I set up my studio stuff away from home for the first time to see if I could do it. It wasn't too bad! The pics came out quite good, and I learned a few things.

Shedding German Shepherds and black velvet do not mix well.

If you forget to bring a squeaky toy to get ears, a quietly whining dachshund in the X Pen next to you will do in a pinch.

A 6 foot wide backdrop that looks huge behind a wiener dog at home, is not so big behind two large dogs.

My questions:

What kind/how big of a table do you guys use to put the dogs on? Or do you use a table at all? There happened to be an agility table where I set up so used that and it seemed to work better than the floor especially to encourage dogs to stay and to lay down. That table would be too large to travel with, and a grooming table seems to small and tall...

What am I doing wrong with my background light....I was using a gel and if the light was too low, there would be no change in the background. Too high and it would change the color but blow it all out (using mottled medium gray muslin). Also on seamless white paper I get very little color and again blow out, I was picturing a nice gradient of color over the white but maybe white isn't the best choice? There was no room to put the light behind the dogs even when on the short table (it would have shown in the shot) so I had it just off to the side.

Maybe seamless black paper is the way to go with gels?

What kind of material do you usually use for the ground, the same as the backdrop or do you put down something else? Any suggestions on the something else? I had the black velvet handy so took it along but it grabbed and showed every dog hair.

What extras do you guys bring to have on hand...I"m guessing extra bulbs for the strobes, anything else? I did see I only had barely enough length in the cords maybe extensions (certain kind?) and a plug in strip? How about a second trigger for the camera?

Is there a way to set off the shutter while standing away from the camera, something remote (that would be SO nice)

Lastly any tricks to not getting dogs shadows on each other when using two dogs. It wasn't a huge problem but if one turned it's head just right there would be shadow. I'm guessing for that you may need to move the two strobes closer to center...

Muchas thanks for any suggestions!

Hi Dee Dee

A lot of questions with pretty simple solutions. Can you post some examples. Everything on your website is art work and very well done I might add.
1) Table is OK with little dogs but getting big dogs up are a lot of trouble.
2)What is the background light doing? too bright too dark?
3) What do you use a gel for? colored, neutral density?
4)I find white (high key) that hardest background to work with in a limited environment. It requires too much light to illuminate it. I usually have to small lights at right angles, on the floor to illuminate a white background
5)As far as extra bulbs (for strobes?) how about extra lights. "Sync" cords come in a variety of lengths but I find that radio slaves are handier. Most digital SLR's have infrared remotes available instead of cable releases.
6) As far as shadows are concerned I usually have my lights high so as the shadow would be below the subject as much as possible or have the background light (if you use one) eliminate them.
My typical set-up (on location) is (1) one mono light on a light stand with a softbox (or umbrella) with a radio slave. It is usually above the photographers head and pointed down at the animals. I try to have the animals as far away from the background as possible (6 feet).
In my studio I have a main light, a fill light, a hair light(background light). I do have a table for the animal that is usually covered in some soft material. I have my camera on a tripod with a radio slave. If eye color is important I have 2 main lights at 90 degree angles. I do have some recent examples (studio) at bsvirginian.smugmug.com

I use a grooming table that was made for Saints and Danes, so, it is HEAVY DUTY. It isn't lightweight, but I can move it myself. http://jbarkennels.com/mambo/content/view/16/27/ I have successfully put large collies on it

I am not experienced with color gels, so I won't even go there

I bring a pet hair tape thing(you know, that you use on your clothes) and will run it over a dark cover. And yes, dogs shed all over the dark stuff!!!

I have a rolling trunk I drag around with me. Though I only usually use 2 lights, I tend to bring 4. Just in case I want to do something different.

If you forget a squeaky toy, what works for me really well is to say in the most GOD AWFUL high pitched voice(that may make a human hit you) Are your PREEEETYYY? It is horrible, but if works. The dogs all twist their heads and perk their ears. It is awful sounding though

What kind of dog did you say was standing on that table?
bsvirginian

That table looks great Julie, thanks. Can I ask how much it was with shipping? The site says to inquire on price. About how much would you say it weighs. Obviously the legs must fold in too.

Good idea with the pet hair roller, Hallie doesn't shed so I forget how much hair can come off dogs sometimes LOL. When I had my wonderful Dane(fawn) who did shed, I just turned my world into shades of gold...gold carpets, tan furniture, khaki clothes, even the inside of my van was in tans.:) Maybe that's the trick a different color material for each dog you shoot lol.

I think that's a good idea for extra lights too, I guess anything you can bring doubles of wouldn't hurt.

