I’ve never given any shelter dogs treats while photographing them. We walk them away from the building where it’s a bit quieter and calmer (rural area) and I shoot from maybe 15ft away. I’ve taken great photos of them that show their natural relaxed body. Most I have photographed were adopted within a few days after updating their photos 🥰
Awesome tips! I am starting tomorrow at my shelter. I bought treats, peanut butter, and a few bandanas to stage them. I won’t have a backdrop, but I’m bringing solid colored blankets to put in a chair. I hope I can help some puppers get adopted.
I recently learnt about pet photography as a career and this video has been immensely helpful. Looking forward to putting these tips to use since I'm currently working with an animal shelter to help with their online presence. Thank you so much!
This video is super helpful especially when you just started pet photography. It save you a lot of time on researching studio lighting and gear. Thank you Westcott and Adam!
Excellent video! I am new to photography and I want to do shelter dogs and end of life, I have an canon m50, 50mm prime, 10-18mm , godox flash and studio kit. Looking at 24mm as the crop sensor is bit pain with 50mm. I will be following your channel any advice on other gear I might need advice appreciated
Great video, thank you! Would continuous lighting be better, particularly for anxious pets? Or do you need the power of the strobes? Would love to know. Thanks.
Adam mentioned that strobes do not typically scare the pets but it is all subjective to how they react to the environment. This is a common question for pet photographers and is at the end of the day your preference. If you want to mainly work with our flashes and not constant light all the time, you can use the modeling light on the pets if the situation arises for an anxious fur baby!
Thanks for the videos! May I ask what Aperture are you usually using for dogs? And I see some images where the background is either entirely black or has a bit of circular lighting in the center of the background behind the dog. Is that just a continuous light pointed at the background, or it is fall off from the main light? And how would you get the entirely black background, would you just put the dog a good distance in ahead of the backdrop and then make sure the light source is only strong enough to really get the subject? Or are you darkening it in post? I appreciate the help!
I have really enjoyed this video, both entertaining and educational. I am a sport photographer for my community high schools but this is something I might like to do or at least give it a try. I wonder if this is something you do as a community service or does this somehow work into a revenue stream? Thanks, Ted in Sebastian, Fl.
Bonjour . Félicitation et merci pour vos conseils sur la prise photo en refuge. Dans la vidéo, vous mettez en studio, le wescott 200 en face du sujet et 2 wescott 400 sur les cotés. je pensais qu'il fallait mettre devant le flash le plus puissant. ? Pourriez vous me renseigner . Merci --- Hello . Congratulations and thank you for your advice on taking a photo in a refuge. In the video, you put in the studio, the wescott 200 in front of the subject and 2 wescott 400 on the sides. I thought it was necessary to put in front of the most powerful flash. ? Could you tell me . Thank you
Thanks for watching Dominique! Adam normally uses the FJ400 as a key light, but wanted to show that you don't need that much power for indoor portraits so he opted for the smaller FJ200 as his key-light.
Hi this video was great! It inspired me to do volunteer work at my loca human society. My problem is when i asked, they told me through email not to use the images for my online portfolio or my business, even just to show my philanthropic work. I'm in Colorado, and I'm trying to figure out the laws for this, because this doesn't seem right or fair to me. How did you navigate this?
Oh no! Sorry to hear that Shayla - different shelters may have different restrictions and guidelines but we'll pass this along to Adam in case he doesn't catch your comment and see if he has any experience with this.
We have come across this before, but the shelter may have been burned in the past somehow. If having them for your portfolio is important, you may want to look at another organization as there are plenty out there that could use the help.
Adam is the best! Can't wait to watch 😁
Thanks so much Eli!
This is the best video on taking photos of shelter animals ever. Thank you so much!
Wow! Thank you so much!
I’ve never given any shelter dogs treats while photographing them. We walk them away from the building where it’s a bit quieter and calmer (rural area) and I shoot from maybe 15ft away. I’ve taken great photos of them that show their natural relaxed body. Most I have photographed were adopted within a few days after updating their photos 🥰
Awesome tips! I am starting tomorrow at my shelter. I bought treats, peanut butter, and a few bandanas to stage them. I won’t have a backdrop, but I’m bringing solid colored blankets to put in a chair. I hope I can help some puppers get adopted.
