Pet photography skills

Do you have any pets at home? Is it a cat or a dog? Have you ever thought about recording their cute looks from childhood to adulthood? Or play with its "happiness". Let me teach you some pet photography skills, I hope it will help you.

Preparation is essential.

First of all, before taking pictures of pets, you must understand that you should be caring, patient and careful! Because most small animals don't just "sit" waiting for you to take pictures, or pose like your GF (or BF), or even start over when the effect is not ideal, and these are all things that small animals should not consider when taking pictures! Therefore, patience is the most important thing. Many times you often run after it with a camera. Secondly, carefully look for every favorite moment from the DC LCD or viewfinder and press the shutter quickly; Love, of course, is trying to please it, such as feeding it something delicious or giving it a toy to play with, so that it may "match" your lens better.

Camera settings should not be sloppy.

Next, let's talk about some background of DC. Generally speaking, you can directly use the camera's automatic mode to shoot, which is the simplest method, because you don't always have to adjust various parameters of the camera during shooting. However, if you are in a well-lit environment, you can also use the shutter priority method, because if you fix the shutter speed at 1/60s or faster, you can easily capture small animals even when they are moving, and the faster the shutter speed, the less hand jitter. Therefore, it can be said that it is most important to have enough light when shooting small animals! If possible, you can choose a sunny holiday in Wan Li and take it to shoot outdoors. However, if the conditions are limited or small animals are afraid of getting lost (such as kittens), it is best to have enough indoor light on sunny days, or consider shooting on the balcony. But if you don't have the above conditions, you can only use the flash, but the effect of using the built-in flash in DC is generally not ideal, and more importantly, before using the built-in flash, you must turn on the "red-eye prevention" function of the camera, otherwise the animals you shoot will be "red-eyed" like rabbits, hehe. If you have an external flash, it will bring unexpected results to your shooting under any lighting conditions, so if you happen to have an external flash, be sure to bring it! Using external flash will not only avoid the phenomenon of "red eye", but also will not directly hit the light on small animals, especially the front, like the built-in flash. Most small animals will close their eyes when using the built-in flash, but using the external flash can hit the roof or wall with light, and then use the reflected light to make up the light. The effect is very obvious!

Pick up the camera and be eager to try.

Well, having said that, you must be ready now, so pick up a camera, food or toys to take pictures of your pet! At first, you can call it "name", don't give it food or toys, and see if it will come to you. Generally, like puppies, they prefer to chase their owners, so they will be relatively relaxed; On the other hand, kittens have a "personality" and probably just look at you and walk away. Then you can try to get close to them at this time. Usually the first time you take a picture of them, they will be curious about the DC in your hand, so this is the best time to shoot! Note that your lens position (height) must be out of reach of their mouths and claws (height), such as directly above or above the side. Aim the camera at their little noses, so don't pay too much attention to the composition, because they may have changed their "posture" when you are hesitant, so the most important thing for you at this time is to continue to press the shutter when they are full of curiosity, so as to ensure quality and quantity!

Maybe after taking a few photos like this, your little animal has lost interest in you and DC in your hand, and plans to go back to his nest and have a comfortable sleep. Then you should stop them quickly and take out food or toys to attract them again! According to the author's experience, using toys is a good method, which can not only "keep" them, but also keep them interested for a period of time. Especially an animal like a kitten, even a small paper ball can make it play for half a day. Of course, you can't be idle when they are having fun. You should keep tracking it with your camera. If it is found that it has stopped temporarily, it will be just right! First press the camera shutter half to focus, and then call them "names". At this time, most of them will look up at you. This is the best time to press the shutter!

Pay attention to shooting skills.

Remember, when taking pictures of small animals, you should constantly change your posture and find the best shooting angle. If you can't get close to them, you can only use the zoom function of the camera to "pull" them to the camera. In addition, in most shooting time, it is very effective to press half of the shutter to adjust the focal length, and then wait for the best picture before pressing the shutter completely. It's just that if the small animal moves away from the camera after half pressing the shutter, it will be refocused. Therefore, patience will be your greatest test!

In addition, many times it may be because small animals move too fast, and the shutter delay of traditional DC is very "fatal", so you can consider using manual focusing function (if your DC has this function). After the DC manual function is turned on, set the focal length, such as 1.5m, and then you should try to keep the distance between yourself and it around 1.5m, so that when you press the shutter, the delay time of the shutter will be greatly reduced because the focal length has been selected, making it easier to capture the picture you want.

If you think it is really difficult to get satisfactory results when they are "awake", you can only wait until they are tired or sleepy. At that time, they may be "too lazy" to argue with you again, and they seem to be more cooperative, but often the small animals photographed at that time look depressed, but fortunately it will not affect its cuteness, hehe.

In short, we must learn to wait for the opportunity for small animals to take pictures, and we must not "get angry in a hurry"! What are you waiting for? Pick up the camera and record everything about you and your little pet!