5 Tips to take your Studio Dog Birthday Photo like a Pro!

Betty Jones’s 10th birthday, which means only one thing: cakesmash photoshoot!!

Today is your dog’s birthday! Isn’t it just exciting? This is the culmination of an entire year of love and fun. So, to celebrate this special day, you want to take the best photos of your dog with their birthday hat on. But how? Dogs are not known for cooperating much when it comes to photoshoots, so we understand if you feel a bit confused right now. Don’t worry; we are here to help you see things in a different light (quite literally!). Read on and find out all the tips you need to make the most of this cuteness-loaded occasion.

1.     Know your subject

The first thing you need to do is know your subject. This means that you need to understand the behaviour of the dog you’re shooting (not literally this time!) and their moods so that you can be prepared for anything. For example, your dog may not like wearing a hat or sitting still for long periods. Or maybe the dog gets tired after a few minutes of posing, so you need to be prepared to end the shoot before it gets stressful for both you and your dog. And if your dog is not a fan of the camera, you need to be aware of that so that you know how best to proceed with the shoot. We usually ask our client to arrive early to desensitize their dog to studio lights. Concretely, we’ll spend a little while reassuring and rewarding the dog, so they associate the lights with a positive experience.

2.     Get your equipment and props ready

Now that you know your subject a little better, it’s time to get your equipment and props ready. It can be a good idea to prep all that in advance too. One important thing to consider is where you will take the photos. In this post, we’ll focus on studio shots using studio lights,  but you can always take the photos outside using natural light if you want to. Back to our studio shots. All you need is a simple backdrop. You can use the wall, a homemade, hand-painted backdrop, or the furniture in the room. The sky is the limit. You can also use a tablecloth or a piece of fabric if that’s all you have. Here, we used a plain pink Colorama backdrop. Once you have your backdrop ready, you can start adding your props. We recommend that you do not over-complicate things by adding too many things in the photo. Sometimes, less is more, as they say.

3.     Take practice shots before jumping in

Taking practice shots is a great way to prepare for the actual shoot. Especially if, like us, you have to be ready for a client and have ordered a birthday cake for the occasion! By taking test shots beforehand, you can get a feel for the equipment and the pose that your dog rocks the most. We used a soft toy to act as the dog and our strobe’s modelling light to see where the light would fall and what aperture and shutter speed were best for this shoot. Once happy, lock in those numbers and you are ready to go!

4.     Tips for taking amazing photos

While taking photos, there are several things to keep in mind, such as composition, lighting, poses, amongst others!

Dogs aren’t natural posers, but hey, we aren’t either! Try placing your dog on a rug to add texture, or even on a couch or chair, always keeping their safety in mind. This way, you can easily adjust the height of your dog and take eye level or even some upward shots of your dog looking down at the camera.

If your dog is well-trained or knows basic commands, so much the better! This will make your shoot a lot easier. In this instance, Betty was quite fidgety, so we asked her owner, the wonderful Hollie to place and hold Betty. We then took empties (great term coined by the amazing and pet photographer legend Jessica McGovern at That Photography Spot) empties are essentially empty photos of the set (so, the background (and potential props) without the subject or without the owner in this instance. To keep the geekiness to a minimum, this then allowed us to photoshop Hollie’s arm out of the scene, by revealing the empty underneath.

Moving on to lighting. We usually keep the same lighting and camera settings throughout the shoot but feel free to change and experiment with those to achieve different results. You can play with light and shadow to add mood but usually, for a birthday shoot, we like to keep it light and bright!

Composition is also important to attract the viewer’s eye where you want it to go. Play around with basic composition rules to see what suits your pictures best (in the middle, rule of thirds, golden rule, etc.) and try using the grid on your camera as a reference, placing key parts (the dog’s eyes, for instance) on a line or crossing point in the grid.

5.     Be patient and reward your dog

We know that this might sound like a tall order, but it is important that you be patient when photographing your dog. If your dog is not cooperating, there are a couple of things you can do. One is that you can take a break for a few minutes and try again later. Alternatively, you can have someone else hold your dog while you take the photos. And if your dog is really not a fan of the photoshoot, try giving them a treat or a toy to reward them and create a positive association with taking pictures.

There you go! These were our 5 tips to take dog birthday photos like a pro!

Whatever you do, keep it light, make sure the dog is safe and the owner happy. And whether you are the owner or not, remember to have fun!