Tips for pet photography

Lead: There are two major shooting problems in Hollywood film circle, one is children, and the other is animals. Coincidentally, these two points also apply to photography. Here, I will share some tips on pet photography. Let's go and have a look!

Pet photography tips 1, safety is always the first.

All pets, no matter how docile and lovely they look, are essentially animals, so we can't ignore the safety issue when shooting. Especially those stray cats, stray dogs and the like, they are likely to have been abused by humans before, and this kind of animal is more alert to humans. Before shooting animals for the first time, we need to spend some time with our pets so that they can smell your body, clothes and camera and get to know each other better. Never make sudden big movements or make loud noises when shooting, which may scare your pet and even lead to attacks.

Step 2 shoot the dog

Man's best friends are those animals that can cooperate with us, such as dogs. They are more likely to respond to sound signals and adjust their body position for light and ideal shooting angle. Once they are familiar with it, it is relatively easy to pat dogs among all kinds of pets.

3. Our best friend

The most precious photos are usually those that record the moment when people interact with dogs. When shooting, we need to pay attention to the possible time of these moments in order to prepare for shooting in advance. This moment may come when your child comes home from school. When the child opens the door, the dog will usually rush to greet the child happily, or when your mother is sitting in his favorite armchair, the dog will jump into her arms.

Similar to taking portraits, proper body settings and lighting conditions are also helpful to bring out emotions in animal photography. The above photo was taken with an 85mm lens, and the main body of the photo is the close contact between the little daughter and the dog. I set the aperture to f/ 1.8, creating a dreamy blur effect of Jiao Wai, and setting off the friendship and trust between people and animals.

Next, the following picture was taken by me for a client. Their family lives by the sea with their pets. I hope to integrate the beach environment into the composition when shooting, but the afternoon sun is not suitable for shooting. Fortunately, I found a shadow area behind the dressing room by the sea, and then I used a mirror to reflect part of the sunshine on the beach to my subject for shooting. Because children and dogs are in different focal planes, I choose to use f/5.0 aperture, which can make me have a certain background blur effect on the premise of ensuring clear subject.

Step 4 film the dog's smile

Dogs usually smile after a series of exercises. They just opened their mouths. If you don't want to shoot when the dog is moving, you can throw a ball and let the dog move for a few minutes before shooting. The following photo was taken by me in this situation. After exercise, my dog is in the shade? Smile? , with just recovered? Trophy? . I used the f/2.2 aperture in this shoot, which not only ensured that the dog in the shadow had enough exposure, but also achieved the purpose of moderately blurring the background.

5. I shot my head askew.

When taking this group of photos, put the dog in a low place or other places, so that we can shoot from a commanding height and a slightly overlooking angle. In order to take a picture of the dog's head tilted, I made some sounds including cat barking to arouse the dog's curiosity. Most dogs will tilt their heads to one side and look in your direction at this time.

6.cats

Cats with sharp eyes and long beards have become one of the most popular pet photography objects. Unlike dogs, they often don't stay in the designated position so obedient. They only make eye contact with you when they like you. So you need more patience when you pat a cat. Cats are natural hunters, especially like catching wool balls and hanging toys. Using this feature, we can lure them to a pre-fixed shooting position. If possible, confine them to a relatively closed space.

Make a scraping sound with your nail clipper. A cat like this sounds very similar. When they hear it, they will look in your direction. The photo of the kitten below was taken by me in a small room. There is a window in the room to let in light. I lured the kitten to the window and tried to make it look out of the window so that I could show it? Eyes flashing? Effect. When I took this photo, I used the sensitivity of ISO2000, the aperture of f/4.0 and a 35mm lens.

Don't forget to make good use of backlight, which can make the cat's fur more shiny and create a sacred halo effect.

7. Taskey

Besides cats and dogs, Taskey is also a kind of pet that people like very much, and they? Wash your face? When the action is simple and lovely. Rabbits are usually clean. If you wait long enough, you can shoot them without extra incentives? Wash your face? Lens. But holding a rabbit can also achieve the goal earlier. When you put them down, they can't wait to get rid of the smell you left on them, so the best way is to take your time and get the camera ready first. The main characters in the photo below are two rabbits named Latte and Zeus. The first group is their normal state, and the second group is them? Wash your face? When the country. Both groups of photos were taken with an aperture of f/4.0 and a 35mm lens.

Usually, after entering a new environment, fangs will habitually stand up and look around. The following picture was taken under such circumstances.

8. Little mouse

Even the people who love animals the most may feel sick when they meet the following animals. They are rats. But anyway, I love them! What attracts them most is their long beard and the way they eat. To know that small creatures move very fast, the best way to shoot such creatures is to hold or hold them. It would be great if you had a macro lens in your hand at this time.

The photo below shows the beautiful beard of the mouse. Of course, you can also see how petite and fragile they are. Fortunately, they still look comfortable in human hands.

Similar to shooting cats, I mainly rely on the natural light of the window when shooting these mice, but the day of shooting is cloudy and the light is not very good, so I try to keep the mice close to the window and use high ISO. Fortunately, these photos are only displayed online, and the noise problem is not a big problem.