LOL I hear you on the noises you tend to make to get ears, I was a one person sound effect machine that day. Sometimes the seasoned show dogs are harder to interest, reaching into a pocket to rattle a treat bag sometimes works and always works on Hallie who has been a very cooperative model for me all along. I do with the shooting with her like I do with obedience training...keep it very short and happy with lots of treats and quit while whey still want to do it so they look forward to the next time.

Thanks for all the tips Julie! Good ideas there I'm going to look further into that table for sure.

I am borrowing the table from a friend. So, not sure how much it would be to ship. It is a *substantial* table. One that I can get on and jump up and down on. The guy in the photo standing on it is in the upper 200lb range. It does not move or wiggle.

Oh, and the best way to keep shadows off of 2 dogs is use one light basically in the center. It is a flatter lighting, but, you almost have to have a flat light for multiple dogs.

Chuck Gardner gave some great advice on lighting in this thread http://forums.dpreview.com/forums/readflat.asp?forum=1025&thread=22763864
I don't entirely agree with him that the background didn't work with Dot, but, that is really irrelevant. He is probably right, but, I just liked it with her

Oh gosh Bob, I totally missed seeing your post! Thank you so much!! You answered a lot there. To answer your questions, #2...I had hoped to have the backdrop look just like it normally does only turn it a different color with the gels. I realize it does make a bit of a halo effect which is fine. But either the color of the gel is too weak to make it appear the backdrop is that color (it is a watered down version that looks weak) or I increase the light and it blows it out. I have tried the gels on seamless white paper and also a mottled muslin mid gray. (I am wondering if I should get seamless black and seamless gray so I can then get all the colors I want?)

I had the backlight set off to the side since the table I borrowed was too short for the light to not show behind or if the dogs were on the ground.

#3, yes my hope was to use the gel for color. I was inspired by Rachael Hale's work
http://www.rachaelhale.com/gallery.aspx
and was hoping to figure out how to come up with similar background colors using the gels (which I am only guessing is what she does).

#4 explains a lot. The frustration is usually not knowing the limitations of what you are working with and trying to get something better when maybe there isnt' a way. So knowing that helps a lot. So I shouldn't expect the gels to really color a white background very intensly?

#5...I am not exactly sure what you mean by infrared remotes vs cable releases. I use a trigger on the hot shoe of my camera, to fire the two (or three if I use the backlight) strobes. Is that what you mean by infrared remote? Is there a way with what I have to fire the camera and strobes anywhere on the set rather than having to be at the camera pushing the shutter? Since I work alone I'd love to have the freedom of standing to the side of the animal or to hold them there and let go to quickly get the shot, etc.

#6 is also very helpful thank you for that! I usually have my two front lights at 45 degree angles from the side. I have not tried up high directly in front, etc. I am going to set up at a dog match next month and practice on peoples dogs there so I will experiment.

I just checked out your site, gorgeous shots! The cats (and the one dog) are beautiful they all have a nice quality to them. Thanks for sharing! And thanks again for answering my questions it is much appreciated I am still not sure how I missed seeing your post.

Thank you too Julie for your added advice and the link to dpreview. Some good stuff there too, Chuck also mentions the gray paper so I'm wondering if I shouldn't get gray and black yet...also will write the site with the table then and ask the cost.

Here are some of the photos to show what I was talking about with the lighting. (uncropped so I could show the entire scene). First one, is the mottled gray with a gold gel, obviously was not pointed in the right direction. I thought the light would spread out farther than that.




Second shot is the samething only pointed at the middle. I wanted the whole backdrop to change color though maybe I'm not understanding what gels do though. I wanted the color spread out more...I am using a honeycomb and again I don't know where else I could put the light as off to the side seems the only place.





Third shot, since I wasn't getting the color coverage and saturation I wanted I increased the power of the back light and as you can see, washed the middle out (although color did go over the whole background then).



Fourth and last shot I tried it again with a bright pinkish gel, same problem too bright. I should have taken notes on my settings but I was just trying things and wasn't as organized with keeping track of what I was doing as I should have been.



When I set up the lights at 45 degrees alone I think my lighting is fine (here is an example). This example also shows how I learned black velvet doesn't go well with shedding dogs!



It's just when I try to get tricky and artsy or if there is a variation like more than one dog or heaven forbid the day a human gets into the shot! I'd really like to learn how to do some other more interesting things.

I LOVE Rachel Hales work! GAH that is nice! How does a light gel make that even of light, but not spill onto the animal?

Maybe it's not gels? She can probably afford to have many different backdrops in a nice big studio...:)

But maybe it is gels I'd sure like to know. I do know she uses a large format camera.

You know what I'll bet it's not gels, the color is even from top to bottom and it looks like a seamless piece, the gels wouldn't color the ground too. I'll bet she is using different colored papers, I wonder too if she changes background colors in photoshop sometimes. Most of her shots are very tight in.