How to do Pet Photography?

Who doesn’t want to capture photos of their cute furry friends and share them with friends and family? The popularity of such trends on social media has increased the number of people willing to know more about pet photography. Not only for just sharing on your social media accounts, but pet photography is also a professional niche. It can be daunting to capture professional pet photos because it requires skills and understanding a few things. Let us learn everything you need to know about how to do pet photography, so you can make some amazing memories with your little friends.

Choose the Right Lens:

The lens is undeniably the most important equipment to think about if you are going for a specific niche of photography. For pet photography, we will need to consider a few things before finalizing your choice. A wide-angle lens can be a good choice because it will capture most of the scene. However, a wide-angle lens can cause image distortion. If you want to capture a broader perspective and include the scene that the pet is interacting with, then go for a wide-angle. You can easily fix minor image distortion later in editing software such as Photoshop. If you are going to shoot from a distance, then you should go for a telephoto lens. A telephoto lens will help you stay out of the pet’s zone without distracting them. Remember not to go too far that even the extended focal length could not help. With a telephoto lens, you will not need to worry about any distortions while getting a nice and shallow depth of field at the same time. Macro lenses will help you capture more details if you are going for close-ups. Keeping a few different options in your camera bag will make your photography sessions more flexible.

Camera Settings:

Pet photography of a dog

Photo edited in Lightroom.

Exposure should always be your priority if you want to know how to do pet photography. Practice the manual mode with three elements of the exposure triangle i.e. ISO, Shutter speed, and Aperture. Use their combination to get the perfect exposure. We cannot recommend specific values for the settings because it will totally depend on the situation you are shooting in. However, always keep the shutter speed faster as these little devils are always ready to run. If you are sure that there will not be much movement then go for slower shutter speeds to get better exposure. You can also use a slower shutter speed to capture on-purpose motion blur. As far as the aperture is concerned, the wider the better. Because a wider aperture means a shallower depth of field. It will get your pet in focus while nicely blurring out the background. The ISO value for daytime should be 100-200, however, in the nighttime, you can choose higher values to get evenly lit photos. Remember not to go too high as ISO can also cause grain in the photos. A camera feature that helps make your pet photography magical is the burst mode. The burst mode allows you to take many shots in a single burst. With this feature, you freeze the movements of your pets while they are either jumping, running, or playing around.

Always Keep the Important Accessories:

In addition to the necessary photography equipment, you must keep the accessories in your camera bag. As a pet photographer, always keep your camera bags ready. In order to get the most out of your pet photography session, you should know how to get the attention of the pets. Taking some toys and treats along is a great idea.

Use Props - How to do Pet Photography?

Along with learning how to photograph pets, you should also try to make the photos look more interesting. A great fact about pets they look even cuter if you try props on them. Whether you put on some cool sunglasses on your dog or cute hats on your cat, it can put a wow element to your pet photos. Try costume shopping for your next pet photography session.
Pet photography of a cat

Make Sure they are Comfortable:

If you notice that the pet seems uncomfortable, then the first thing you should do is to find out the reason. This can also make it difficult to handle the pet during the photo shoot. Some of the most common reasons that can make the pets uncomfortable include, fear, lack of control, uncertainty, and also medical issues.

Post-processing of Pet Photography:

Even after the complete photo session, there is still an extremely important part left. Edit the photos and make them look exceptional. We recommend using Photoshop and Lightroom for this purpose because they are the most advanced photo editing software trusted by professionals.

Conclusion - How to do Pet Photography?

Photographing your pets can surely be a challenging task. However, if you take the tips we just listed into consideration, then the whole process will become a lot easier. Always remember to make them comfortable and understand what they want. Enjoy the photoshoot with your little friends and have a great day photographing.

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Have a nice photoshoot! 

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