Dog Photography: Sit, Stay, Click

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Take wag-worthy photos that show off a dog’s lovable personality!

Getting Started

Meet your instructor, pet photographer Anthony Helton, and discover the art of capturing canine charisma. Then, delve into dog behavior as Anthony offers advice for gaining a dog’s trust and tips for reading a dog’s comfort level. Finally, tour the lenses and accessories that you’ll find most useful when shooting animals, whether indoors or out, sitting or in action.

Interaction & Positioning

Set yourself up for success as you discover the 10 things you should know about your subject before you photograph him. See where you should be positioning your camera to capture the most impactful images and what treats work best for food-motivated dogs. Discover how to get and keep a dog’s attention and see the fun and lively images captured with a wide-angle lens.

Natural Light Outdoors

Explore what types of backgrounds — sky, grass, woods — work with which types of dogs, depending on the color of their fur. Play with focus as Anthony gives you tips for using depth of field in effective ways. Then, tackle the tricky exposure considerations you’ll need to assess when photographing animals. See how light bounces off canine faces and fur and learn how to position your subject to maximize natural light. Finally, learn to incorporate flash outdoors when you need just a bit of fill light to draw out the best in your photos.

Indoor Light & Flash

Move indoors to capture your pup in his home environment. Learn where the best light in the house is and how natural light can convey different moods in your photos. Determine when you’ll need to add the light of a flash or other light source, and how to cut down on the white balance confusion that can occur when you combine multiple light sources. Anthony shares the most common compositional and exposure pitfalls that await you indoors and offers simple solutions.

Composition & Style

Fido takes center stage in this lesson devoted to composition. Anthony details his own compositional style and shares his top tips for creating dynamic images. Witness how the rule of thirds works with dogs and discover how important headroom is when your subject is charging out of the frame. Play with leading lines and detail shots. Then, throw out all of the rules and see what amazing images you get!

Capturing Action

Have subjects who love to be on the go? Learn what lenses work best for capturing them in midstride and how the longer focal length of a zoom lens will affect your photos and keep you out of harm’s way. Anthony takes you through a detailed explanation of how to set up your camera to best record all of the action. Then, head outdoors and gather tips for composing a moving target.

Post-Processing

Harness the power of post-processing software to tackle specific issues that come with canine subjects. Find out how to adjust tones and colors to get fur that looks black, not blue. Learn several different methods for removing leashes or other unwanted elements of your photos. Finally, see how composite images can create fun and creative action photos.