pleasure.

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