Dog Photographers - Help needed

[gpc1]

Mods - Please move if not suitable for this forum. I wasnt sure where it sits.

A friend of mine works with search and rescue dogs and we were chatting about having some outdoor portraits of her dogs some in action, some just posed to show the dogs personality.

Im after some general advice really re angles, lighting, lens etc.

How do you get the best out of your dogs and how do you light them. Pretty broad i know....sorry.

I was going to approach it like i would a normal portrait with a sofbox and / or back light etc .

Not sure how this works in reality, in the field.

Any tips greatly appreciated. Its just a bit of fun and i would really like to give her a great print as a gift.

Im proficient enough as a tog, happy directing people, love dogs in general (I have 2)
gear i have is
5D2
battered up 40D (6fps should be handy for the action shots)
85 1.2L
24-70 2.8L
70-200 2.8l can be hired
580ex2 X2
Stands / softbox / video light / flags etc etc...

Thanks in advance.

 

[Yves Geza]

I'm sure search and rescue dogs are very superior, but you forgot to mention the treats to attract their attention

 

[TheRightMoments]

a squeeky toy is normally a good thing to help with the posed shots - you can get someone to hold their lead and then just edit it out in Photoshop afterwards.

I use a 70 - 200mm f2.8 for the action shots



and a 50mm f1.8 for stills when doing dog shows.



If your outdoors you should be ok for light and might just need a speedlight just for fill in flash.

Remember that most dogs will not sit around for too long so be quite quick!!!

 

[DemiLion]

You need to get Kerioak (sp?) involved in this thread. That's exactly what she does/ did.

 

[tdodd]

Outdoors, natural light, appealing environment and background and an assistant to throw things or otherwise control their movements/interest. Get down to their level and make sure they're doing something interesting or having fun.

 

[Christo]

Hehe - this is similar to one of my personal projects I'm doing.
http://www.christonicolle.com/personal-work/
It's a mix...some shots are loosely set up but all either revolve around the avaliable light or emotion.
As an addition to the points above, get really close too (as long as the dog is comfortable), and have not just an appealing background but one that is a contrasting colour/tone too.
I've got two 5DMkii's and while they're not the fastest at tracking/continuous focusing as long as you can get the dog running in a predetermined line (possible to a second person/treat) you can set the gear up to be ready.

Let us know the results! Doggy pictures are the mutts! ;-)

 

[Daryl]

Great shots... Wish I had a normal dog to do photos like that...... Mine will only have his picture taken with/in or on his Aeroplane.....

 

[Christo]

 

[Sleepydawg]

Great shots... Wish I had a normal dog to do photos like that...... Mine will only have his picture taken with/in or on his Aeroplane.....

Daryl,
How irresponsible of you! Fancy letting your dog fly that thing without a helmet
Cracking shot mate made me laugh