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The last time you tried to take photographs of your dog or cat, did you wind up with a tiny, blurry blob in the corner? An unrecognizable mess? Do you have problems making your dog look happy and attentive? Were they even looking at the camera? Was everyone bleeding by the end of the last portrait session with your cat?
You can never completely take away the challenge of pet portraits but with three basic steps it becomes much easier to get good ones. Shooting a good portrait of your pet Fido or Felix is definitely something you can do. It's not that difficult.
First, think about the entire scene.
What are you using as a background? Are you going to shoot this indoors, or outdoors? Whichever, check to see what distracting objects are out there. Are pedestrians walking by? Is there garbage strewn all over the ground? Are there tree branches, fences or poles sticking out of your dog or cat's head? Are there cars whizzing by on the street in the background? Are their kids playing nearby? If you only take just a few minutes to think about your backdrop, and remove any distractions, the odds of getting a good pet portrait will dramatically increase.
Second, is there someone that can act as your assistant?
Trying to do a pet portrait by yourself exponentially increases the difficulty. Fido doesn't know what you want him to do, and will follow you every time you back off to take a picture. Felix is just plain going to take off. You may not see Felix again for two or three days.
If you have an assistant, let them control the dog or cat while you get in position to take the picture. Zoom in as close as you can on the dog or cat's face, get yourself focused, and when you're ready, simply have your assistant take one step backwards. You fire the shutter. You need to be pretty quick on the trigger to make all this happen before the dog or cat can take off. But, with a little practice it becomes fairly easy. With your assistant there to help catch them, they'll be reposed and ready for their next shot before you know it.
Third, how do you get your dog or cat looking at the camera with an attentive expression?
This is a relatively easy task. Get yourself a squeak toy, preferably something flat so it won't roll away, and squeak it. For the first few shots, you will want to hold it out of sight and squeak very softly. The dog's ears will shoot up to attention and they'll have an inquisitive look on their face - while trying to find the source of the sound. This should work for quite a few shots. Once they've located the squeaker, and no longer need to search for it, you can start squeaking it louder. When simply squeaking the toy no longer works to attract their attention, you can flick it up into the air. (This is when a flat toy will be a major benefit for you. You don't want to spend all your time chasing the toys.) By the way, flicking the squeaker into the air also has the added bonus of making a dog pull its tongue back into its mouth.
You are going to want to get several shots of them with their tongues both in and out of the mouth. With the tongue out of the mouth, they'll look happy. With the tongue in the mouth, it becomes a more classic portrait.
Squeakers and sounds don't seem to be as interesting to cats as they are to dogs. For a cat the squeaker may work once or twice, but after that you will need a visual stimulus. Peacock or ostrich feathers work really well for this task.
These steps are deceptively simple but if you try them I think you'll be amazed at the improved results.
Feel free to reprint or republish this article as long as it remains intact and unchanged, including the author bio box.
Dan Eitreim is the founder of PartTimePhotography.com, a web-site and newsletter devoted to teaching YOU how to sell YOUR OWN photography. He says that he can teach ANYONE how to start earning a Part Time photo income in as little as 2 weeks. Go to: http://www.PartTimePhotography.com or http://www.FreelancePromo.com
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