A-Photo Mag

Photographing pets is one of the most common of reasons why people buy cameras at all. Pets, children, family get-togethers and the likes of such everyday subjects make up the blk of photography of the ‘usual’ kind. Since photographing pets is one of the most common of reasons for people investing into cameras, we decided to run an article on how this can be done best.

When you are taking photographs of pets, remember it is much like photographing toddlers. Babies trust very few people, and so do pets. It will be difficult to get good images of a pet if its owner is not on location, especially if it is only a few times that you have met the animal. So, make sure that the pet owner is around, and ask him or her to interact with the pet as you look on and take photographs. Photographing a portrait of the pet with its owner is also a great idea. If you are looking for an individual portrait shot of the animal, you could ask the owner to stand by your side while you focus your camera on the dog or whatever it is that you are photographing. Well, thats the psycological part of things, now for the technical.

Use slightly higher shutter speeds, because the movement of an animal can be quite unpredictable, especially in the case of very young and active ones. Cats tend to dart at things all of a sudden, and so do puppies. Wait for the right moment - this is imperative. Pets rarely pose for you. Keep the animal in the vie finder at all times and be ready to fire away at literally a moment’s notice. More often than not, you miss the good shots simply because your finger was not present on the shutter release button, even if your eye was on the viewfinder. Keeping all this in mind, it is good to use fast ISO settings and greater depth of field and shutter speeds. However, if the pet tends to sit still for a bit, go to the larger apertures and thus blur out the back ground.

Another HUGE point here - ALWAYS get down to the eye level of the pet while photographing a portrait. It works wonders as far as composition goes, and also makes things more ‘personal’ if you may. You can interact much better with the animal from it’s eye level. The greatest pet portraits, as you will see on web sites and in magazines, have been photographed from low levels, in other words - the eye levels of the pets.

Finally, you may want to make sure that the pet is looking well-groomed, especially if the shoot is for professional reasons. A shining coat of fur makes the pet, and thereby our photograph, look that much better. Go ahead, have a great time photographing pets!

Like most things in today’s world, there are two approaches to blurring out the background on your photographs - the classic method that is more difficult to master, but more rewarding at the same time; and the modern quick-fix digital method. It is good to be aware of both. But here we shall focus on the classic photographic techniques and leave the digital version to a later tutorial. The reason is, the digital version is a mimicry of the classic, so you would do well to be aware of the camera techniques.

Blurring out an area in front of or behind the subject is a very useful tool when you want to isolate your subject for obvious reasons. You understand how this is done when you understand the depth of field of the lens at the given aperture. As we know, an aperture determines the diameter of lens opening. The greater the aperture, the more light enters the camera and affects exposure. However, exposure is not the only effect of the aperture of a lens. Apertures also have a direct impact on the depth of field of the lens. When you focus on an object using your lens focusing ring (or on auto focus as may be the case), there is an area in front of the subject as well as behind the subject that are both ‘in focus’ up to a point. Objects in front of the subject will gradually fall more out of focus the closer they are to you (and the further they are from the point of focus). This gradual change in the sharpness or ‘unsharpness’ of objects is what we call the depth of field or ‘d.o.f.’ of the lens at the given aperture. When you are able to get your backgrounds (or foregrounds) out of focus at will, you have become a better photographer. But don’t forget to make an appropriate change in shutter speed to compensate for the increased amount (or decreased amount) of light that is allowed to enter the lens, with the change in aperture.

Take for example, the above image. It made a batter photograph to have the background out of focus. For this, the photographer used a large aperture. Another factor which has an impact of depth of field is the focal length of the lens. A longer focal length (’zoomed in’ for the beginners) produces a shallower depth of field. A 300mm telephoto lens was used to photograph the sample image of a bird in the hands of its rescuer. A wide angle lens has the exact opposite affect and produces a larger depth of field - directly proportional to the ‘wideness’ or shorter focal length. So - the shorter the lens focal length the more the depth of field, the longer the focal length the less depth of field. Also - the larger the aperture the less the depth of field, the smaller the aperture…you get the picture. Use focal length and aperture to control your d.o.f.

Many a time we (including professional photographers) miss out on great photographs thanks to careless errors. There is no substitute for discipline while you shoot your images, however experienced or inexperienced one may be. We have put down a set of five golden rules to keep in mind when you go photographing your subjects. More to follow later -

A. Always use a tripod - there is no other tip that one can stress on more than this. And it is often the most overlooked as well. While it is true that you can shoot acceptable images with a hand held camera, it is also true that your hands will have some amount of ’shake’. To get impeccable results, you will need to ensure that the camera is mounted on a tripod or a support, especially on shutter speeds lower than about 1/100 second.

B. Keep your fingers away from the flash - this is especially true with compact cameras, which usually have the in-built flash on the top left corner of the camera. That is also the area your forefinger rests when you hold the camera in a proper grip, and it is easy to let your finger get in the front of the flash, resulting in underexposed images, or a shadow on a part of the image. With digital cameras and preview screens, it is easy to see the error soon after you photograph your subject.

C. Think before you fire - in these days of instant everything, we forget at times that composition is one of the two crucial factors of a good photograph. Take the time to compose your frame - resist the urge to fire away at everything that you see. Do get a few shots and then rethink, re frame, re compose and THINK how you have arranged the subjects in your frame and why…

D. Visualize - Try and visualize the finished image on print/computer screen. This is especially true for studio photography and landscapes. When you are able to visualize the finished image, back track your thought process and plan out every step of the photo taking process - the lighting set up, the exposure points, the filter, the lens, the film/ISO level, the shoot timing, the model make up and costumes if any, the photo editing stage and finally the presentation. When you are able to break it up into segments like this, you have a control over your photography like never before, and you have arrived!

E. Use a UV filter - there are more uses to a UV filter than simply blocking out the UV rays. Remember, the filter costs you only a fraction of the amount you paid for your lens. Keep a UV filter attached to every lens that you have (considering it is an SLR of course). If you happen to scratch the ‘lens’ surface, you will find solace in the fact that you have only damaged the cheap filter, and not your lens surface.