How to Photograph your Pet for Artwork
I am constantly being asked what are my best techniques for how to photograph your pet in preparation to do a painting or drawing. I’ve put together my best tips for you!
As an added bonus, you’ll get to enjoy reading tips from nature photographer Erika Swafford and she also has 4 photography projects that you can try now.
Camera Setting
- Photos should be taken at the highest quality setting.
- The camera should also be set for the appropriate lighting.
- Many automatic cameras do this for you, but you should check your camera documentation for the camera settings just in case.
Background
- If your pet is very light or very dark in colour, that can be a challenge. Use natural outdoor light to create beautiful background contrasts.
- A light coloured pet photographed against a nice dark wood fence, wall or tree adds nice contrast.
Lighting
- You will never go wrong when taking pictures of your pet in natural light either in the morning or late afternoon whether it’s sunny or cloudy.
- Avoid taking pictures outside around noon, because the sun is directly overhead and tends to flatten out colours in your pet.
- If you have to take pictures indoors, you’ll may need to adjust your camera to an “indoor setting”.
- You can also purchase Daylight light bulbs at big box stores for a very reasonable price. Just look for the daylight rating of 6500k.
- If you have a light at 45 degree angles to the left and right of your pet, you should get nice, even lighting.
- It’s best to have the pet facing the sun or light source to bring out the highlights in the fur.
- Avoid using a flash when taking pictures of your pet. This will eliminate what I call “devil eyes” which is the result of the flash going through to the back of the eye and bouncing back to the camera.
Getting Your Pet to Pose
- If your pet is full of energy, it may be challenging to get him or her to sit still. For a pet portrait still pose, an ideal time to take a picture is when they have settled down after playtime and they may be tired and more apt to sit still.
- The best pet photographs are taken at the pets’ eye level rather from above or the floor level, unless that is the angle that you desire.
- It may be easier for you to “go to the pet” instead of calling the pet to you and having them sit or lay down.
- If your pet won’t sit still, you may want to have someone gently hold your pet while you take pictures.
If your pet is stressed during the photo session, take a break for a couple of days. If the session is pleasant for the pet, you will be able to take many wonderful photos.- If you want a full body portrait of your pet in action, take pictures of your pet playing. Check your camera for a “burst setting” as this will allow you to press and hold the shutter button and the camera will take many pictures at a time. Install fresh batteries in your camera when using the “burst” setting.
- If you are a little shaky, you may find it easier to use a tripod to take pictures.
- If your pet likes treats, that’s a bonus! Have someone hold a treat in their hand, signal your pet to sit and look at the hand as it’s extended.
- Making funny noises or using a squeaky toy are also good distractions for your pet and by moving the distraction, this will change the direction that your pet faces. You can take pictures at interesting angles and levels.
Detail Photos
- If at all possible, get up close to your pet to get additional pictures of their eyes, nose and any other special features in their face.
4 Pet Photo Projects You Have to Try
If you want to get creative with photographing your pet, Erika at Erika Swafford has a great blog post with 4 Pet Photo Projects you can try now. I’m particularly fond of the Silhouettes project. Erika has another blog post “How to Finally Get a Good Photograph of your Pet” and it has some really great ideas for photographing your fur baby.
Do you have any tips about photographing your pet that haven’t been covered? and please share this blog with your pet loving friends and family because we can never have too many pictures of our fur babies in our homes!
Until next time, Stay Inspired!
Gisèle
these are great photography tips, even if you don’t have pets, like me. I have trouble getting decent photos of my children because they always pull silly faces, I should think pets are just as difficult in their own way.
Thanks Lucy! I think distractions are great for taking pictures of children and setting your camera to take many pictures at once. You’ll never know if that silly face will be the one 🙂
We see so many photographs on Facebook and Pinterest about pets who could learn from these tips. I wish I had one, however, am allergic to cats & our days of walking dogs has passed by. Scheduled to tweet in hopes another pet owner will benefit.
Hi Roz, I’m allergic to cats as well, but Chaos is my son’s cat and he’s a firefighter in the Canadian Military so I put up with the itchy eyes. Thank you for the lovely comment and for the share!
These are some great tips to follow … I never really photographed my pets, however, I know people who do. My experience is that my pets never liked to sit still for very long or they would lay down and I couldn’t get a picture! Great post!
Hi Tamara,
I’m thinking of all the things I didn’t include in the tips. If you have a DSLR, you can hookup a remote on it. Pop the camera on a tripod, stand away from the camera and distract your pet and then fire away using Rapid fire.
