pamperedpuppy // luxury lifestyles for dogs

Let There Be Light

One of the fundamental rules of photography: you need light. We feel that for the amateur photographer, natural light is the best and easiest to work with. Whether outdoors or near a big picture window, natural light can offer the warm, golden hues of sunrise and sunset or the soft, indirect light of an overcast day. Both lighting conditions remove the worry of harsh shadows and will give you the richest colors.

We've all experienced the frustration of getting back great portraits of Fido the Zombie Dog and Fifi the Possessed Pooch. 'Red eye' ruins human photographs too, and can be partially fixed by turning off the camera's flash or adding additional light to the room. We find that dog photographs are especially susceptible to that strange reflective blue-y eye problem; again, the effect of the flash on the pupil of the eye is the culprit.

Red-Eye reduction, a rapid-fire flashing before the shutter releases, helps by constricting the pupils, but we've found that even humans find it annoying; we think that pooches are no different.

Natural light can offer the warm, golden hues of sunrise and sunset or the soft, indirect light of an overcast day.

Try removing your flash and placing it in a different location, out of the direct line of your pet. Or, conversely, try angling your pets gaze in a slightly different direction, away from the camera.

If you can't turn off your flash, try covering the entire flash or a portion of the flash with black electrical tape. You might also find that your pictures aren't so washed out.

What if you end up with a fantastic photograph that is ruined only by Fido's glowing eyes? Most photography stores sell pens that you can use to correct the problem on your prints, or they can reprint the image, correcting the problem. If you're shooting with a digital camera, you can correct the problem yourself using software on your computer.

Keep reading: Know Your Subject »