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Animal and pet
photography tips
✦ Be patient! Animals aren’t always
the best subjects; they can be
unpredictable and uncooperative.
Have patience and shoot plenty of
pictures, you never know what
you’re going to get.
✦ Bring some treats. Sometimes
animals can be compelled to do
things with a little bribe.
✦ Get low. Because we’re used to
looking down at most animals, we
tend to shoot down at them. Get
down low and shoot from the ani-
mal’s perspective.
✦ Shoot wide open. If you’re at a
zoo and the animal is within a
cage, sometimes getting close to
the cage and shooting with a wide
aperture can cause the cage wire
to be so far out of focus that it’s
hardly noticeable. Using a wide
aperture can also blur out distract-
ing elements.
✦ Keep an eye on the background.
When photographing animals at a
zoo keep an eye out for cages and
other things that look manmade —
and avoid them. It’s best to try to
make the animal look like it’s in
the wild by finding an angle that
shows foliage and other natural
features.
116 Part II ✦ Creating Great Photos with the Creative Lighting System
Table 6.2 (continued)
Lens Practice Picture: Nikkor 50mm f/1.8
On Your Own: Almost any wide-angle to short telephoto lens
will do. You want to stay away from using too long of a lens
because animals are usually pretty curious and always try to get
close to the camera to see what it’s all about.
Camera Settings Practice Picture: Aperture Priority, red-eye reduction on.
On Your Own: Use Manual or Aperture priority to control the
depth of field.
Exposure Practice Picture: 1/60 sec. at f/1.8, ISO 400
On Your Own: As with portraits of humans use a wide aperture
to throw the background out of focus. Set your shutter speed at
or near your camera’s sync speed.
Accessories Try using a flash mounted softbox to diffuse the light.
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