Back out with the paw patrol
Ross McLaren concludes his guide to capturing the expressive nature and character of your pet dogs on their daily walk
Taking your dog for a walk is a necessary routine for most dog owners, but it can also provide opportunities for some engaging action shots that really showcase the nature of the animal. In the rst part of this project, we talked about the settings to try out. Now, let’s look at framing and focusing techniques to capture your pet in full ow. Instagram:
Standing proud
An alternative to action shots of a running dog is to take one of the dog standing to attention. You can give the shot even more impact by getting on the other side of the dog from where the sun is shining to produce a rim-lighting eect on the coat. To achieve this, spot metering from the dog itself can help avoid the animal being underexposed, although another option is to produce a silhouette of your dog against the sunlit sky.
Capture expressions
Don’t forget to look out for funny or interesting facial expressions. Dogs can be very expressive, such as this shot where there’s a combination of worry and guilt, all in one image. If the dog is interacting with something it makes it easier to focus on the head, just to capture the range of eeting expressions.
Dogs and their owners
This shot relies on having someone else along on the dog walk and shoot, perhaps a partner or a friend. Get them to establish their relationship with the dog while you take the photo, showing the canine companion alongside their owner. Either portrait or landscape orientation is ne. In this image, the 1/4000 sec shutter speed has frozen the scene on a windy, foam-lled beach.
Editing the images
To keep manipulation of captures to a minimum, it’s always better to try getting things right in-camera in the rst place. With the ISO set to Auto (with an upper limit) there can be the odd occasion it pushes it to the limit, so some de-noise work is needed. I always like to edit the subject, usually raising the shadows a little and adding a bit of extra sharpness or clarity. And to nish it o, I always add a little vignette, either with the actual tool on Lightroom or as an inverted radial mask, which gives a more subtle eect.
Framing the shot
When the dog is running towards or slightly across the frame, try to leave a little space for where the dog is running to and less space behind where it has been, so it appears to be moving into the scene, rather than out of it. Obviously, with an animal racing around at high speed, this is not always possible and may require cropping afterwards to achieve a more pleasing framing.