Pets

Learning goal

You will be able to explain why photos of a cat or a dog so often come out blurry, dark, or like a heap of fur shot from above, and learn to use pet photography's three supports together: a view that comes down to the animal's height, speed that stops movement, and patience that knows how to wait. You will choose a shutter speed that freezes the animal's movement; you will lock continuous focus and eye tracking onto the animal's eye; you will catch the animal's attention with a toy or a sound and work without tiring it; you will correct the exposure so as not to lose the detail of black fur and not to blow out white fur; and in photos where the animal and its owner stand in the same frame, you will learn to keep the detail of both the fur and a face of every skin tone together. At the close, you will return to the track that deals with people and animals together.

The question

As you put away your grandmother's sewing box, the house's black cat leaps onto the table, paws at the brass thimble on the table and knocks it onto the rug, then jumps after it. You raise the camera and shoot in a burst. When you look at the screen, all the frames are the same: a black, blurry smudge, with a sharp chair leg behind it. One frame, when the cat finally stands still on the rug, you take standing and from above; this time the cat hasn't moved, but it has turned into a grayish ball of fur, and you can't even make out its yellow eyes.

Why does my cat always come out blurry? Why is there not a single good photo of the household's most loved member, even though it is beside you every day? In this lesson we will talk about pet photography, and how movement, point of view and exposure come together in this small, fast model.

Context

Pets are the most unpredictable models a photographer meets. They don't know how to pose, they don't understand direction, their attention shifts to something else within a few seconds, and their most interesting moments are often their fastest: a leap, a chase, a turn of the head. On top of that, they usually live inside the home, in dim light; this makes a fast shutter speed harder.

But their rewards are big too. A good pet photo carries an animal's character, its curiosity, laziness or playfulness, and stays precious to a family for years. This lesson carries the portrait from people to four-legged family members; the idea of building a connection from the first lesson holds here too, only the language changes.

Simple explanation

How is movement frozen?

Pet photography is the genre whose subject is animals that live with people at home or on the street: cats, dogs, birds and other small companions. The most common cause of blur is the camera or phone choosing a long shutter speed in a dim room: even a cat walking at a thirtieth of a second blurs. A freezing shutter speed is a shutter speed short enough to catch the animal's movement as a sharp moment: for a resting animal, a two-hundred-fiftieth of a second is often enough; for a running or jumping animal, a thousandth of a second or shorter is needed.

A short shutter speed means less light; to balance this, you need to open the aperture and raise the ISO. By a window, f/2.8, ISO 3200 and a five-hundredth of a second often freeze a cat at play. A little grain is always better than a blurry frame. To hold focus on a moving animal, continuous focus and, if your camera has it, animal eye tracking are a great help; the camera finds the animal's eye and follows it as it moves. Burst shooting, too, makes it possible to choose the right frame of a short moment from within a sequence.

Why do eye level and patience matter?

When you shoot standing, from your own height, a cat or a dog stays below like a small ball; behind it the floor shows, often rug or parquet. When you crouch down to the floor, even lie down, and go down to the animal's eye level, on the other hand, you look at its world from its height: its eyes come closer to the center of the frame, the background moves away, and the animal becomes the photo not of an object but of a character. You always need to put the focus on the eye, and if the two eyes are at different distances, on the eye closer to the camera.

Animals don't understand direction, but their attention can be caught. An attention getter is a toy, a sound, a rustle or a treat that turns the animal's gaze where you want it. A feather or a toy held by a helper right above the camera makes the animal look close to the lens. A play moment is the short stretch of time that shows the animal at its liveliest and most natural; but animals get bored and tired quickly. Doing short sessions, not forcing it and not using flash are needed both for the animal's comfort and for the ease of the next shoot.

How are black and white fur exposed?

Fur exposure is correcting the way an animal's fur color misleads the camera's metering. The camera's metering tries to pull the scene toward middle gray: it shows a black cat as grayish and faded, and a white dog as shifted toward gray and dull. On black fur, setting exposure compensation a little to minus keeps the fur deep and glossy, but if pulled down too far, detail is lost in shadow; on white fur, setting compensation a little to plus shows the white clean, but if opened too far, the fur's texture blows out. Looking at the histogram shows that it doesn't press against either end.

When the animal and its owner are in the same frame, the job gets a little finer, because the exposure has to fit two different surfaces at once. For a dark-skinned person hugging a white dog, the face can get too dark while you try to protect the white fur; for a light-skinned person holding a black cat, the cat can turn into a black void while you protect the face. Bringing the two into the same light, turned sideways to a window, shrinks the difference between them; seeing on the histogram that neither end is clipped, and on the screen that both the texture of the fur and the eyes of the face can be made out, lets both living beings appear in their own color.

