Every pet owner loves having beautiful photos of their pets. You don’t have to have to have complicated studio setups with lights and seamless backgrounds to get great images. Sometimes the best thing to do to capture natural photos of your pets is to keep things simple.
This approach to photographing your pets isn’t about posing them or putting them in a studio. It isn’t even about getting the perfect balance of light and shadows. This approach involves capturing images of your pets where they are in the moment. It is about capturing natural images of the special members of your family.
Setup
Most pets all have favourite places that they like to spend their time. Maybe they have a favourite chair or pillow. My dogs like to look out the window or bask in the sunlight on the floor. I wanted to try to capture natural images of them in those places.
The more relaxed your pets are, the better your images will be. You are coming into their world. Let your pets lead you to your images instead of putting them where you want them to be. This will help you to capture natural looking images of them in their environment. Just wait for them to get comfortable and have your camera ready.
You aren’t trying to direct them, you are just looking to capture the best possible image of them where they are. This means that you might have some messy backgrounds or distracting elements. Overall, just try to keep it simple.
Sometimes the light will guide you to an image. Strong directional light streaming in through a window can make for a dramatic image. On the other hand, when there is isn’t direct light hitting your pet, you will get a much more evenly exposed image.
Be on the lookout for amazing photo possibilities. As I was capturing photos, I noticed there was a reflection of my dog on the floor so I adjusted my angle lower to the ground to capture an image.
Equipment
There isn’t a right or a wrong lens for capturing images of your pets. For most of my images, I chose to use the Nikon 70-200mm FL F2.8. One of the great features of this particular lens is the ability to focus down to 1.1 meters. I am able to get a frame filling shot and capture some great portraits. I also liked that it was a zoom lens so I had flexibility when framing an image.
In addition to the 70-200mm, I used the Nikon 105mm F2.8 macro to get in even closer and capture some close up details. The resulting photos are not portraits but could be part of a group of images that tells the story of my pet.
The beautiful details of the colours or one of my dogs hair.
For this challenge, I didn’t choose to use a wide angle lens. This was a conscious decision as I was looking to get closer portraits of my pets. Perhaps next time I will capture some wider images of the dogs and their environment. Then I might use a wider angle lens like a 24mm or 35mm.
Capturing Images
One of the things that I was very aware of when I was capturing images was the colour of my dogs. I have one that is mostly black and one that is mostly white. Sometimes cameras can get fooled by subjects that are all black or white. A camera may ‘see’ a lot of black and ‘think’ that the scene is too dark and add exposure. So a black dog may get over exposed. On the other hand when it ‘sees’ an all white subject it may ‘think’ that it is too bright and underexpose the subject. So it is a good idea to check your exposures as you shoot.
In addition to this, I had some images where there was direct sunlight and shadows in the image. Usually a camera will expose for the brighter parts of the image and this will result in deeper shadows. Once again, it is a good idea to check the results of your exposure as you are capturing images.
If you are capturing a close up image of your pet and are using a wide aperture like F2.8 you will have a shallow depth of field. It is really important to make sure that your pet’s eye is in focus. If you have a camera with eye detection autofocus then that can be helpful. Otherwise, make sure you are adjusting your camera’s focus point to be on the eye of your pet.
When I was capturing photos I was narrating the process. I was trying not to be loud so my dogs would just continue doing what they were doing and not come over and see me. I did call out their names a couple of times to try to get them to look at me so I could get some images with eye contact. However, for the most part I just let them do whatever it was they were doing.
Post Processing
If you haven’t already watched my videos explaining what a histogram is and how you can use a histogram to learn about editing your photos, then I recommend you check them out.
In the video below I edit a couple of the images I captured in this challenge using the Photos app on my computer.
Thanks for all your support. As an Amazon Associate I earn from qualifying purchases.
