Studio Lighting and Pet Photography

Hi everyone. A friend has asked me to take "a few snaps" of his dog

for his holiday card. The dog is a huge white standard poodle and is

a little hyper, but she usually calms down around me after an hour or

so. I know I could just take a few pics of her outside and my friend

will be happy, but being a photojournalist student I'd like to try to

do better than that. (I'm not telling my friend that the dog is going

to a studio, if the shots come out great, I'll present him with them,

if not, he'll get the "few snaps" he asked for).

 

I will have access on Monday to our school's studio for five hours. (I

already have the ok to bring the dog in.) There are a few lights

available, one overhead, one small and two large ones for putting in

front or in back of a subject (as I haven't taken the lighting class

yet, just was shown a quick demonstration of them in one of my classes

I don't know what to call them). We have a black, white, brown and

blue background available, but I think the white would give way to

much contrast.

 

Any helpful hints would be appreciated, also if you have any dog shots

done in studio particularly of white dogs, please post.

 

Thanks.

 

Danielle<div></div>

For dogs with a limited ability to keep still, like my Wheaten Terriers:

 

 

1. I like to keep the lighting simple, so that when the dogs finally settle down, there is less to go wrong. This image is of my dogs on my couch lit by one 750ws Calumet Travelite with a large soft box just over my head.

 

 

2. Take dogs on long walks before shooting and wear them out. You don't want the dog panting and drooling, but within reason, tired dogs are less hyper.

 

 

3. Be patient. I took more than 40 images to get this one useable shot.<div></div>

I took this shot with a 105mm lens and a hot-shoe flash. You probably don't need to get too exotic.

Here's my little dog. Later tonight, I'll post one of some greyhounds. I do pro-bono portrait work for animal rescue organizations. <p>This photo was done with one 30x40 softbox on the right of my camera (near enough to show a catchlight) and a reflector, not too close on the left, that adds a less brilliant and broader catchlight in the other eye. Little Dog sat at the rear of the softbox's pool of light, which kept the background relatively dark... t<div></div>

I've tried a variety of lighting setups with softboxes for pets. For dogs, I'd recc one above camera-left, facing downward of course, to place the catchlight in the eye well, and one right rear/side to rim light - though I haven't gotten that perfect yet (though am happy with the bird's results).

 

I shot a few white dogs last month, and can suggest a brown or other neutral color for the backdrop, perhaps too with a spot on it for depth. If it's for Xmas, get a few props in there - a Santa hat, a smal tree, sleigh bells, anything - or shoot with and without propos, so that the results offer choices in application. Good luck!

Okay, Greyhound Grrl on location with her rescue greyhounds (yep, they're all hers and her husband's), under a bridge in Piedmont Park. Overcast sky as main light from our right, my hand held Lumedyne HAHM auto module on "auto" (believe it, it's great) held at arms length to my left (see the shadows of the dog's legs)... t (I know, they're not white, and they're not in the studio. Sorry)<div></div>

If you are doing the studio thibng, I'd put the dog against a darker background.

 

I took this quick shot of a friend's dog in my studio. Two lights and a black paper background. I had a pillow laying around wich provided a soft spot for the pooch to relax. The whole thing took less than 30 min. from start to finish. They just came by, we shot a decent number of images and that's it.<div></div>

Whoop, found a white one for you. Black backdrop, hit with a flash with a red gel on it.

I always shoot the dogs in natural light. Go outside, and take some cool black

and white shots. Have a look at my samples...

 

http://www.dogphoto.ca

http://www.kentphoto.ca

Thanks again for all the help, suggestions and most of all the pictures.

When the equipment room guy (a good friend of mine) saw how limited my exeperience with lighting really was, all he would sign out to me was two floodlights. He did, however, give me some great advice on placing them and even helped me calm the dog down. I took a lot of photos, here is my favorite, and her owner likes it, too.<div></div>

Danielle, I'm not the world's best photoshopper, but I corrected the color a bit, pulled the black point in a bit to get rid of the grainy background, cleaned up the cruddy fur near his lower lip and you might want to delete the owner's phone number when you post online. That having been said, its a really nice shot.<div></div>