Challenges of pet photography
Over 2/3 of all households in America have at least one pet, and I suspect all of those households are still trying to get an awesome photo.
They don't make it easy on us!
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Ummmm. . . No. I genuinely believe they are sometimes messing with me. |
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Everything came together this afternoon when the sun was shining in my office and bounced back into the sofa where she was stretched out. Good lighting, Clean background, and Quick camera hands! I snapped three photos before she got up and walked away. |
 
This is Scout. Scout was made for modeling. She looks like a cross between a mountain lion and a cheetah and she knows she is beautiful. She's actually a little more cooperative than Ranger which makes it easier to get glamour shots like this. |
This was Clover. Anyone who knows me knows that Clover was the light of my life for 14 years, and he was the best model from an early age. I took this photo within the first few days after I adopted him. What a natural! |
This was Daisy. She was my pretty-pretty princess for almost 15 years. She, like Ranger, was absolutely gorgeous and rarely let me take her photo. Her trick was to immediately turn her back to me, so getting a photo like this was priceless. |
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Okay - so I could sit here and post cute photos all day, but I think I'm supposed to be talking about overcoming the challenges of pet photography, so I'm going to get focused now. I should start by saying this post covers cats because - well - I have cats, but the same principles can be applied to dogs or other pet family members. The three main challenges I face with pet photography are Lighting, Background, and Timing. I am going to talk about ways I work to overcome these obstacles every day. |
LightingI spend most of my day in my office where the window faces west, so afternoon light is the best time to get good photos of the girls. I've learned to keep my camera nearby so I can quickly grab it if I see an opportunity present itself. I prefer natural light over flash if I can avoid it. Just like wild animals, the cats don't really appreciate a bright flash in their eyes, and I find window light works great if I know how to use it.
Since my cats are indoors, I am dependent on the light from windows as the brightest source. This is great for getting soft, even light, but it tends to be a little darker so I leave my ISO set pretty high, around 800-1000. I also set my camera on Aperture Priority and put it on the widest aperture my lens allows. This ensures I don't get under-exposed images when I'm scrambling to snap a few shots before they realize what I am up to and run away. |
| Background
I have four ways of dealing with distracting backgrounds: Blur it out, Blast it out, Crop it out, or Color out.
Blur it out: as I mentioned above, I tend to set set my lens to the widest aperture so I can get the best exposure, but this also reduces depth of field which blurs out undesirable backgrounds. Another way to accomplish this is using post processing software. Even some of the latest smartphones have this feature.
Blast it Out: If I am dealing with an already bright background, I might over-expose the image to let that go white. This can also be accomplished using post processing software.
Crop it out: Sometimes you just have to crop out the parts of the image that are distracting. In this image, I cropped out Scout's tail because it looked like it was floating in the background. It was weird so it had to go. I did this using Lightroom, but you can do this with images on your smartphone as well.
Color out: My cats have lots of beds and blankets, which tend to show up in my images. If I find the blanket - or any background is too busy or distracting, I try changing it to black and white to see if that improves the image and you would be surprised how often it does. Again, this can be done with a smartphone too. |
| Timing
I think timing is the most challenging aspect to deal with, because unless they are sleeping, you don't typically have a lot of time to react when you see a photo worthy moment. This is why I'm a fan of stalking. Yes, I stalk my cats and I'm not ashamed to admit that. If they are rolling around, playing with a toy, I'll grab my camera and start taking images far away, slowly working my way closer.
Ranger isn't just giving this stuff away. If you watch your pets long enough, you can start to anticipate their next move and react more quickly. A smart phone weighs next to nothing and can be used to capture moments you might never get if you reach for the camera. Let's admit it, we probably all have more photos of our pets on our phones than anything else!
The cats often use each other as pillows. Ranger has decided here that Scout makes a nice chin rest. |
That's it! I hope you enjoyed this post and are inspired to capture some great photos of your pet. For more images, check out my pet photo gallery.
