This came into my inbox today, and I couldn't believe we hadn't posted it. In fact, I initially brushed it off because I was certain we had. But we haven't, so thanks to T for reminding me! If you haven't seen it yet--it's been up for a while--Darren Rowse's Digital Photography School has a great article on shooting, er, photographing, pets. One of the things I really like about Darren is that he breaks it down into ten simple rules of thumb. The most important ones in my opinion are "catch them unawares," "get in close," and "start with your pet's personality." Great pet portraits start with those things. Figure out how to build a composistion out of them, and you'll be on your way. One other important thing to think about is lighting. Darren recommends against flash except for dark-furred critters because animals get such ghastly red- (or green-, or yellow-) eye. I'd like to modify that to this: try not to use direct flash as your primary light source. Getting your animal to arrange itself in natural light the way you want may be a futile effort. Be prepared to bounce or fill to get the light you want where you want it.
1. Heh, photography is never easy for a jumpy greyhound-lurcher. This is about as close as I usually get before he tries to eat the camera:
http://www.sumption.org/life/20051212home/home0033.html
And photos in motion inevitably end up being of "that weird black shape".
Posted at 5:50AM on Jun 30th 2006 by Dan Sumption