hey guys great to have you back if you haven't already please press the
subscribe button and click on the Bell icon the Bell icon will help you out
it today I'm gonna make a slightly different kind of video I'm going to be
giving you 10 tips to take better pictures of dogs
this video will cover
quite a lot of information that is relevant whatever you shoot with so
whether that's iPhone a mirrorless camera or a DSLR there are however three
parts of this video 3 tips which are focused 100% on DSLR photography I will
make those very clear if you want to skip ahead to the information which is
relevant for anything else please go to the timestamp on the screen now I'm so
grateful to be sharing this with you all this is a very quick run-through of
everything that I think is the absolute fundamental most important part of
taking good pictures of dogs if you shoot something else great good
for you but this is about dogs this video we are going to go outside I will
show you how to do some of these things but it is quite windy today so I don't
really want to be taking the audio outside because of that I'm gonna be
basically introducing each of the points in here and then I will intersperse
clips from one we went outside to illustrate the points in this situation
I'm just looking out the window right now and we have got beautiful blue skies
with some cloud but it's very thin cloud the chances are when we go out outside
and I'm gonna shoot all of the bits of these clips the light is gonna be quite
harsh this is not ideal but I just want to illustrate the points we are on
coronavirus lockdown trying to be responsible so we are socially
distancing and we are isolating got a lovely big back garden so we're just
going to go out and shoot there ideally you want to shoot in places that are
more beautiful more picturesque than the garden that we have but we work with
what we've got and we try and do the best for everybody if you have any
questions please drop them down but in the comments box or just put anything
there because I appreciate all of the comments I read every single one and I
usually reply to them so we're going to start with the DSLR specific points
because I think once we get them out of the way it will make everything else a
bit easier if you know me you know that I shoot Nikon I did used to shoot Sony
and before that I shot Olympus is that even a thing anymore
so if I use words and phrases in this section that you don't understand the
chances I'm interchanging them between the different makes just stick with me
okay so the first point on the DSLR tips on the first point of our top 10 is that
you need to have your camera settings set up with test shots done before you
introduce a dog to that situation this is so important and I think loads of
people don't do this and they start doing testing the settings and changing
things when they've got their subject already set up and in the frame this is
a bad plan for so many different reasons but the main reason for it being a bad
plan is that dogs don't have a massively long attention span so you need to be
able to get in get out get the job done if you're sat there fannying around for
want of a better expression sorry whilst you've got the dog sat there it's
gonna be bored it's gonna lose interest straight away and it won't
particularly want to help you out with your pictures so you want to make sure
that your exposures right with your exposure triangle your settings are
right for the point of the purpose of the shoot that you're taking whether
that is action portrait or whatever it might be and you also want to make sure
that you are shooting in RAW if thats your choice you also want to make sure
that you've taken your test shots before you bring your dog into the situation
you could use anything I sometimes use a toy if I've got a toy handy in studio I
used to use a stuffed bear because it was just easier to do but yeah don't do
anything where the dog is concerned until you are hundred percent set up
that is tip number one tip number two is all about picking the right lens for the
job as you can see here at the moment apparently got on a sigma 24 to 70 2.8
zoom lens now depending on what your take is and what you actually are trying
to achieve your lens is gonna make quite a big difference it also depends where
you're shooting how much space you've got and how distracting the background
is I'm going to show you the difference between the different focal lengths in
terms of focal length distortion and also the focal length
background compression both of those two things are very important to have in the
back of your mind before you shoot when you are using a wider lens for example a
24mm on a full-frame camera what you will see is quite a lot of the
external space to either side of the dog the subject is also slightly distorted
so everything looks a little bit longer and spread out bit warp-ey as you move
further through the focal length ranges we're just going to stop it 200 but you
could go all the way up if you've got that kind of glass available as you go
up through them the background becomes compressed the field of view becomes
narrower and in actual fact your subject is also compressed a bit this can be
extremely flattering mainly if you're shooting a larger animals such as horses
it makes all of their different proportions just seem better so that's a
really good tip you need to know which lens you're going to use before you
start to shoot are you with me okay that was tip to the 3rd DSLR point to note is
the one that I'm gonna pick up right at the end so I'm going to leave it there
for now we're gonna move into general photography tips so tip number three is
probably the most important when it comes to shooting dogs and for this one
you want to get down to the eye level of the subject if your subject is a Great
Dane eye level will probably you just be knelt on the floor if you are shooting a
chihuahua yep you're going to be lying down the vast majority of the photo
shoots I do I am sat or lying completely on the
floor and that's because you get a far better impact with your shots when you
are shooting at the subjects I level bear this in mind and make sure as you
can see everything looks a little bit snap shot when you take it from above
but as soon as you get down to their level the world becomes quite real and
actually the pictures are ten times better
tip number four is to analyze your backgrounds this is something that is so
so so important and I've taught my students this from day one essentially I
call it background analysis and you want to be scanning the horizon the
background for things that could be distracting this includes the standard
things that other people mention for example telegraph poles coming out of
dogs heads you just kind of want to avoid that but it also includes
different things as well for example color so if you've got a red
poo bin in the background of your shot your eye will be drawn there
almost immediately and that's because red is one of the most attractive colors
to our eyes contrastingly if there's something bright and white in the
background of the shot that's also going to grab your eyes because what I was
lightest you look at first and finally if you were in a situation where you
cannot control your background revert back to choosing the right lens for the
job and how form which limits the amount of background in the shot and similarly
