Darren has another top tips post over at Digital Photography School about How to Photograph Pets. I won’t reproduce his tips over here, go over to his post and check them out.
As Damian likes to point out, a cat is a digital photographers best friend. I have so many pics of my cats it’s not funny any more. Of course I will never stop taking pictures of them any more than I will stop taking pictures of my daughter.
Here are my additional top 10 tips for pet photography
Sometimes it’s good to have a goal before launching into your snap frenzy, particularly if your pets have featured a lot in your portfolio. Are you trying to capture their personality, just going for “cute”, aiming for funny? Flickr has groups such as “stuff on my cat”, “cats and computers”. - .. Of course spontaneous shots are also great, I love snapping random dogs while out and about. Keep your eyes open for likely scenarios. If you are near a lake there will always be one dog goes for a swim, etc.
- Use a telephoto lense, some pets get skittish if you are too close, especially if using flash
- Be wary of strangers animals, closely related to the above, I have seen many people almost get bitten trying to get in close and it’s not just the dogs; remember cats have 5 pointy weapons and are not afraid to use them!
- Take lots of pictures, shoot continuously when you think they are doing something worth snapping or about to. Fill up your cards then sort through later.
Bribe them! If you know they like certain treats you can get the more active pets to be compliant with a treat or two to keep them in one place. Cats particularly can look cute when they clean themselves after a snack and right after they might have a nap to sleep it off.- Props are fun and they don’t have to be proper pet toys, our cats will attack anything that looks like string and our old dog would chase anything thrown. One of our cats likes chasing the mouse pointer.
- Talk to the owner, some people are funny about having their pets photographed without permission (I have learned the hard way), plus especially dog owners if they are happy to have their dog photographed will get them to behave for you.
- For running dogs pan with the movement, this motion blurs the background while showing the dog in focus, promoting the action
- Stationary animals are just like any portrait really, just with more fur usually. Usual rules apply, get on their level, reduce distractions, blur the background using wide aperture (small aperture F/ numbers), give them breathing room in front of their face, light off to one side or bounce the light.
Technorati Tags: pet, portrait, photography, tips
2 Comments
Hi
Great article. I take a lot of dog photos, and I find that I get the best shots by getting down low, level with the dog. It’s great if the dog has been taught to stay, so you can avoid the risk of noseprints on your front element, LOL. Would love to see you at our new pet photography forum!
Cheers
Audrey
http://www.petphotographyonline.com
I’ve done a few pet photographs so far. Like any portrait the most important thing is to try and capture the animals personality. What do you think of first when you think of your pet, is chasing a ball, running or lazing in the garden? Also try to think around scale. I recently photographed a friends dog who is huge, I photographed him from below with him peering down at me!