Tips for getting animals to be still

[medic24]

Here is my attempt at getting my yellow lab sit still long enough for a Christmas picture. But as soon as the shutter would begin to fire, she'd move. Any tips? She doesn't move much just enough to slightly blur. I've tried increasing aperture but i need a slower shutter. If I use a smaller aperture then the image is too dark. Also increased the ISO from 100 to 200. 400 is blown out.

 

[pwrstrk02]

Nyquil? Ambien?

 

[mwcfarms]

Keep practicing a sit/stay. Really good practice for both of you lol. I love her pink john deere collar. Very chic. Young labs are notorious for short attention spans sometimes. Good luck.

 

[medic24]

I thought so too. If she were human, she'd be a tomboy so i had to get her the John Deere collar. How about the exposure. Any tips for cleaning it up any in PP?

 

[mwcfarms]

I think your exposure looks good. WB is a bit yellow assuming her sweater is white/red/green. Man you got a lot of present under that tree.

 

[ajkramer87]

My lab collie mix. I move him where I want him to sit and give him a treat. Then I back away with one in my hand that he can see while telling him to sit. Works for him anyway.

 

[BuS_RiDeR]

My dog responds well to food... That might help him/her sit still.

 

[medic24]

I think your exposure looks good. WB is a bit yellow assuming her sweater is white/red/green. Man you got a lot of present under that tree.

yea, the only child we have is Marley (the dog) so my wife and I tend to spoil each other. My new camera was an early Christmas present (Olympus E420 with 14-42mm and 40-150mm by zuiko.)

 

[mwcfarms]

Well labs are highly food motivated lol. Every lab I have ever known anyways.

 

[medic24]

thanks for the tips, i'll be trying all of these.

 

[Bitter Jeweler]

Get the book "Understanding Exposure"

Upping your ISO, is so that you can use a faster shutter speed, reducing blur.
It sounds like you are treating each of the three "tools" as separate entities.

 

[medic24]

Applied a cooling filter in photoshop.

 

[medic24]

My lab collie mix. I move him where I want him to sit and give him a treat. Then I back away with one in my hand that he can see while telling him to sit. Works for him anyway.

beautiful animal.

 

[IanMoone]

I am new to hard core camera work, however I am no stranger to animals. If I can get a good posed picture out of my rabbits you can out of your dog I promise you that. Like the above poster said Labs are highly food motivated (but aren't all dogs?), so that can work very well. However, if that doesn't work I would recommend two things. First is wear the dog out before you try and get them to pose. My dog shadow is much more compliant when she doesn't have a lot of pent up energy. The other, which personally I think will work best, is to rather than dangle food for her, try and dangle a toy above her head and out of her reach. You should be able to recreate that photo's pose in the moments that your dog is looking at the toy and deciding how she wants to take it from you. I just tried it on my dog, and at least with her she kept her head relatively still. Sometimes though a dog has too much energy and it might just be best to go overkill with the camera and take a lot of pictures and hope one turns out well. Hope I helped.

 

[sobolik]

Getting them tired is the only way. Play retrieve the tennis ball launched from a racket. I hit golf balls to get my springer tired. She would run for hours anyway. Now that she is 14 she is always tired.