11 dog photography tips for quality portraits

Our dogs are not just faithful companions—they are our family. We want to photograph them just like the rest of the family. 

Nowadays, with modern digital cameras, capturing beautiful photos of your dog is easier than ever. 

As a budding professional photographer, you may want to add dog photography to your list of services offered. Many families are often looking to hire a professional photographer to capture beautiful portraits and moments with their pet pooch. 

So, whether you want to take photos of your dog or offer dog photography services, here are 11 useful dog photography tips to ensure you capture our littlest family members in the best light and help create memories to treasure forever.

 

1. Get down to their level

One of the first mistakes many make when photographing animals or children is to shoot standing up. 

This always means you are looking down at your subject, which isn’t flattering, makes them look much smaller, and simply looks bad in most cases. 

To capture more engaging and intimate photos, you should crouch, kneel or lie down to get at the dog’s eye level. It may feel a bit uncomfortable, but the results will be worth the effort. 

Sometimes, you can get down lower than the dog and shoot upwards. This has the illusion of making your dog look bigger!

 

2. Use natural light

Photographing in natural light is always the best option for any subject. 

The low sun during early morning and late afternoon provides soft, warm lighting that can enhance the beautiful colours of your dog’s fur. 

This is usually even better in winter, spring or autumn when the sun has moved southwards and is lower in the sky for longer. 

Avoid harsh midday sunlight or strong direct light, as this can result in unwanted shadows and washed-out colours. 

Additionally, shoot on overcast days. When the sky is cloudy or overcast, it acts as a huge softbox, which dampens or eliminates unwanted shadows and produces a much softer overall look. 

Related: The ultimate guide to family photography 

 

3. Focus on the eyes and face

The eyes are often the most expressive part of anyone’s face, whether human or animal. It looks wrong if the eyes and face are not focused. 

Therefore, to ensure that these are sharp in your photos, always focus on the eyes or, at the very least, the face. Eye focus is even more critical when using a shallow depth of field. 

Use single-point autofocus to lock onto the dog’s eyes. For action shots, if your camera has it—set the autofocus to tracking, set it for animals, turn on face detection, and put the camera into servo mode (also known as continuous autofocus). 

If you don’t have this feature or prefer to use the single-point focus, then the trick is to think about your composition ahead of time and where you want the dog’s face to be in the frame. 

Then, move the focus point to that area within the frame and compose accordingly. Again, you can use continuous autofocus so the camera tracks the dog as it moves about in the frame. 

One word of caution here—in continuous autofocus mode, the camera will take the photo even if the focus hasn’t been achieved. 

If you prefer to ensure that focus has been achieved first, use one-shot focus rather than continuous, and set your camera to single shot rather than continuous shooting mode. 

This is because in single-shot mode, you must release the shutter completely and press again to focus and take the shot. 

If you have the camera set to one-shot focus but continuous shooting, then the first shot will be in focus, but the camera will keep shooting at that same focus point even though the dog has moved away from it.

 

4. Fast shutter speed

Just like our kids, dogs cannot keep still and may also move very quickly. Therefore, a fast shutter speed is necessary to freeze their motion and prevent motion blur, especially when they’re running or playing. 

 

5. Capture movement

However, contrary to what we said above, you might want to add a degree of motion blur to give a sense of movement during action shots. 

You don’t want to blur the dog completely, but you might want to capture some degree of motion on their ears flapping, tail wagging, or legs moving. Experiment with different shutter speeds to capture a variety of effects. 

In these dog photography images, it’s important to keep the head and face sharp, so watch for moments when the dog’s head is not moving fast. 

In most cases, when the dog is running and jumping, the legs and ears are moving much faster than the head and body, so you can use a medium shutter speed that will freeze the slower movement but add a small amount of motion blur to the other faster moving body parts. 

Again, experiment with shutter speeds to determine the best option for your dog photography. 

