The key to a good pet portrait is a good photograph. Most of the time, the artist may have never met your beloved pet in real life, so you want to make sure that the images you provide to them really show off your pet’s beauty, character, and any unique little details that you really want to get into the portrait itself.
For example, a blurry, poorly lit image with your dog running off in the distance isn’t going to cut it, but you do not need to be a professional photographer to get some good shots in.
However, many pet portraits are commissioned due to a pet passing away and so it may not be possible to take more photos, but these tips could still help in selecting the best ones to send to the artist. But remember - the more your artist has to work with the better, so don’t be scared to ask for their suggestions and send multiple photographs to choose from.
Here are my top tips for getting the best possible photo of your pet for a custom pet portrait.
Equipment
Choosing the best equipment you have access to will help, whether you have a DSLR camera, or a smartphone - both will still produce a good image to work from. However, if someone else in your family has a better phone than yours it may be worth asking to borrow it or getting them involved in the photoshoot.
My absolute number one top tip when photographing anything with a phone, however, is to clean the camera lens before shooting. Simply wiping it with your sleeve will make all the difference, I promise!
Your Pet
If your pet is anything like mine and loves to roll in all things smelly, you may want to make sure they have a bit of a grooming session before your photoshoot. Not all pets will need a full wash, cut and blow dry, but simply wiping around their eyes and mouth and giving their fur a brush can help neaten them up for their photos.
It’s also worth considering whether you want them to be wearing any of their favourite accessories in the photo. Perhaps you have a bow tie, bandana, headcollar, harness or collar that you would like to be included - so make sure they are at hand and not covered in mud from your last romp around the woods!
Bribery
My favourite part of painting pet portraits is capturing that look of love in their eyes, showing that connection between pet and owner. However, in order to get that level of “eye contact” with the camera, you alone probably aren’t going to be enough to hold their attention I’m afraid. Instead, the joyful look will be towards their favourite toy or treat that you are going to bring with you and hold behind the camera to hold their gaze. Sorry to ruin the magic!
For horses, in my experience this has even involved people jumping around behind the cameraman, throwing keys or sawdust in the air - so more props and extra bodies may be needed!
It’s also worth remembering those key words and phrases that will get their attention. For example, my dog, Pumpkin, does her best head tilt for ‘din dins’, ‘carrot’ and ‘granny’.
The Setting and Lighting
Another important part of keeping your pets focussed on you is to have them somewhere with fewer distractions. Ideally, you want to host the photoshoot somewhere in which they will be relaxed and not too concerned about what is going on around them. Ideally, a nice, well-lit garden or field would work best, but you can also take some nice shots indoors if you have ample natural lighting.
Try to avoid taking photos behind cages or vivariums if possible - the bars can sometimes get in the way of key features, and glass can have a glare.
As a rule of thumb, you want the light source to be behind the camera, facing the subject, but make sure you are not casting a shadow over them. If you want to get a bit more technical, it’s also worth noting where the shadows lie in different positions. Too much shadow and the true colour of your pet won’t show through and their eyes might not be very clear. However, some interesting shadows on lighter pets can give a bit more depth.
Lighting can also impact the animal's pose as well, as you don’t want them to be blinded by too much sunlight causing them to squint. But a nice reflection in the eyes makes for a really good image.
Posing Your Pet
The pose depends on the animal itself, but it’s worth taking photos at a few different angles and supplying these to your artist as well so that they can pick up different details. Try and shoot from the animal's eye level to capture them straight on rather than making them look up or down which can make for an awkward looking portrait.
Key things to look for are:
- Open eyes looking forward
- Ears pricked and forward
- Mouth looking smart or smiling
Sending the Files
As mentioned above, the more photos you can take and the variation within these, the more details your artist can draw from when creating your portrait. There may be photos that have special meaning to you, but it is important to look at these with the objective view of picking one that will make the best-looking portrait.
If you have any key features or quirks that you would like to be included, make sure and point these out to your artist as you know your pet better than anyone else!
When sending large files, or a large number of files, I like to use wetransfer.com as it doesn’t lower the quality of the images and means you do not have to send multiple emails. Keep in mind that when sharing images via social media, this often downgrades the quality. Also, please avoid screenshotting images and instead share the actual image files themselves. Screenshots downgrade the quality even more, meaning that the details in the photos of your pets will most likely be pixelated and hard to make out.
Hopefully these tips can help you in photographing your pet to create a beautiful pet portrait. If you have any questions or want to run some photos past me to see if they would work well as one of my watercolour and ink paintings, please do not hesitate to get in touch.