How to Take a Great Photograph of Your Pet for a Portrait

How to Take a Great Photograph of Your Pet for a Portrait

If you'll look at the photos below, it's rather obvious which one is better, or is it? In the first shot, Victor is looking straight at the camera, which puts his face into a shadow. This type of photograph can be a good one to paint, but when compared with the second picture, there are so significant differences. See below.

When Victor's head is turned to the left, this allows for light to shine through his eye lens, creating a more glowing/reflective brilliance. The photo above, even if it were lightened professionally, still leaves a rather flat shape to the face and eyes. Yes, the fang could be fixed, but with the photo below, our needs are met.

This photo of Victor allows the fang protrusion to give the illusion of a soft mouth, slightly opened. Yay, fates! (Will discuss that next week.) The three-quarter position of the head shows multiple planes of his three dimensional head, as opposed to the top pic, which has little planar differientation because of the straight on shot. The second shot allows the bright whites of his whiskers to cut across the darkest browns diagonally, which is always a graphic, or eye-drawing effect. We have lots more "grey tones" or middle values of white, orange, yellow, and some reds. The focus is soft because we had taken a many photos and varied his positions and our angles.