Who wouldn’t want to photograph their dog and have great memories of their animal friends? Whatever pet it is, certain poses or ways of doing it arouse an incredible desire to immortalize them. If you are reading this article and have a dog, you can perfectly understand what is meant.
Photographing your pet may seem easy, but it is a complex operation as it involves checking for several significant problems. To begin with, not everyone has professional cameras capable of capturing the movement of animals, and it must be considered that they will not stand still waiting for the shot.
It must be said that even with a mobile phone you can get good photos, yet relying on a professional is certainly the best choice to have souvenir photos of a certain level. In this article, we will give some useful tips to put into practice to better immortalize your pet.
- Change perspective
First of all, if you are passionate about pet photography, the first step to taking a good shot is to get on the same level of shooting as your pet.
A change of perspective will allow you to win his attention and arouse confidence in him regarding the situation he is facing. Moreover, by placing yourself at his height, you will interact better and obtain results more faithful to reality. In terms of perspective, the excellent idea is to experiment, for example, by sitting on the floor or even lying down: the shots and the results obtained will surprise you. I have a lot of readers who want to make a photography logo. Here’s where excellent photography logo design and a suitable logo maker app come into play.
- Focus your eyes
Once this is done, proceed to focus his eyes. You will immediately realize that it is not always a very simple operation since your four-legged friend often moves unpredictably. Still, if you succeed in your goal, you will see a first great improvement in the final result.
It is not a universal rule, and if you intend to photograph your dog’s nose, the focus cannot be the eyes! All in all, if you intend to photograph it in its entirety, the gaze of your four-legged friend will be the focus of the whole shot.
As we will see later, setting good lighting and having a fairly neutral background will enhance the final effect even more.
- Find what kind of photo you want
At this point, it is necessary to implement certain behaviors towards your pet in line with the type of photo you want to make.
If you are struggling with your dog and have organized a small set to immortalize him still and relaxed, it is good to keep calm in turn so as not to stimulate his movements. In this case, let him run before the session so that he will gladly remain lying down or sitting.
If, on the other hand, the photo you want must represent your pet in motion, it is possible to stimulate its reaction through food, a happy and certainly irresistible call. Beyond these precautions, animals do not have much patience, and stressing them too much is counterproductive: the ideal is that the pet photography session lasts a maximum of 15 minutes or a little longer.
- Use food to enliven the pet portrait
An original idea to immortalize your dog while he makes particularly lively movements can be to throw kibble in the air and be ready to shoot as soon as he activates to grab them.
- Take your pet’s details
One way to produce particular and memorable shots is undoubtedly to immortalize the details of your little friend, so you can consider moving away from the most obvious total recovery and dedicate yourself to the details.
Another trick you can apply to give the shot an epic flavor is to blur your dog with postproduction effects and to use the correct lenses. The portrait photography effect on Apple phones also works well.
- Get the dog used to the camera
Especially if you have decided to shoot with a camera, your pet may be too intrigued or frightened by a contraption he has never seen before. So it is good to take some time and have your four-legged friend take familiarity with the situation.
- Use artificial light/flash
If you are passionate about photography, you probably have some notions about lights and flashes, but if you ignore this topic, the most direct advice to give you is not to use the flash. It is always preferable to resort to natural light, both to avoid unsightly reflections in the eyes and because a sudden light can only shake your four-legged friend.
If you are using the smartphone, you have certainly already noticed that the light captured in the photos is minimal due to the small sensor that usually has almost all models. In short: photograph your dog during the day outdoors, with your back to the sun, or by placing yourself sideways.
- Get help
The presence of someone who acts as your assistant can facilitate this small business: surely having a person next to you will make everything easier, and you will have the situation under control at 360. If you can count on a helper, it is good to organize the work in advance to divide the tasks and be coordinated during the shots.
- Create empathy with the animal
Anyone who owns an animal, especially a dog, knows that they are always very interested and curious. So your change of perspective with a shooting accessory in your hand could make it snap towards you, sending all air the pose you were working on.
It is good to take the time to get your pet friend acclimatized and empathize with him so that he relaxes and is neither alarmed nor overly suspicious.
In conclusion, you don’t need to have a lot of inspiration to make a pet portrait, and they are so amazing and fascinating that they will be the ones to guide you during your pet photography session.
Keep in mind all the tips we have just seen, and you will get some evocative custom pet portrait. For a professional service, however, it is always better to contact a specialized photographer!
