In this lesson: Expand your portraiture skills to make exceptional pet portraits

For many people, their pets are a member of their family. As such, using the portraiture skills you learned in earlier lessons can be put to good use to create touching portraits of your beloved pet.

As much as we love our pets, often, they aren’t the ideal portrait subject. In fact, pets are a mixed bag of challenge and opportunity. Even well-trained pets can look away at precisely the wrong time, be interested in something off-camera, or simply lay down and be completely uninterested in striking a pose. Likewise, pets of all varieties can become unruly, totally ruining the moment you’ve worked so hard to document with your camera.

Naturally, the art of distraction and bribery will be useful skills for you to employ. Treats, Catnip, snacks, string, and other items are tools of the trade for pet portraits. And, don’t overlook grooming your best friend before it’s time for them to get in front of the camera!

Note that the same techniques used to create a gorgeous portrait of a human apply when taking photos of your pet:

• Use a large aperture to blur the background, thus bringing more attention to your subject. Using the sample image of the kitten as an example, note how the blurred background helps minimize distractions and bring your eye to the kitten’s eyes more quickly.
• Consider the lighting you use. Frontlit scenes will help reveal the details in your pet’s face while sidelit scenes help cast shadows that define the face and offer visual interest in the shot. Backlit scenes, like in the sample image of the kitten, add visual interest by highlighting the kitten’s fur, whiskers, and the shape of its head and ears.
• Get on your pet’s eye level. Just like a portrait of a child, a portrait of a pet is most effective if seen from their eye level. If need be, kneel, sit, or lay down to show the world from your pet’s perspective.
• Be armed with treats to reward your pet when they do what they’re supposed to do. Also have toys on hand to draw their attention as you press the shutter.

Challenge Activity

Use the techniques outlined in this lesson to create a captivating portrait of your favorite pet. If need be, refer back to Lesson 31 on human portraits to refresh your memory regarding additional techniques you can use to enhance your pet portrait.

Step 1: After you have found a quiet, non-distracting environment, frame up a shot with a clean background that is free of distractions.

Step 2: Set up artificial lighting that accentuates the pet and de-emphasizes the background. You can also choose to work with natural lighting. Beware that taking a pet portrait outdoors could prove difficult as there might be distractions (and some pets might not be well suited to going outdoors anyway). Use natural lighting coming through a window if need be.

Step 3: If you’re using flash or strobe lights, sync your shutter speed and set your aperture to f/8 or f/11 and position your camera at the pet’s eye level. Set your camera to shoot as quickly as the flash can recycle so you can fire off as many shots as quickly as possible.

Step 4: Experiment with your camera settings to get different visual effects. For example, open the aperture to f/5.6, f/4, or wider to get a blurrier background. You might also experiment with longer shutter speeds to blur movement for a more abstract looking portrait. Adjust ISO if need be to maintain a proper exposure.

Step 5: Experiment with compositional choices. Try framing your pet on the extreme edge of the shot. Take a portrait of your pet’s paws. Get up close for detail-oriented shots, and step back for more documentary style portraits. Add a human into the shot (as was done in the sample image of the boy and his dog) for a sweet portrait of man and beast together.