Thank you for the tips, Gisele. Most of our doggy photos are taken on the spur of the moment before the furry baby gets bored and shifts position. Interestingly my 5 late dachshunds and my current pet friend Miss Coco do catch on after a while and some of the poses they give are amazing – like titling their heads in a particular direction and looking straight into a camera. I’m bookmarking this post for future reference.
Hi Vatsala, isn’t it funny when they start to pose 🙂 One tip I forgot to share was using Rapid fire on your camera if you’re using a DSLR. I think some of the new smart phones have that feature too. You can get 10 snapshots in a few seconds.
Thank you for the tips, Gisele! I’ll try them out with my cat this week. I like to photograph him with props sometimes (below) which requires a lot of patience on his part, haha :p
Is that your cat at the beginning of the post? Beautiful creature!
Hi Katherine, LOVE the picture of santa kitty!!! yes, that’s Chaos at the top of the post. She posed for pictures really well. For that reason, any painting I’ve done of Chaos has sold…she gets into these weird positions that are just so funny to see.
We put on these really cool steampunk style goggles on Mia, she walked around PetSmart and everyone was amazed on her “patience” while entertaining everyone LOL!!!
Steampunk goggles? Awesome! I’d pay good money to see that 🙂
Hi Gisele, great tips on how to photograph your pets. We tend to take a lot of photos of ours and I will certainly use some of your techniques in the future. Cheers, Ian
Hi Ian, I LOVE the photo of the horse. Is he/she yours?
Thank you for sharing my links, Gisele! You have some great tips here. I need to make some paintings of my pets – someday. 🙂
Hi Erika! I’m glad you enjoyed it!!! someday…I’ll hold you to that 😉
Thanks for sharing your tips! My dog Skyla is really good about sitting still and “posing” for pictures.
Some really like to have their picture taken 🙂
Both my daughter and I have been relatively successful in getting very “random” shots of her dog and two cats. Mostly when they least expect a photo to be taken. The dog and one of the cats are dark coloured, so often we have to make sure they are on a colourful or somewhat neutral background. Like children though, pets are pretty prone to move, just when you think you’ve got everything lined up perfectly to get the best photo possible of them. Thanks for the tips, Gisele. And yes, at their level certainly does make it easier to capture… Read more »
Thanks Beverley! I’d love to see a picture of your fur babies!
Good tips here Gisele – especially the one about being eye level with pets. And, of course, sometimes it seems our pets have their own ideas for a photo=>
When I have the camera out on Rapid fire, Mia will let me take about 10 pictures of her before she changes poses. Now, if I can just teach her to do this on command, it would make for a really fun demo at a show.
Some really great tips Gisele on taking photographs of your pet. Up until recently we had a beautiful golden Cocker Spaniel named Sammy. He sadly died but fortunately we we able to take some great pics of him and I must say, he always seemed to be such a natural! He’d look dead on into the lens and it was just a matter of ‘click’ and we’d have a fabulous picture of him. I’ll bare the other tips in mind when it comes to our other little Cocker Spaniel mix. 🙂
I’m so sorry to hear about Sammy, but so happy you were able to get some pictures of him. He sounds like he could have been a doggy model!
These are great tips Gisele! I have a 2 year old daughter and I can apply some of your tips to take photos of her especially “if your pet is full of energy, it may be challenging to get him or her to sit still. For a pet portrait still pose, an ideal time to take a picture is when they have settled down after playtime and they may be tired and more apt to sit still.”.
I will try this weekend! Thank you for sharing 🙂
I’d be curious how the photo shoot with your daughter worked out. Distractions work great too for energetic photo subjects. For Mia, it’s a piece of liver treat or her red Kong ball.
Hi Gisele!
Welcome to our awesome community of bloggers!
Really enjoyed your post! These are some awesome tips for how to photograph your pet. A few of these I am definately gonna utilize with my 2 cats 🙂 Thank you for sharing!!
you are very welcome and glad you enjoyed the post!
Hi Gisele,
These are excellent tips for those who would like to photograph their pets. Unfortunately, my family has allergies to cats and dogs and we are unable to have a pet. I did have a cockatiel years ago and wish that I had these then.
thanks Robin!
Hi, Gisele! We have tried most of your tips, and our two biggies are: 1) getting eye level with our darlings, and 2) make sure the camera has enough room! There is nothing worse than taking several pictures to get the “one,” and then the camera starts beeping because you’re out of memory, lol. Great post!
Oh that would be another tip I didn’t post… the camera beeping! not for the memory card but from a drained battery LOL!!!