Pet Photography Tips
Taking Great Pet Pictures

These pet photography tips will help you take great pet pictures. Whether you want to take great cat photograpy or dog photography or take pictures of any pet these tips will help you take better pictures.

There are lots of things you have to consider to get good photographs of pets. Pet photography is somewhat like taking pictures of babies, because like babies, pets don't follow your instructions. Despite the inability to pose them you can get some terrific dog photography and cat photography.

Lighting

One of the top pet photography tips is getting the rigth light. It's best to take pictures of your pet outside on brigth overcast days. Direct bright sunlight can seem too harsh. If the day is overcast, but still bright you get the perfect type of light. The clouds act as a good natural diffuser. Diffused light makes for much better pictures. The softer light adds depth to the picture and helps you get more of the detail in the fur.

Taking pictures of your pet outside almost always provides you with better light than you will get inside. If your pet is an indoor pet try to figure out a way to take their picture outside. If you have a confined area outside where you can take their pictures that would be ideal. Make sure your pet is safe, of course.

If you can't take a picture of your pet outside photograph them in a room that gets a lot of natural light. Rooms with large windows are ideal. Natural light will bring out highlights in your pets fur. You can even notice more highlights than you may even have realized exist in animals with black fur.

Avoid photographing your pet under fluorescent or tungsten lights. These lights tend to distort the color of their fur. If your taking pictures in black and white it doesn't matter.

Avoid using a flash when photographing your pet. The flash will startle your pet making it harder to get a good picture that shows their true character. The flash will also give your pet red eye. If you have to use a flash use a flash that is separate from your camera and bounce it.

Composition

Another one of the best pet photography tips to remember is keep the picture simple. Try to keep the composition of the picture pretty plain. The pet needs to be the focus of the picture. If you want you can try using a wider aperture to blur the background of the picture if you're taking a close up of your pet's face.

Filling the frame with the pet and getting very little background in the picture can also make a good effect. If it's difficult to get close up pictures of your pet because they find the camera too distracting use a zoom lens.

Taking a picture of your pet doing something it likes also adds to the composition of a photo. If your cat likes to crawl into boxes place a box out and wait from your cat to get in it. Once it does shoot a picture. If your dog likes to crawl under the covers of your bed wait for the moment it does and take a picture. As long as the room you're taking a picture in is well lit with natural light it'll look good.

Adding your pet's favorite toy to the picture can also add interest to the composition.

Capturing Your Pet's True Character

No one knows your pet better than you. Try to capture your pet's true character by photographing your pet doing something it does alot.If you have a lazy cat try to get a picture of it sleeping, that shouldn't be hard. Or try to get a picture of it yawning.

Make sure the eyes are clear and in focus. Eyes can show a lot of expression. They say that eyes are the windows to the soul.

Get down on their level. You usually see your pet from above. Photographing your pet from their eye level gives a new perspective. Get into your pet's world. Crawl around on the floor with your pet to get pictures of at eye level.

If your pet is distracted by the camera and won't act normally, you should get someone to help you. You can have the other person distract your pet from the camera.

If you're trying to take a portait of your pet and you can't get it to sit still try getting someone to hold it. Just make sure that their arms or hands aren't covering any characteristic markings. You can easily take the person's arms out of the photo on Photoshop later.

Have some of your pet's toys and treats to get them to look at the camera. Try making a noise to get their attention or holding up their favorite toy to get them to look in the direction of the camera. This will also help them to look alert. Alert ears and eyes will add to your pet's natural beauty in a picture.

Sometimes catching your pet by surprise is the best way to get a picture of them. Let your pet play for a while and just as it begins to calm down make a noise so that it looks up then snap the picture.

The best pictures happen when you go to your pet instead of making your pet come to you. Wait until it's doing something you want to photography and go to your pet and take a series of pictures. That's it for my pet photography tips.

• Use natural diffused sunlight
• Keep your pictures simple
• Get down on their level
• Focus on the eyes
• Go to them
• Be Patient