Finally got the studio setup and this is my first attempt at Pet Photography. This cutie is Pumpernickel, a mix of beagle and dachshund-my daughter's dog. She is totally untrained, a dog we rescued from the pound, and our best bud.

Studio info: four lights of 100 watt-sec each on the white background, each 3.5' from backdrop; one key light reflected off a 42 in white umbrella at 400 watt-sec from approx 60 degrees to camera right and a softbox fill adjacent to camera left. Background was balanced for f22 for high-key effect, key light was set at f16 and fill was set at f11.

Please, all comments requested, I am really trying to learn here.

Next time, I will have my daughter help or an assistant-it is pretty tough to keep an untrained animal anywhere near the center of the backdrop, heck, pumpernickel did not even like the backdrop.

Pumpernickel is a real cutie!!!!

I'd suggest you use some sort of kicker in front of the dog to illuminate the face/front and/or use the shadow lightening capability in Photoshop or Lightroom or Aperture or whatever you're using to process your RAW files.

It seems to me that you have the lights set very high so while you have no shadows on the backdrop (that is good) you have very little light falling directly on Pumpernickel's front (that is not good). I'd drop them a little for smaller dogs.

You have just learned the most fundamental of truths in pet photography -- it's hard to do it alone . You have to be the handler, the baiter and the photographer and that only works when the dog cooperates fully. Frankly, in pet photography, most dogs are like Pumpernickel and they'll hate the stage, the backdrop and, most of all, the popping lights.

This is a very nice effort given the conditions. You can just see how shy and sweet she is. The eyes are wonderful.

How did the studio work for this shoot?

Jim

Thanks so much Jim;

The studio worked well, but I need a stage with a fenced perimeter. At my age, it is not fun working on the floor.

I agree with your assessment of the light positions. The lights were as low as they could go on the tripods (I should have put the softbox on the ground-that would have been just about the right height; I will need the stage to raise up the small dogs just to get the light in their faces and on their fronts. I will build one this weekend, maybe about 18 inches off the ground-about 8 ft deep and 10 ft wide. That would be deep enough for the backdrop and wide enough for the backdrop. If I put a short lattice fence around the left and right sides, it might help corral the dogs a bit. Any thoughts?

Oh, by the end of the shoot, she began to like the lights because she associated that with getting a treat. I could almost trick her to moving into position by triggering the lights.

See, Pavlov knew what he was doing after all .

Containing the shooting area is a good idea if you have a lot of additional space. Mine is constrained by the room size itself so they can only go so far. But when I go to homes, they'll disappear in seconds and nobody can find them!

Usually, the owner can help by calming the animal and gently calling its name and giving it treats. The problem is that owners have no real idea how to bait a dog and it doesn't work with cats at all. I'll be shooting and tell the owner to "call your dog" and they just stand there and look at him. So I'll say, "call his name". And they don't move. So I'll ask, "what's his name" and they'll tell me and I'll shout the name and the dog will look and I'll get the shot. Geesh! The dogs are easier to train than most people.

I think you have a good setup here. Just move the stuff around until you get some good front illumination as well. Maybe just a piece of white foamcore placed in front of the subject to reflect the light under the chin and onto the face.

Jim

Next time, I will put the softbox on the ground, that will be the perfect position for the fill light and at the same level as the dog. Your suggestions are excellent, just what I needed.

I don't think I would put the softbox on the ground, you still want it above the dog, maybe just not quite as high.

The one thing I would do is use a longer lens, unless you are looking for the big headed dog look. If you are, I would go even more extreme with it, so it doesn't look like mild distortion, but like an artistic effect

Thanks Julie,

I had planned to do the shot at approx 135mm but used the zoom to follow the running beast; she was a bit scared of the white background and stayed very near me. Like I said, this was really a learning experience; totally different than doing outdoor shots of active dogs and animals.

Don't we want the fill light to be a eye-level, if so, then for this dog, than the softbox would be on the ground? It is a 24 inch by 14 in softbox

I don't think you want the softboxes at eye level. It is a much flatter lighting than you would use with people. Honestly, you catchlights look like they are in the right place to me, maybe drop the lights just a hair and open up half a stop or so. I just don't think you had quite enough light. Especially not on the left side of Pumperknickel

If you think your dog is scared or difficult, wait until you get someone elses. Sometimes you luck up with awesome dogs and sometimes you have dogs that are complete spazzes. I even had a photophobic dog once. I had ONE shot after that it was total meltdown.

Julie

Thank you so much, I have so much respect for you and your work (you too, Jim). I have always been willing to learn from others, thanks.