Taking photos of your pets at home can be difficult. In this video I run you through 5 tips you can use to improve your photos, whether you are using basic or advanced equipment.
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The light modifier:
Tripod:
The painted backgrounds I use:
And the Sony camera I showed was this one:
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The gear I used is below – of course understanding light and how to work with it is more important than any particular gear:
Check out my light course at http://mattgranger.com/ocf
The light: https://geni.us/pJY3wR
The light modifier: https://bhpho.to/2GMPms1
The painted backgrounds I use: https://geni.us/GravityBG
And the Sony camera I showed was the R3: https://geni.us/664T
nice tips
What type of tripod and ballhead would you suggest?
Whether they qualify as "portraits" or not, I prefer working more along the lines of candid or street photography – studying my subject, being patient and looking for opportunities to capture an image when the pet is doing something typical.
And then perhaps applying some of the skills that birders bring to the table. And the gear they might use.
I know it's anathema to some photographers, but i generally shoot pet shots without a tripod and using a limited range, quality zoom. If the pet's owner or a person the pet is friendly with is available, the pet will often look for attention and slow down a bit, so you can move in with a decent prime, instead.
Plain backgrounds are out of the question, normally, if you capture the pet that way – but you get the pet in its natural surroundings, and with sensible use of DoF, bokeh etc you still an end up with a very suitable background.
The sony cam is a great suggestion – I noticed the other day that Nikon's mirrorless cams (was it both? – or just the Z7?) are getting a firmware upgrade to give them focus on the eyes – shooting bursts (if the pet is moving) helps too
XD
Love cats as well, and try to shoot them as many as possible. especially when its raining outside XD
Many years ago I wanted to get a nice picture of my dog, but he was not cooperating. The expression on his face was "Get me out of here". It was the month of July so I used that to help out a little. I turned the air condition off and let the house get uncomfortably hot. I place him up on the piano to restrict his movements and when he stuck out his tongue and started panting (their internal air conditioning system) he appeared to be excited and smiling. I snapped the picture and everyone wanted to know how I got him to smile like that! π
The takeaway: you have to figure out how to get the picture or expression you want, unfortunately they never respond to "Smile and say cheese". π
Loki and Tyson are just too awesome. Love these tips! Thanks for sharing, Matt.
Great show, thank you.
Animals are like kids in many ways. One is that, it seems they never want to perform when you want them to.
Great tips! Could you also make one on post processing for pet photos?
My girl is violent like Tyson, too, so the only time I can shoot her is when she decides it's OK. The only time she's in my studio is when she's playing 'chase' around my backdrop or flag.
My boy Big Man is very curious; I think he likes the sound of Velcro so he's always hanging about when I'm setting up. He is not a climbing cat thought – he likes the floor – so I set the light low and nearly horizontal and he'll usually come and hang out underneath it while I sit with the camera on the floor.
Funny and helpful, great video!
6:32 is my favorite shot! XD
Hi Matt, thanks for a great video!
I have a question about photographing a pet with a white fur. Is it just me or it's more difficult? I can do nice portraits, but any actions shots turn out not sharp. I use the shutter speed of at least 1/500 sec, tried on very sunny days so could get a good exposure ( using around 8 f), however, still the shots aren't as sharp. I'm using Fuji xt-1 with 35mm f 1.2 lens. What am I missing for a sharp shot?
If you want to video at animal level, put a camcorder on a monopod and hold upside down and follow the pet. it can be corrected in adobe to be the right way up. my first attempt doing this with our border terrier.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2neVnTkqPAM
gives a different view as the pet sees life
The only tip ya need- get the Sony with anime eye Ef. JK, always enjoy your videos man. But I feel people on the pet photography, super hard to get them to do what youd like
Some really cute photos there Matt. Thanks for the tips. Will have to try with my daughters catties.