you want to be trying to blur that background out as much as you possibly
can that's another important point and finally just move if it's not working
just move to somewhere else tip number five is attention attention is super
important especially when it comes to working with dogs you may have a dog
which you have trained attention in which case like Alfie for example he
will constantly focus on a tennis ball if it's another toy he won't always look
at it but if it's a tennis ball he knows wherever that goes his eyes will follow
that's a really great tip to have and a great trick to Train but if you do not
have a dog that does that you want to be focusing on getting the attention at the
right time your attention could be wrestling packets it could be treats it
could be toys it could be squeaky toys I always like
the Kong squeaky balls or it could be animal noises so I do different vocal
noises I also have used apps in the past to gain attention with dogs that don't
respond to my usual cues which usually are squeakers toys or food remember that
this is a situation where you need to pay the dog for their attention they are
essentially a working model on a shoot and you need to think of it like that as
soon as they've done something that you would like you need to reward that so
give them the toy give them the ball as the shoot goes on you can extend the
amount of time between giving them the reward but keep giving those rewards
reasonably regularly tip number six is composition in camera now I've already
done a full-blown composition video if you haven't seen that you want to go
ahead and watch that now I'll link it at pair above open it in a new tab so you
can finish this video before you start that one and you're going to want to go
ahead and have a look at that ideally the things that I mentioned in that
video you want to try and achieve in camera whilst you're taking this
photograph so if you've got your eye level done your background clear
you've got your attention off the subject everything's set up perfect and all
you need now is to make sure that the composition is correct
knowing the theory behind composition will help you out so much tip number
seven is to get the eye in focus so this is probably one of no no whoa this is
the most important thing you cannot and will not ever take a good picture of a
dog if that dog is not in focus but it's more important that the focus is on the
closest eye now what do I mean by that essentially find sat like this this eye
needs to be the sharpest point of focus it doesn't matter so much if this is
slightly soft however if this was the sharpest point of focus and this was
slightly soft picture wouldn't look right so make sure you've got the right focus
in the right place if you are on a DSLR camera or a mirrorless you want to go
ahead and choose the focus setting that allows you to have the most control over
the point of focus in this case on a Nikon you're wanting to use single point
focus which essentially gives you a small square that you can move around
the frame tip number eight Oh tip number eight is to well you know I forgot it
tip number eight is what's your light so as you guys know I like to control light
because I'm a control freak and I'm not ashamed of that you do want to have some
element of control over the light that you're working with do not if you can
help it shoot indirect full sunlight and if you can help it also don't shoot when
it's too dark because these two things will ruin your photographs
ideally nice soft light either diffused cloud or golden hour shooting at Golden
Hour is perfect tip number nine is don't hang about and again this comes back to
attention do not ask your dog to do things again and again and again for a
prolonged period of time dogs are like very small children and they get bored
extremely easily as soon as your dog has switched off that's it game over don't
keep trying don't push it because you won't get the
results that you want to get instead leave it for another day this is why you
want to get fully set up before you go out because that means that you have to
keep the dog with you for as little amount of time as possible and by with
you I don't mean under control I mean focused on the job at hand that
is being a model for your photographs dogs do not ask
they do not believe that it's part of their daily job but you can train a dog
to be a model I've done it Alfie is a very experienced dog model he
is the dog that we'll be using for most of the clips in this video and he is
very well trained for photography however even he has a
limit it is larger than the vast majority of dogs I've ever worked with
but even he has a limit and I don't push it as soon as he's decided time's up
time's up we keep it fun we keep entertaining and we keep it things
moving quickly we don't take too long to take any shot we just get it and get out
that's the importance of knowing your camera knowing your kit and having your
settings ground and finally tip number 10 which comes back background to our
DSLR ones is learn how to edit your photographs please guys some of you are
taking the most incredible photographs and with just a little tiny bit of a
tweak they could be sensational and I mean this I really do you guys are so
talented I've seen some of your work you guys share it with me either in the
Facebook group or direct via email and I really like to see it but often the
editing is just a tiny bit off I'm not professing that my images are perfect by
any stretch of the imagination I don't think that my images are the best in the
world but I'm confident in my editing skill and if I can I will always enhance
an image in post-production and the reason for this is quite simple
essentially if you want to be paid as a photographer you need to be consistently
producing work that the general public cannot produce themselves unfortunately
in the last 20 years there's been massive advances in publicly available
affordable technology when it comes to photography we might have the very
expensive cameras but a picture coming out of that specially as a raw file is
flat and boring even if everything else is perfect giving at that last final
touch in post-production makes all of the difference
so please do learn and try to edit your pictures in the best way that you can if
you do all of the things that I've mentioned in this video your pictures
will go from 0 to 100 so quickly so quickly and this is a kind of stuff that
I was teaching people on a daily basis it's back when I actually taught
photography in real life with real people I don't do that anymore
and that's fine but if I can help you guys by sharing this information then
none is brilliant I've already said it please subscribe click the bell icon
turn on those notifications and help me grow this channel to help as many other
people as possible it doesn't matter where you are in your journey it doesn't
matter if you are just taking pictures on your phone everybody starts somewhere
went through them really quickly I'm really sorry for how quickly we did
try and get through those I just didn't want this video to be ridiculously long
thank you so much for sticking with me and I really appreciate you everything
that you do and I hope that you appreciate me as well if you don't
that's okay I'll be okay with that I'll see you again soon probably next week