Pet photography skills

Lead: Pet photography is the favorite of many people who love pets. Here, I will bring you some shooting skills about pet photography. Let's go and have a look!

Selection of background of pet photography skills

The choice of background is very important. A simple and clean background can make a pet stand out and let people grasp the posture and expression of the pet at a glance. If you encounter a complex shooting environment, you can use a medium-long focal length lens to fill the whole picture and bring out a shallow depth of field to make the subject more focused, or use a large aperture lens to blur the background. In addition, you can pay attention to the color matching between the pet and the shooting environment. Usually a light background can make pets stand out, such as white walls, grass, curtains or sheets. If it is a white cat or dog, of course, a light background is not necessarily a good choice. You can try red brick walls or other dark backgrounds to effectively highlight the pet's posture and expression.

▲ Simple and clean background makes pets stand out.

Curiosity is at work

Using the curiosity of pets, we can make noises, or attract the attention of pets with toys and food, and then we have the opportunity to take more vivid photos of pets. However, the curiosity of pets can't last long, so we must grasp the golden shooting moment in just a few minutes. We advise readers to seek something before seeking goodness, and don't stick to the problem of composition or framing, otherwise it will take some effort to regain their attention if the pet is not interested. In addition, from the interaction with pets, we can take pictures of their lively and lovely side, such as teasing cats with sticks, or throwing balls and frisbees. It is not difficult to take ideal photos in these ways.

▲ Catch the dog's attention with food, which is an opportunity not to be missed.

▲ Cats are very curious, and everything that shakes in front of them can arouse their interest.

Avoid flash and direct fill light.

The environment where pets are photographed is mostly indoors, especially cats. They are alert and hide when they are frightened, so it is always uneasy to let them move freely outdoors. However, shooting indoors will encounter the problem of insufficient light, resulting in insufficient shutter speed to condense images. In addition to finding a place with sufficient light source as far as possible, it is a more intuitive and efficient way to shoot with high sensitivity, high-speed continuous shooting and shockproof function in time. However, readers are advised to shoot with an external flash, because it can change the direction of light and present a natural soft lighting effect by "jumping light" instead of using a built-in flash. The intense instantaneous light source will not only hurt the fragile pupil of the pet, but also shoot ugly "red eyes" and destroy the atmosphere at the scene.

▲ Using jumping lights to help pets fill the light can present a natural and soft fill light effect.

Exposure compensation

Many people often fail to take ideal photos when taking black and white pets. This is because the misjudgment of camera photometry makes the photos easy to be overexposed or dark, which leads to the distortion of pet coat color and can not present the original texture. When shooting a black dog or cat, because the dark area occupies most of the picture area, there is less reflection, and the photometric system will misjudge the lack of light at the scene and lengthen the exposure time, so we can slightly reduce the exposure compensation and restore the exposure value that the scene should have. The same is true for photographing white pets. By slightly increasing the exposure compensation, the pet's original fresh and bright coat color is presented. Readers can use the formula of "white plus black minus" to remember and grasp the opportunity to use exposure compensation.

▲ (left) exposure reduction compensation, (right) normal exposure. Slightly reducing exposure compensation can present the original coat color and texture of dark pets.

▲ Use the exposure compensation function to get the ideal photos of exposure value.

Observe and wait

If you want to capture the playful expressions and movements of pets, you need to be patient. After long observation, you can probably predict what they will do next. This is a good time to press the shutter. If you just follow your pet around with a camera, you may feel stressed, or you may be too shy to face the camera, which is often futile. However, the pet's interesting movements or expressions are fleeting, and it should be too late to take the camera, so the camera is on the side, waiting patiently for the opportunity to take wonderful photos. If the shooting moment is too difficult for you, you can seize the opportunity to film your pet asleep first. When a pet is sleepy, there are often funny expressions such as squinting, yawning or sleepy eyes, and even interesting pictures such as shaking limbs while sleeping.

▲ Patiently observe and wait, you have the opportunity to capture the sudden movements or expressions of your pet.

▲ Grab the moment when the pet falls asleep and have the opportunity to take some interesting photos.