Last week, we covered why volunteering for an animal rescue or shelter is a great way to grow your pet photography business. If you do not own or rent a studio, being able to bring a portable lighting setup on location for pet photography is an excellent alternative. When photographing animals in shelters, portable lighting will allow you to achieve a consistent style with your photos. This short video produced by the team at Westcott demonstrates practical tips for simple studio-style portraits of dogs and cats.
Brandon makes the case that continuous lighting is a better choice than strobe lighting, as animals can sometimes be frightened by bright flashes of light. He also covers the differences between getting the attention of a dog versus a cat, since dogs are generally tempted by treats and sounds, while cats are more attracted to motion. You can also see from the video how it is extremely helpful to have an assistant on hand to position the animal. Other points that are touched on include lens selection, camera settings, the use of leashes, and minimizing distractions.
If you are thinking about photographing animals in a studio setting, either with your own pets, your clients’ pets, or for a shelter, this simple setup is a great place to start.
Jordan: Good advice. I also sometimes use the "continues shooting mode" with my portrait sessions, capturing about 5 frames a second. It can be useful when you have a animal that moves quickly and a lot. I've also found f/1.8 works well for cats - it keeps most of their faces in focus while blurring the background. For dogs you need a deeper depth of field, say f/2.8 or higher. The distance between their nose and their eyes is much greater than a cats and requires a deeper depth of field to get the whole face in focus.
That's a great point Michael. Being able to use continuous shooting is another argument for using continuous lighting, as it avoid problems with max sync speeds and refresh times. I agree with you in that I don't love dog close-ups with the eyes in focus but the nose out of focus, and it is surprising how much you have to stop down sometimes in order to get the entire face in focus.
Jordan: I wholeheartedly agree with the use of continuous lighting. I've used hot lights with umbrellas and I recently tried a couple of LED panels. They both work well. Strobes just are too "flashy" and will scare the animals. AEservo autofocus is also a setting that sometimes helps with energetic animals.
Definitely, thanks for the advice Michael!