Animal portraits

fredjclaus

I was asked to do a fund raiser for a local Husky club. They want me to do pet portraits in conjunction with a micro chipping event the club is hosting. In this situation, I will be photographing the dog along with his/her owner. Trying to blur the background, would it be better to use the portrait setting on the camera, or Aperture priority with a setting of f8?

time2smile

Fred,
F8 seems to be to small to blur. Did you download a DOF Calculator, just goggle for some. It will give you an idea on you DOF for a specific mm lens.
Just keep in mind how far the dog and trainer will be from each other.

As for settings go, to control the background, you would need aperture. the quick setting (portrait) will try to properly expose the shot, and not care about the effect you are trying to accomplish.

Art Scott

enlighten us on how you plan to set this up......lights, background and how do you plan to pose the subjects...........I presume this is going to be quick shoot style of shooting (where you have like 30 secs to 3 minutes per subject) or is going to allow you time to actually work with the subjects.

Not knowing how long before the event I suggest you take a look at Harbor FReights website for a lift table.....so you can adjust the height for the dog and so that the people don't have to squat or kneel.......cover the lift table with a cloth that matches your background.

fredjclaus

Thanks for the information Art. The micro chipping event is in the "Community Center" where the meetings are held. I was planning on posing the dog and his/her owner outside the building with some trees off in the distance. The trees I'm hoping to blur out so it doesn't distract from the subject.

I never thought of the lift table though, I was going to put maybe a small patch of fake grass down for the owner to kneel on, then I was going to get them to situate their dog. In a perfect world, I'll have the dog sitting next to the owner, with one arm around the dog. That one arm will also help to hold the leash but still keep it hidden. I'm hoping to shoot 3 to 5 minutes per dog. That should get me at least 1 good portrait of each pet.

cr8ingwaves

I shoot web photos for our local shelter. Tricky to get good shots in a short time frame.
If you can have someone stand near you with a squeaky toy or a training clicker it will really help. It is hard to get a dog to look at the camera with their ears up when there are lots of distractions around them. the high pitch of the squeaky toy should get their ears up and them looking towards the camera.

Good luck and have fun.

Might be nice to have a little treat to offer them for sitting and staying.

deb22

Fred you may need a table for the following reasons 1- What if it rains or is horribly windy,you will then be inside shooting. 2- huskys are not malamutes and not very tall at all 3- they will all be on leash as they are incredible escape artists 4-most events have friends and all breeds will show up hence the table for those poms etc.5 -if they get their microchip prior to picture some will not sit on the ground still due to thinking they are getting another shot,and placing the owners arm behind the dog to hide the leash will make the nervous ones worse. Yep go with a table covered with a lrg towel but make sure you bring several as any dominant dog will urinate on the covering and the owners will politely look away but the next one up saw it and does not want their dog on that. Also all dogs are fairly calm on a table thats why vets groomers etc use them it's not because they can't bend down for 2 seconds to give a shot. Hope this helps a bit sorry don't know jack about dof but trained hunting dogs all my life. oh yes take the other advice to a squeeky is as critical as sunshine.