Try starting with a fast shutter speed to freeze everything, and then bring it down slowly, one step at a time, to determine the right amount of motion blur. 

Always zoom in on your viewscreen after to ensure the dog’s head and face are both sharp.

 

6. Choose your aperture wisely

Depending on the type of photo you want to take or the background, you must choose your aperture wisely. 

A large aperture (F4 - 5.6 or lower if you have it) creates a shallow depth of field, which can help isolate the dog from the background. This is ideal for dog photography portraits or when you have a messy or cluttered backdrop.

If you want to include the surrounding environment, whether at home, in a forest or at a beach, you can use a medium aperture (around f8-f11) to show the background but still make the dog more prominent in the scene. 

Remember that when using a longer focal length, the depth of field is much narrower, so you might need to use a smaller aperture to avoid too much background blur. 

Conversely, you can also use a longer focal length to reduce the depth of field further if you so wish. The closer you are to the dog, the more out of focus your background will be. So move back if you don’t want this.

Related: The 3 essential camera filters (and how to use them)

 

7. Use auto ISO

When taking action shots or photographing the dog playing outside, the light can be very changeable as it runs from brighter to darker areas. 

If you’re not careful, you could end up underexposing if insufficient light is available. The best option to avoid this is to use auto ISO, then set your camera to shutter priority to ensure you get the shutter speed you want.

Or, for even better control, set it to manual so you can set the shutter and aperture yourself, and then turn on auto ISO so those settings will be maintained no matter how low the light gets. 

 

8. Choose your background wisely

Pay attention to what is behind—a cluttered or distracting backdrop can take attention away from the dog. 

Look for clean backdrops that will contrast with the colour of your dog’s fur to help it stand out in the picture.

 

9. Include the whole family

Remember, dog photography is not just about the dog. Don’t forget to include other members of the family when photographing. 

Take portraits of the whole family surrounding their dog and individual family members. Children love dogs, so capturing those special moments with them playing and rolling around with their family pet will be pictures for them and their parents to treasure forever.

Try to capture the fun and those quirky expressions from both the kids and the dog. 

Related: The essential features of every digital camera 

 

10. Use a wide angle for quirky shots

A wide or extreme wide angle lens used close up can capture quirky shots and emphasise those funny expressions. 

So try to get close without making the dog feel uncomfortable, and use a large aperture to achieve this effect. 

You can also make your dog seem much bigger by getting close with a wide angle; ideal for making those little ones appear bigger and tougher!

 

11. Post-processing

It doesn’t end once you have taken the photos. After your photoshoot, process the images to correct or enhance their colour, contrast, and sharpness.

If your camera has it, always shoot in RAW. 

Adobe Lightroom and Adobe Camera RAW in Photoshop have some great features that can help if you need to tweak the exposure, darken the highlights or bring out the shadows. 

One new feature within Camera RAW is the Lens Blur tool, which is great for adding extra background blur where the depth of field of your lens wasn’t enough.

 

Practice brings improvement

Don’t be disheartened if you don’t get it right the first time. Like all things, skill comes through practice. 

Today’s advantage with digital cameras is that we can take the time to practice and shoot more photos to get it right and then delete the bad ones as we go along. 

Of course, the goal in practising your dog photography is to reach the point where you are keeping more than you delete.

So, if you want to improve your dog photography skills, give the tips in this article a try. Now, get out there and start practising. And, of course, have fun with your dog!

 

Specialist camera insurance through Ripe Photography

Dog photography is a hugely rewarding activity, but it doesn't come without risks to your equipment. This is why you may want to protect your camera and accessories through specialist photography insurance. 

At Ripe, we arrange bespoke cover that can be tailored to fit your exact requirements, so you only ever pay for what you need. You can cover up to £60,000 of equipment for theft and accidental damage, so you can continue your shoots with peace of mind. 

Click here to learn more about specialist camera insurance, or hit the button below to get an online quote today.