That’s amazing, we love to hear that!
Thank you for sharing theses tips. And to help theses animals getting out of the shelter.
Great video! I'm not a professional. I'm going to start photographing pets from a shelter in my city. It's a small town in Brazil. Thanks for help!
Just loved this video!! Adam you are so warm and talented! Thanks for sharing, and thanks to Westcott for sharing such great tips!
I recently learnt about pet photography as a career and this video has been immensely helpful. Looking forward to putting these tips to use since I'm currently working with an animal shelter to help with their online presence. Thank you so much!
This video is super helpful especially when you just started pet photography. It save you a lot of time on researching studio lighting and gear. Thank you Westcott and Adam!
So glad you found this useful!!
Thank you!
Great video!! 😊
Thanks for watching!
Excellent video! I am new to photography and I want to do shelter dogs and end of life, I have an canon m50, 50mm prime, 10-18mm , godox flash and studio kit. Looking at 24mm as the crop sensor is bit pain with 50mm. I will be following your channel any advice on other gear I might need advice appreciated
Great video, thank you! Would continuous lighting be better, particularly for anxious pets? Or do you need the power of the strobes? Would love to know. Thanks.
Adam mentioned that strobes do not typically scare the pets but it is all subjective to how they react to the environment. This is a common question for pet photographers and is at the end of the day your preference. If you want to mainly work with our flashes and not constant light all the time, you can use the modeling light on the pets if the situation arises for an anxious fur baby!
Thanks for the videos! May I ask what Aperture are you usually using for dogs? And I see some images where the background is either entirely black or has a bit of circular lighting in the center of the background behind the dog. Is that just a continuous light pointed at the background, or it is fall off from the main light? And how would you get the entirely black background, would you just put the dog a good distance in ahead of the backdrop and then make sure the light source is only strong enough to really get the subject? Or are you darkening it in post?
I appreciate the help!
Damn make me want to go to my local animal shelter and get some business
I have really enjoyed this video, both entertaining and educational. I am a sport photographer for my community high schools but this is something I might like to do or at least give it a try. I wonder if this is something you do as a community service or does this somehow work into a revenue stream? Thanks, Ted in Sebastian, Fl.
Do you have any links to purchase the light stand Adam is using?
How do you go about photo release forms for a shelter? Im wanting to make sure i cover all bases!
Bonjour . Félicitation et merci pour vos conseils sur la prise photo en refuge. Dans la vidéo, vous mettez en studio, le wescott 200 en face du sujet et 2 wescott 400 sur les cotés. je pensais qu'il fallait mettre devant le flash le plus puissant. ? Pourriez vous me renseigner . Merci ---
Hello . Congratulations and thank you for your advice on taking a photo in a refuge. In the video, you put in the studio, the wescott 200 in front of the subject and 2 wescott 400 on the sides. I thought it was necessary to put in front of the most powerful flash. ? Could you tell me . Thank you
Thanks for watching Dominique! Adam normally uses the FJ400 as a key light, but wanted to show that you don't need that much power for indoor portraits so he opted for the smaller FJ200 as his key-light.
How do you capture the shots so fast? What are your focus settings? :)
I know Adam utilizes the Animal Eye AF settings on the Canon R5. It definitely helps a lot when capturing our fast fluffy friends!
Hi this video was great! It inspired me to do volunteer work at my loca human society. My problem is when i asked, they told me through email not to use the images for my online portfolio or my business, even just to show my philanthropic work. I'm in Colorado, and I'm trying to figure out the laws for this, because this doesn't seem right or fair to me. How did you navigate this?
Oh no! Sorry to hear that Shayla - different shelters may have different restrictions and guidelines but we'll pass this along to Adam in case he doesn't catch your comment and see if he has any experience with this.
We have come across this before, but the shelter may have been burned in the past somehow. If having them for your portfolio is important, you may want to look at another organization as there are plenty out there that could use the help.