Dog Photography Tips
That very first shot is usually its best. Choose & prepare the location & dog well in advance. If you do this first, it only takes a few minutes to get a really good photograph of your dog without ever leaving your own home or yard.
Choose a good location. Dogs are usually most relaxed & confident & more easily directed in their home environments or places they are familiar with. The key to getting a good dog photograph is to choose a quiet location with adequate light & tidy backgrounds with colors that compliment or accent your dogs.
Avoid clutter. We get accustomed to the laundry basket on the sofa, the mug & TV Guide on the coffee table and children's toys on the floor. A quick trip tidying up or tossing items out of sight goes a long way toward making good photos. When shooting outdoors stay on the look out for lawn furniture, hoses, garden tools & toys.
A handy shortcut when taking close up shots is to drape an attractive bedspread, towel or some fabric over things you want to exclude from your picture. When using a flash, make sure the background material is also well lit and if possible, keep the dog a few feet in front of the background to avoid flash shadows.
Light: Usually we want to shoot with the light behind us and the dog in front of us. Indirect light can also be very flattering. (This is the light just inside a doorway or window) The soft light on lightly overcast days & early morning or late afternoon can be great for outdoor close ups with a flash.
I use a flash on almost all of my shots. Bright direct sunlight may cause dark shadows and bright reflections that can be unflattering even if a flash is used. It can also make dogs unwilling to open their eyes fully or for more than a split second ... or they just open one eye fully and partially squint the other one that's closer to the light.
Low light may causel photos to get a grayish cast and we can get a blurry look when motion occurs not that motion occurs much when working with dogs.
Avoid shots with bright windows or open doorways in the background
Avoid photographing under trees on bright sunny days. The spots of bright sunlight that filter through the leaves under the shade of a tree can ruin an otherwise great photograph. Train you eye to look for these "hot spots" on your subject especially if they are on a face or shoulders. The same is true of shadows, even a thin naked branch can cast unattractive shadows that detract from your composition. Wire fencing, utility lines and clotheslines can do the same thing. With indoor photos, try for photos with the natural light coming from a single direction.
Photograph the dog at eye level. This may mean sitting or lying on the ground or raising the dog to a level where you are comfortable working.
Lifting a dog and holding it for a pose usually makes the dog look stiff, insecure, worried & hunched over. If you raise the dog up so you can work more easily, let the dog support itself on a comfortable, sturdy & stable surface that is at least one and a half times as long and wide as the dog. If the dog is not trained to sit-stay you can tie it to a solid object so the leash is concealed behind the dog.
If the dog seems a little nervous just wait a small distance away (in the spot you intend to shoot from) without looking at/talking to/or petting the dog. It will soon relax its paws, raise its head & wag its tail.
When it starts casually looking around this indicates it's almost time to take your photograph.
When you have a helper...
The helper's main job is to help position the dog, fix the background and then be able to keep the dog's undivided attention for just a few seconds.
Instruct your helper ahead of time to minimize talking to, looking at or petting the dog prior to the shot. This is very important. Too much baby talk and affectionate reassurance makes a dog roll on its back, wiggle, jump, open its mouth, loll its tongue, lick its nose & fold its ears back in a submissive expression.
Leave the dog alone as much as possible beforehand when you are looking for an alert & confident expression. When the dog is in position & you are ready to shoot, instruct the helper to get right behind you and your camera and get the dog's attention.
Beginner helpers often stand up behind the photographer and get the dog to look at them, saying "Shoot! There!" because it looks good to the them, completely unaware that all the photographer actually sees through the viewfinder is a dog's throat & the tip of its nose pointing straight up towards a helper standing too high behind them.
Getting
your dog's attention
NEVER SQUEAK THAT TOY UNTIL YOU ARE READY TO SHOOT!
Since dogs usually give you their best smiles first
Most dogs respond to a squeaky noise by perking their ears and either tilting its head or stretching its neck up high. An object shaken a little and then tossed away from dog can also get perked ears, a focused gaze and a tall pose. Tossing the toy out of view or directly behind the photographer may cause a dog to stretch its neck to one side.
It takes some practice to toss the toy at the right time & in the right direction to get the look you want. Snap your shot before the toy hits the floor or you'll get a nice shot of your dog looking down. Keep several toys on hand so if you miss the first shot you can immediately toss another before the dog moves or loses interest.
When squeaks and toy tossing doesn't get his attention you can try food. Just give him a little smell from as far away as you can and still get his attention.
Food can cause drooling and excessive nose twitching and licking, which makes it hard to take a nice photo. Toss bits of dry food over your shoulder onto a hard surface, as you did with the squeaky toys. Reward the dog with food after you get the shot you want. Another trick which may help when all else fails, is to get another helper to tap an empty food dish or scoot it on the floor or lead a strange dog or other small animal in the distance behind the photographer. If all this fails, just wait. Sooner or later the dog will hear something and look in that direction.
Try to position yourself between the dog and probable noises, like a gate or door opening. If the dog happens to be deaf you only have vision and smell to work with.
Practice ahead of time with 'camera in hand' (out of the sight of the dog) how to toss an object over your shoulder and get it to land where you want the dog to look, but not directly behind you. Remember a dog usually gives its best "smile" first.
You can also experiment with your squeaky toy, holding one finger over the opening and coaxing odd and intermittent noises out of it like a squealing sound or a beeping sound. These can sometimes get very comical expressions from the dog.
Special tips for working with rescue dogs
All the above information holds true when photographing rescued dogs but a few more tips may help you to capture that photo to help place that dog in a loving home. Have your rescue dog clean and groomed Be sure the eyes and nose are clean and the face hair does not obscure the eyes. Bathe and groom the dog first if it needs it.
Take the extra time you need for that dog to relax. Four or five minutes is not uncommon. Just wait. It will happen. When a dog first arrives at a rescue it is often frightened, defensive, dirty, matted and untrained. Photographing these dogs presents extra challenges.
Remember that photo you take is probably the dog's only chance to make a first impression for himself & your rescue. Be sure it's a good one!
In a rescue where every square foot is put to use housing & caring for dogs it can be difficult to find secure attractive locations to photograph the dog ... so be prepared to create your own.
Clothespins are great for securing a sheet or some other fabric background to chain link. It also keeps other dogs in neighboring pens from harassing your dog while he's trying to relax.
We can create our own very handy mobile studios where we can clip backdrops to a collapsible exercise pen & then easily move it around to stay in the best possible light we can find as that sun moves around on us.
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