Snap like a pro
If you’re looking to improve your pet photography skills, we’ve enlisted the help of professional photographers Kerry Jordan and Tracey Smith to share their top tips on how to take photos of pets.
Focusing on the camera
Stealing your pet’s attention for a millisecond is half the battle. Kerry advises ‘making unusual sounds that your pet won’t have heard before, like high pitched noises, words in different tones or crumpling a crisp packet above the camera. You may even get a cute head tilt! Likewise, saying a phrase that gets your pet’s attention, like ‘treat?’, ‘ball?’ or ‘walkies’ can also work!
If your pet is scared of the camera, get them comfortable by setting it on the floor with a treat next to it. Once they’re OK with that, pick up the camera and add a training word like ‘say cheese’. They’ll soon see the camera as a positive thing’.
Getting the lighting right
Lighting is the most important part of any photo. To nail it, Kerry says that ‘before you even raise the camera, look at your pet’s face and see how light is hitting it. Is one side in shadow? Is the face quite dark? Can you see any nice little spots of light in the eyes? If it doesn’t look right, move them around or move yourself. Then take a few shots and change direction if necessary’.
Finding perspective
This really depends on what your pet likes to do and is your chance to get creative! Kerry suggests, ‘if they like getting up high, why don’t you go down really low and shoot upwards? Try moving around in different positions or looking down from above’. Tracey, on the other hand, usually opts for getting down to eye level for really good shots.
Achieving focus
Tracey’s tip for super sharp images is to ‘focus on the eyes – you don’t want blurry eyes, particularly in a portrait shot.
If you don’t have a fancy camera, you should have the capabilities on a camera phone. But if you’re using a DSLR, set an aperture of at least F5.0/F5.6 as a wider aperture such as f2.8 straight on will blur in some parts of the animal’s face or body’.
Taking action shots
For action shots, if you’re using a camera such as a Canon or Nikon, Tracey recommends "changing your focus setting to auto-tracking and keeping your shutter speed above 500 to minimise motion blur. Lighting will be a big factor here and you will need to adjust your ISO/Aperture/Shutter speed accordingly."