Cats are tricky I find have camera ready to shoot hide and wait bit simular to wildlife photography house cat hide useful aka birds
My cats
https://www.flickr.com/photos/86086472@N06/albums/72157659346522946
At least Tyson didn't bite your ear. Thanks for the tips.
Thank you
Are you excited with the Zeiss Otus 100mm f/1.4?
As an owner of a black cat, I also should say it helps to shoot manual and to not trust spot metering for those quick "aww cute" shots without flash. I believe the only shots that ever come out from my cat ninja is where I shot manually or used flash. My other cat, who has a cream coat isn't a problem. Now if I can teach them that the seamless paper is not fun to run under and play chase, or the popup backdrop is not for climbing….
Your kitties are gorgeous…and great pictures too! Thank u for the tips : )
My award winning photo of Pretzel! https://www.jaygosdinphoto.com/Cats/i-8vLmDRW/A
Spent many years as senior editor of CAT FANCY and DOG FANCY magazines, at the time the most widely read dog and cat magazines in the world. Lots of good tips here. From many studio and location shoots I would also suggest:
*Have at least one assistant, preferably more
*Use constant lighting instead of flash, or as you mention go outdoors
*Depending on the pet you may need to spend 20 minutes getting them comfortable with the setting before even trying to shoot. Patience will pay off.
*If you want the "smiling'' dog portrait take the dog for a brisk walk before shooting so they have that open mouth grin
*Rescuers, including Jackson Galaxy, use meat-flavored baby food as super treats to get the attention of especially challenging cats (Will Ferrell told me he had his face covered with baby food to shoot dog scenes for both Anchorman movies when Baxter was giving him "kisses.")
*Puppies and kittens often respond best to toys, not food. Give them time to burn off energy and you will get some awesome sleeping puppy or kitten photos
*Record weird sounds like squirrels chirping or odd noises on your cell phone and have an assistant replay those just above camera level. You will get not just the pet's attention but also the "tilted head'' what the hell is that? look.
Enjoy the videos. Thanks for sharing.
I wish my dogs were this easy to get pictures of. One cares about as little as a cat, but always moves his head around. The other runs straight toward you the second you try to get her attention or bend down to take a shot. Doesn't matter if it's where they like to sleep or not.
Shooting my dog, confused the camera (A7III) sensor and strange artifacts appeared, they were like short vertical lines perpendicular to the the dog's hair lining. I tried shooting other object and didn't see those artifacts anywhere, only except when shooting the dog.
For cat I always want big circle eye, so I lower the light of the room, I don't use full power flash to avoid blinding them too much
I don't get it why everybody says that it takes quite a while to update the camera, my experience was 15 minutes maybe, really no need for full charged battery.
I can't stress how much patience is a virtue in this! Especially with the more skittish animals, cat or dog. But for those, if they aren't your pet, my tip is to spend time with them individually both with and without your gear prior to shooting. This way they get to know who you are, and what your gear is if they aren't used to being photographed. My part feral cat hates cameras and other things associated with photography – so no flashes and no strobes or reflectors either – I improvised this though with flooding as much light as I could into the scene and just adjusting the ISO to get the proper exposure.
So excellent your cat's pictures :)))))))))))) I'm also taking many pictures of my cats and dogs, but yours are so stunning and so cute
Cats are the best. Most of the time they just tolerate us humans at best. Other than that I think they just hold us in contempt.
No animals were harmed in the making of this video……but one human was. π
..doin the things cats do..
Love this, Matt. I'm always inspired by how much thought and planning you put into you videos. You inspired me to up the content on my YouTube channel. Thank you π
Tip #7: Hang out with temple cats and fellow cat lovers in temples all around the world. Fun stuff. Loved the keeper shots!
Hey, Matt thanks for doing video. Love what you do and I love The business of Photography.. It helped me out a great deal when I first started.. With cats, I have found that it almost never misses to use a heating pad.. give it a try π
I been waiting for this for to long!
The effort you put in your videos and channel is really inspiring! Great job!βΊοΈ