Visual evidence

The next afternoon you lie down in front of the window sill, the cat's favorite spot; the camera is on the floor, at the cat's eye level. You put the camera in shutter priority and choose a five-hundredth of a second, open the aperture to f/2.8, and leave the ISO free to rise to at most 3200. You turn on animal eye tracking and burst shooting. In the first frame the black cat again comes out grayish; when you set compensation to minus two-thirds of a stop, its fur turns dark and glossy, and its yellow eyes sharp.

Your sibling, dark-skinned and curly-haired, waves a feather toy right above the camera. The moment the cat leaps from the sill, in the seventh frame of the sequence it hangs in the air: paws open, whiskers sharp, eyes locked on the toy. Then you seat your sibling turned sideways to the window, put the cat in their lap, and photograph the two in the same light. Both ends of the histogram are empty; on your sibling's face their eyes and smile can be made out, and on the cat's black fur single hairs shine. Five minutes later the cat loses interest and goes back to the sill; you end the shoot there.

Common mistakes

Summary

Pets are models that don't pose, are fast, and often live in dim light; a short shutter speed that freezes movement, an open aperture, a high ISO, continuous focus, eye tracking and burst shooting turn blurry smudges into sharp moments. Going down to the animal's eye level shows it as a character; an attention getter steers its gaze, while short sessions and working without flash catch the play moment without tiring the animal. Black and white fur mislead the camera's metering; an exposure corrected with compensation, and an animal and its owner brought into the same light, keep both the texture of the fur and the detail of a face of every skin tone in the same frame.

Mini assignment

In this assignment you will photograph an animal at home or near you from its own world.

1. Photograph an animal first standing, with automatic settings, then going down to the floor, from eye level.
2. Set the shutter speed to at least a five-hundredth of a second; open the aperture and raise the ISO as much as needed; turn on continuous focus and eye tracking if available.
3. Catch the animal's attention with a toy held by a helper above the camera, and catch a play moment with burst shooting.
4. Photograph the animal in its owner's lap, bringing the two into the same light; check the histogram and the screen for the fur and the face.

Check yourself

• Does the frame you took from eye level show the animal more like a character than the one you took standing?
• Is there a sharp frame in the sequence you took during the play moment?
• In the frame of the animal and its owner, can both the texture of the fur and the detail of the face be made out, whether the owner's skin is light or dark?

Glossary

Mini quiz

1. What is the most common reason a cat walking in a dim room comes out blurry?

• A) The aperture being stopped down too much
• B) The camera choosing a long shutter speed
• C) The cat being black
• D) The lens being too wide

2. A black cat comes out grayish with the camera's metering. What should you do?

• A) Set exposure compensation a little to minus
• B) Set exposure compensation to plus
• C) Turn on the flash
• D) Put the cat in front of a white background

3. Which is an easy way to turn the animal's gaze close to the lens?

• A) Holding the animal by force
• B) Waiting a long time and making no sound at all
• C) Firing the flash again and again
• D) Catching its attention with a toy or a sound right above the camera

4. You are photographing a dark-skinned person hugging a white dog; while protecting the dog, the face gets dark. Which is the best first step?

• A) Erase the face in editing
• B) Take the dog out of the frame
• C) Bring the two into the same light, turned sideways to a window, and check both ends on the histogram
• D) Set compensation to the lowest minus

Answers

1. B — In dim light, automatic settings pick a long shutter speed and the movement blurs.
2. A — Metering pulls black toward gray; a little minus compensation keeps the fur deep.
3. D — An attention getter steers the animal's gaze.
4. C — The same light shrinks the difference; the histogram shows that the fur and the face are kept together.

Summary card

• The cause of blur is a long shutter speed: shorten it, open the aperture, raise the ISO.
• Continuous focus, eye tracking, burst shooting.
• Go down to eye level; focus on the eye.
• Use an attention getter, keep sessions short, don't use flash.
• Minus compensation on black fur, plus on white; the animal and its owner in the same light.

Bridge to the next lesson

If you want to move forward with portraits of your cat, your dog or your child, go back to Track R1 · Portraits and People, which you met in the first lesson: its lessons on children and family, eyes and expression, and pets work directly with four-legged models too. In the reading order, on the other hand, we now move to frames where nothing can be recognized. The shadow of the hairs the cat left on the sill in the window light, when photographed up close, turns into an image made only of lines and tones whose subject can't be told. Does a photograph have to show reality? The next lesson talks about abstract photography, and how shape, color and texture can be a subject on their own.