Shelter Dogs, Post Your Photos Here

[Camilla and Darwin]

So I know that some of you have recently been in touch with shelters and may start taking photos. That is OH MY HECK AWESOME! I've been doing it for a while now and it's honestly one of the best parts of my week. It's so much fun, and so rewarding. Taking pictures and playing with dogs - it doesn't get better than that! It's also a great way to exercise the skills we learn in the PG group. :-) 

I wanted to start a discussion where we could add our photos of the shelter dogs we photograph, whether they are before & afters, cute dogs, or even cute pictures of ugly dogs. LOL j/k. I can't wait to see yours! I think it would be great and may help others who may be on the fence decide to take the plunge. Plus - cute dog photos. :-)

I'll post a batch of before & after shots from today.

[Jen, Lachlan, and Declan]

Jarka, these are wonderful!

[Camilla and Darwin]

Jarka - wow!!!! These are amazing! Such beautiful portraits and each has it's own personality coming through loud and clear. Absolutely wonderful!

[Nancy, Ned, Clancy, and Charlie]

Jarka, these are fabulous pictures!

[Jean, Rylee and Cooper]

These are fantastic.

[Laurie, Wally & Charlotte]

I'm considering doing this myself, and it would be very helpful to know what the lighting was like, what lenses people have chosen, as well as the settings used. Also, in what format do you give the images to the shelter? Do you send them by email, print them, or put them onto a zip drive? Thanks. This is a terrific and inspiring discussion.

[Camilla and Darwin]

Sure Laurie! Here is the most common situation for me at least.

We shoot midday to early afternoon. The worst time for lighting but it works out just fine. I usually shoot them backlit, and they get a nice halo around them. The location we have to shoot at is a tiny patch of grass next to some kennels and dumpsters. Because of this, I always choose a wide aperture to blur the background as much as possible. I also select a long lens (my 85mm f/1.8) because I find that when you get really close to the dogs, they get more excited and hyper and it's harder to snap the shot. The other benefit of a long lens is that it's easier to blur the background.

On a typical sunny day, I will choose my settings by setting my ISO to 100, my aperture to as wide as possible (for dogs, f/3.2 is pretty good), and adjust my shutter speed from there, to whatever brings me to the right exposure. (it's usually higher, like 1/600 sec - 1/1000 sec) You could use AV mode for this, and set your ISO to 100 then just let your camera choose the shutter speed. 

On most days my friend who works with me photographing the dogs holds the dog on a leash, directing them into a sit stay. I shoot the picture, then we switch places and he shoots while I hold the dog. In the end we choose the best shot of the individual dog out of our two photos. I remove the leashes afterwards in PS. There are occasions when we are able to shoot in a dog park, in which case we let the dogs off leash and I follow the same procedures I would follow for shooting Darwin at play. This is quite uncommon though.

I send the JPG files to the webmaster, and he puts them on facebook and the website from there. E-mail makes the most sense to me by far - it's convenient, and listings for the site only require medium sized jpg images so it works well.

[Laurie, Wally & Charlotte]

Camilla, Thanks for sharing your procedure with me -- I really appreciate it. I'm going to give this a try when I get back home from Florida.  You're the best!

[Camilla and Darwin]

I Can't wait to see the results! 

[Jarka, Monty & Auggie]

Thanks for sharing, Camilla.

I'm a novice in this, so I'm still trying to figure out the best way to do this. Our local shelter has nothing around it. And I mean not a single green patch. This was my first photoshoot there, but I have a feeling that the procedures will be the same the next time I go in.

The shelter has outdoor runs for the dogs and that's where we take the pictures when the weather is nice. A handler brings the dog out and plays with it in the fenced in run. The last time around I had my camera set on shutter priority of about 1/800 - 1/1000 since I was worried that will all the motion the pictures would be blurry. I try to get a headshot of the dog and a shot of the entire body. Again, for me, the background is the main problem. There are chain link fences, train cars sitting on railroad tracks, colorful trash containers, etc. Nothing that would be appealing to the eye. That's why I chose to bring in a couple of fleece blankets and throw them over one of the dog run fences. I'm not sure that worked as well as I intended. But, I also spent some time in post processing the pictures and added colorful backgrounds and textures. Whatever works, right?

Speaking about colorful containers, here is what I'm talking about (you can see the "after" for the first two pictures in my previous post):

And this is what I mean about the blanket not being such a good idea first, but it was helpful in post processing:

Many of the shots would look so much better if they were taken at a dog park. I tried to save this one, but came up short even with Photoshop.

Since my shelter is really close to where I live, I just put the final pictures on my USB key and take them over to the volunteer services director. The shelter is working on a major overhaul of their website and once that's up and running, I will be able to directly upload the pictures from my home.

[Jarka, Monty & Auggie]

PS. Cats are easy. They don't move, LOL.

[Camilla and Darwin]

Jarka, you should be able to blur your background with a wide aperture and use a fast shutter speed to freeze motion. If you are shooting midday, you could shoot at f/3, 1/800 - 1/1250 sec, and ISO 100 and you'd get the best of both worlds. 

I understand about the background. I'm lucky to have some grass but kennels and dumpsters don't make a pretty backdrop so that is why I have to blur. I like your idea of using a fabric backdrop!

[Jarka, Monty & Auggie]

I'll definitely try that the next time. As you know, I still can't make myself go full manual. The next photoshoot will be before noon, so I'll definitely try the full settings you suggested.