My photos app on my phone is almost embarrassing. At present, I have 1.2TB of photos - that’s 57,000 photos and 35,000 videos (I told you - embarrassing!). I have deluded myself into thinking that when I arrive at the proverbial “someday”, I will cull through and wrangle them into a more manageable number.
But someday never seems to arrive.
Part of the challenge is that in order to get a fantastic picture, particularly of a puppy, you have to resign yourself to the fact that for every fifty photos you take, one might be great. Sometimes none. If you want predictably good outcomes, try photographing fruit instead of puppies.
But since a picture of a pear is never quite as heartwarming as puppy eyes, let’s talk about some ways to improve your ratios. And let’s consider this article an “intro to dog photography.” Let me know if you’re interested in a more advanced follow-up article.
First, your gear. I used to shoot with a high-end camera (and even higher end lens), but the reality is that I don’t have a 35mm Canon slipped into my leggings pocket. In the last two-ish years, all of my pictures have been on my phone. Currently, that’s the iPhone 14 Pro Max.
Can you guess what the most important starting point is with your phone?
A clean lens. I’m obsessive about wiping my lens throughout the day, as you only have to lose the perfect shot once to a smudged lens in order to learn that lesson. So first, wipe that lens (I just use the softest cloth I can find - typically something I am wearing).
Next, setting. While portrait mode gives a lovely blurred background, I find that you have to be really lucky to get a focused picture in portrait mode. If your puppy is asleep or sleepy, portrait mode can work. But if your puppy has some energy, you are likely to get a focused ear and blurry face. Here is an example of portrait mode with a relatively still puppy that came out okay (even though the sharpest focus was on the tricking nose - my mistake for not tapping the eye as the area of focus):
And then one that would have been so cute, but I couldn’t switch out of portrait mode fast enough, so I got this blurry face:
This one was almost perfect, but since the natural light wasn’t on his eyes, it will require editing in order to brighten the eyes:
As a result, I stick with regular “photo” mode at 1x for most pictures.
A lot of puppy picture taking is about timing. It’s watching their body language and anticipating what they are going to do next. For example, if a puppy is laying down, playing with a toy that rolls and the ball rolls away, I can anticipate that the puppy is going to stare at the ball for a moment and then pounce on it. The next challenge is to get myself in position for the pounce, but to do so without distracting the puppy (because then he will just get up and run over to me). Most of the time, I linger around the puppies with my lens clean, camera app open, watching for moments.
As for the big dogs, Harper is the easiest dog to photograph ever. It is quite possible that she was a model in a former life, as she sees me taking pictures and never breaks the activity. If she is perking her ears at a bird singing, my approach doesn’t cause her to waver. I can get six inches from her face and she won’t move. Seriously. She could teach classes on this.
On the other end of the spectrum is Rufus. His “oh my gosh the human is approaching and I might get pet” radar is ever on the highest setting, making pictures and videos of him difficult. I have taken thousands of “almosts” with him, as I’m just not fast enough to capture a moment before he is barreling towards me.
So, a few tricks.
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