Shooting method of pet photography

Lead: The cute and lovable appearance of pets is one of the most popular photography subjects, but their agile and changeable personality often makes photographers feel brain-dead, and the photos taken are either vague or not moving enough. Let me bring you some pet photography methods. Let's go and have a look!

Shooting method of shutter speed for pet photography: set manually.

White balance: automatic setting

Shooting mode: P or S mode

Driving mode: continuous shooting mode.

Aperture value: automatic setting

Lens selection: lenses with various focal lengths are available.

ISO sensitivity: automatic setting

Others: A well-lit environment is preferred.

How to shoot pet photography? Grasp the environmental characteristics

If you want to photograph the moving side of your pet, it is very important to capture your eyes successfully. The information transmitted through it, coupled with the rich body language of pets, becomes a pleasing photo, so keen observation and pressing the shutter in time are two methods of pet photography.

▲ Nikon D7000+AF-S16-85mm F3.5-5.6 VR. Aperture F/5.6, shutter 1/50 seconds, ISO 450, daylight white balance, aperture prerequisite, RAW to JPEG.

How to shoot pet photography? Convince them to face the camera

To take an ideal photo of a pet, it is one of the common methods to let the pet look at the camera. Before shooting, try to attract the pet's attention and let it get used to facing the camera. Usually, animals' curiosity about new things lasts only a few minutes or even less, so if you want to capture the instantaneous expression of pets looking at the camera, you must grasp this short golden moment. At this time, we can use the information obtained by observing the pet at ordinary times to induce it from things that will arouse its curiosity or attention and lure it to look in the direction of the camera. When the pet is staring at the camera with wide eyes, it is the best time to shoot that cute look.

▲ It is prime time to shoot when the pet is facing the camera, so you have to grasp it quickly.

How to shoot pet photography? Try to understand the pet's personality.

Like human beings, every pet has a unique personality. What will it be interested in? Or will it make it angry? Even being scared is a key factor, which can help owners understand their pets' personality. Therefore, in addition to keeping pets on weekdays, you might as well spend more free time playing with pets. Through many interactions and observations with pets, we can usually understand and master the general character of pets. In this way, I believe that the success rate of capturing ideal expressions or pictures when shooting pets in the future can be greatly improved.

▲ As long as you know your pet's personality, you will be able to take an ideal photo.

How to shoot pet photography? Stealing photos makes the expression more natural.

In addition to shooting the picture of the pet looking at the camera, another way is to observe it quietly from the side and capture the natural and vivid expression of the pet with the medium and long focal length. Some pets are shy, unaccustomed, even afraid to face the camera, or attracted by other things, ignoring their owners' calls. Please don't be discouraged at this moment, because this is the best time to take pictures of them! When the pet is absorbed in playing or indulging in his own world, the owner can take the opportunity to secretly observe from a distance, and at the same time adjust the camera and himself to a ready state. When an interesting expression or picture appears, he can immediately focus and release the shutter, and a cute and funny pet photo will easily appear in front of you.

▲ Soothing the pet's emotions when necessary can make the shooting process smoother.

▲ Pets are also a good time to take empty photos, so you should develop the habit of observing pets. (Photo: Guo Siyu)

How to shoot pet photography? Grab your eyes. Photos have more soul.

The eyes are the windows to the souls of all animals. From the information revealed by the eyes, we can roughly guess the pet's mood at that time. In order to give the pet a soul, it is absolutely important to grasp the decisive eyes! Therefore, when we shoot pets, no matter how the composition is arranged, remember that the focus must be on their eyes. Having clear and sharp eyes often makes the photos get twice the result with half the effort; In addition, you can also make good use of natural or artificial light sources, and even use external flash and reflector to supplement the light, which can make the pet's eyes stronger. As soon as the eye light appeared, the photo began to have a soul.

▲ You can try to catch the pet's eyes, which will make the photo more soulful. (Photo: Guo Siyu)

How to shoot pet photography? Avoid taking pictures with blurred images.

The most common problem in pet photography is blurred images. Because they are not only active in nature, but also full of strong curiosity, they are often attracted by fresh things in front of them. If the owner wants to successfully capture the pet's movements, he must use enough shutter speed. Generally speaking, it takes at least 1/250 seconds (inclusive) to successfully condense the cute appearance of pets in the picture. If the shutter speed is not fast enough, it is mostly caused by insufficient light source on site. It is suggested that besides improving the sensitivity in time, it is best to match D7000' s hand shock prevention mechanism and high-speed continuous shooting performance. These two measures can effectively reduce the probability of image blurring.

▲ High ISO can improve the shutter speed, which is one of the ways to prevent taking blurred photos.

▲ Using high-speed continuous shooting and anti-shake mechanism to turn on the lens will effectively improve the success rate of taking pictures.

How to shoot pet photography? Make good use of pet scene mode

If you are a beginner in photography and are not familiar with the relationship between aperture, shutter and sensitivity, you may wish to make more use of the pet portrait mode in D7000 scene mode. In this mode, the D7000 will automatically set all the parameters needed to shoot pets. Users can easily take photos of people's pets just by observing and taking photos, without worrying about the matching of parameters such as aperture shutter.

▲ I don't know how to set up the camera? Then use the pet scene mode!

How to shoot pet photography? Try to photograph pets from multiple angles.

When shooting pets, most people are used to shooting from the perspective of "people". There is no reason for this, because this is our habitual perspective of seeing the world and the most comfortable shooting height. However, have you found that most of the photos taken from this perspective are unremarkable? In short, it's nothing new. So try to shoot with a pet's eyes, and you will find more exclamation points! In addition, you can occasionally shoot with elevation angle or depression angle. The elevation angle will have a tall and majestic visual effect, while the depression angle will give people a feeling of cherishing and loving. As long as the timing and angle are just right, impressive image effects can be obtained.

How to shoot pet photography? Flash fill light, jump light instead of direct hit.

Pets' eyes will not only feel uncomfortable under the sudden flash, but even cause physical and mental harm. Therefore, it is suggested that if you need to fill the light with a flash, you can use an external flash to fill the light by jumping light, which can not only produce soft light by using the reflection principle, but also make the photo have a good fill light effect and avoid the pet from being frightened or injured. If the scene environment can't use jumping lights, you can install a soft cover for the flashing lights, so that even if the flashing lights are directly used to fill the light, the soft cover can effectively slow down the overall intensity and hardness of the lights because of the effect of diffusing the light source.

How to shoot pet photography? Try to interact with pets.

When you have photographed a pet for a while, do you feel that it is almost the same how you photograph it? If this feeling appears, it means it is time to make a new attempt. At this time, you can ask the owner or other people to try to interact with the pet, whether through food, toys, frisbee or small balls and other props that can lure the pet, to interact with the pet a little or even a little, and then the photographer will observe from the side and take pictures at the right time. I believe that many interesting and moving photos will be taken. Of course, the pet is active or moving at this time, so be sure to pay attention to the shutter speed when shooting.

▲ Tempting with food and shooting a pet standing cute from the perspective of depression will make people think twice afterwards.

▲ You can fill the light by jumping lights or reflecting plates, which can avoid the stiff feeling of the flash and take more natural photos.

▲ Through the process of interaction between the owner and the pet, a vivid and interesting pet photo can be taken from the side.