Pet Portrait?

[weepete]

Hi all,

My sister got her first dog earlier this year and I'm taking care of it on Friday night while the family is out. It provides me with an opportunity to shoot a nice portrait of her dog which if I can pull it off would make a nice gift for her with the impending holiday. I've got a Yonguno YN460 manual flash, a couple of wireless triggers and a small diffuser (would probably be able to borrow a second flash to use as a slave too if needed)

Trouble is I've absolutely no experience in trying to shoot a decent pet portrait and was looking for some advice on lighting and if there's anything specifically that makes a good pet portrait?

Luckily the dog is just back from the groomers today too.

 

[gsgary]

Hi all,

My sister got her first dog earlier this year and I'm taking care of it on Friday night while the family is out. It provides me with an opportunity to shoot a nice portrait of her dog which if I can pull it off would make a nice gift for her with the impending holiday. I've got a Yonguno YN460 manual flash, a couple of wireless triggers and a small diffuser (would probably be able to borrow a second flash to use as a slave too if needed)

Trouble is I've absolutely no experience in trying to shoot a decent pet portrait and was looking for some advice on lighting and if there's anything specifically that makes a good pet portrait?

Luckily the dog is just back from the groomers today too.

Here's one from a dogs show where i had a studio set up

And here is how i lit it

 

[qleak]

For me the most important things in an pet portrait are the following:

• Catch light in the eyes
• You have to nail the focus on the nearest eye (stop down if you must)
  
• Try to shoot the animal at eye level (sometimes a bit bellow)
• Watch the background everyone has ok shots of their dog with clutter, this can separate yours from the mix.

It's good you'll be using your flash on manual, most animals have very fast (spring loaded) eyelids and it will be hard to get a good portrait with pre-flashes.

The elephant in the room, which will determine how you work, is the dog's behavior. Well trained show dogs will let you place them on a table and pose them. Some dogs will run up to you and smudge their noses on your lens ( a lens hood can be a nose barrier). A high energy dog may require you to ditch the studio setup and work from the hotshoe. A few slices of processed cheese product broken into very small treat bites can work wonders for behavior, but you may get drooling and a lot of licking the chops shots.

You can try putting the dog at the top of a flight of stairs and stand down a few steps to get a lower perspective. That's how I got this portrait of my cat, but I used a TTL metered bounce flash so notice her eyes are partially shut.

 

[weepete]

Thanks Gary, that's really helpful mate. I'll definatley give that a shot

 

[pixmedic]

a table, something to cover table, some flashes, and a backdrop.

bearflag by pixmedic, on Flickr

 

[gsgary]

Thanks Gary, that's really helpful mate. I'll definatley give that a shot

You can also use a reflector where my partner is stood

 

[weepete]

Thanks Qleak, I never knew that about the eyelids, I'll need to watch that with the slave flash then.

She's a pedigree Shih Tzu so should be manageable though is still a pup so we'll need to see how she is on the day. Luckily she's very used to me (we have a pretty good relationship) and is pretty well behaved though I doubt I'll be able to pose her exactly. Her training is a work in progress but she's getting a few commands like "stay" pretty well now.

The house it will be shot in is turn of the century so we'll have a few props and backgrounds to experiment with too

 

[weepete]

Thanks Pixmedic, I'll see what I can do background wise. Should have a few options

 

[weepete]

Thanks Gary, I'll be collering the daughter to act as an assistant so that will be an option too

 

[pixmedic]

I was on the professional dog show circuit as a handler for 12 years.
(cardigan welsh corgis)
when we had pictures done, they were either head shots (like the one I posted) or full body shots to show the dog in a posed "show" position.

ears (where applicable) and head up. chest out. ( do this by lifting the dogs front paws up off the ground by placing your hand under the dogs neck and lifting upwards, then setting the dog back down.) this should also square the dogs stance in the front. most of these pictures are from the side, and evenly lit to showcase all the dogs features.

 

[Derrel]

Make sure you get the doggone dog in good focus! For a suggestion, shoot in VERTICAL orientation if the dog is going to sit up, like on an ottoman or stool--either of which will "localize" the dog and keep him in one, single, simple area, so you can get the background squared away. BOUNCE the flash off of a wall off to the left, with the flash in the hotshoe. Make sure the flash hits the wall IN FRONT OF the dog's ottoman, and that the dog is angled toward the wall so that the lighted-up wall area gives the right bounce to light the dog and put catchlights in both eyes.

If you tripod mount the camera and flash you can pre-check the light, and also have a hand free for dog-wrangling and treat feeding every third or fourth shot.

 

[bratkinson]

Perhaps my favorite dog shot of my own dog(s) was when Molly was comfortably on the couch, looking at me. Behind me was the large living room window, with blinds to dim the light a bit. Shot from her height on the couch, natural light, no flash, the catch light from the window worked perfectly in the shot.

 

[tirediron]

Take Rover for a nice long walk before hand. Tired dogs are much easier to work with. Other than that, lots of good advice above.

 

[gsgary]

Another thing that works for me is sitting them on the dinning room table they seem to keep still better and you can get down to their level easy, like this one of my dog and my daughters

 

[tirediron]

Another thing that works for me is sitting them on the dinning room table they seem to keep still better and you can get down to their level easy, like this one of my dog and my daughters

And a better illustration of the importance of grammar and punctuation we could not hope to see...