Pets in the studio

Do you want to take a professional photo of your (or someone else's) lovely pet seriously? It is not enough to have professional equipment, you have to have some professional shooting skills.

1. Lighting settings

Pet photography is very different from portrait photography. When shooting people, you can use a lamp to create many dramatic light and shadow effects; The requirements for taking pictures of pets are different.

When taking photos of pets, it is best to use the main light source to illuminate the scene, and use two (or more) side lights to supplement the light at an appropriate light ratio to illuminate the pets evenly, which will help to show all the details in the pet's fur, and the shadows will cover these details.

An ideal lighting system for pet photography needs four lights: the main light on the front, the auxiliary lights at 45 degrees on both sides (usually the height between the main light and the auxiliary lights is about1.2m off the ground), and the "lighting" above the back of the pet, as shown in the following figure:

This setting can provide more uniform lighting for pets-you know, pets' bodies are much smaller than human bodies, so you can get enough space between the main lights and the auxiliary lights.

"Lighting" provides side light to separate the subject from the background (especially when your background color and animal hair color belong to dark/light color system), and the output power does not need to be too high; At the same time, the power of the main lamp is about 25% higher than that of the auxiliary lamp.

Use flash

The use of flash may not be as good as the lighting in the shed, but it also has its unique advantages: it can focus more on capturing the natural instantaneous movements and demeanor of pets; And the lighting in the shed often needs to appease the pets-it is not easy to let them stay in place for a while.

TTL flashlights are easy to use, but often more expensive, while manual flashlights are relatively easier to start with.

When shooting, you can first adjust the aperture, shutter speed and sensitivity to determine the brightness of the background/environment, and then keep the parameters and manually adjust the output power of the flash to determine the brightness of the subject.

It should be noted that some animals may be sensitive to flash. You can try flashing a few times before the official shooting, so that it can adapt to and get used to the flash, so as not to be scared and affect the expression when shooting.

3. Control color cast

If you shoot with a flash, it is best to make the picture as free from interference from other light sources as possible, because other light (whether incandescent or fluorescent) may produce different color cast, and mixing with the color temperature of the flash will add a lot of trouble to the color cast control of your picture.

In addition, it is best to test the white balance with a gray card before shooting to ensure the accuracy of the white balance, or you can use a custom white balance. It should be noted that if the lighting conditions change, the custom white balance needs to be readjusted.

If you don't want to spend too much energy on color cast control, you can also use the camera's automatic white balance function-this function may not guarantee the complete accuracy of color temperature, but at least it won't cause too serious color cast; Alternatively, you can shoot in RAW format, and then freely adjust the color temperature by later means.

4. Background color

Pets have a variety of coat colors, so it is best to choose a background color that matches their coat colors. Don't shoot the feeling of "men in black riding dark horses at night", unless you deliberately want to create a funny and weird feeling.

At least, there should be a deep distinction between the background and pet coat color, light coat and dark background (or vice versa); You can also try a combination of multiple coat colors+solid color background or solid color coat colors+composite color background.

5. Auxiliary props

It is also important to prepare some auxiliary props when shooting.

For example, for cats, some simple props (such as cat toys, wool balls, etc. ) can effectively attract their attention, make them more "honest", and help you capture its vivid gestures/cute expressions when interacting with props:

In addition, if the color of the scene and the pet itself is monotonous, you can use props to add some bright colors to the picture, but you should pay attention to the handling of the props themselves and don't let them "grab the limelight".

That's all I want to introduce to you in this issue. Thank you for watching. See you next time.

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