Hi, everyone. My name is Jahmyra, or you can call me Myra.
I'm a Creative Pro at the Apple Store in the Brickell City Centre in Miami, Florida.
And welcome to Creative Projects.
[DRUM AND BASS GROOVE]
Today, we'll be learning how to take an expressive pet portrait on iPhone
with artist and photographer Sophie Gamand.
Sophie gives her time and talent to animal rescues around the world.
You might recognize her acclaimed series Pit Bull Flower Power,
which has led to hundreds of dogs finding their forever homes.
I love how expressive her portraits are.
I'm going to need Sophie to teach me some cool techniques
for photographing animals that are almost always on the move.
I'm so excited for you all to meet Sophie. Let's chat with her now.
Hi, Sophie! It is so nice to meet you! But who is on your lap?
Please introduce him.
Hi, Myra. This is MacLovin, my son.
Hi, MacLovin! Your son.
I can see the resemblance.
This is Winston. He's going to do his own thing.
- He's going to be walking around, living his best life. - Aw, sweet!
I am exploring how to try to take expressive pet portraits just like you.
Do you have any tips for me?
The biggest tip of all is to get to their level, so you really want to capture that expression.
And you want their eyes to be meeting your eyes, when you look at the photo.
You don't want to be above them.
And then, the second big advice would be to tune into their energy,
and check in with them, and see, are they shy?
Are they excited?
This whole conversation has got me inspired and I think we should go outside
and try taking some photos of some puppies with these new tips.
- What do you think? - Yes, I have the perfect place.
Its Soul Dog Rescue Adoption Center.
They have a lot of cats and dogs waiting for adopters.
So, I'm going to try and work some magic, and maybe get someone adopted.
What better way to spend the day, honestly?
Let's just go explore, take some cute photos of the puppies.
Yes! Are we saying yes, Mac?
[LAUGHTER]
- Mac says yes. - Thanks, Sophie. I'll see you later.
Bye, MacLovin!
[UPBEAT JAM]
With the help of our iPhone, we're going to take portraits of these doggies,
and help them shine, bring their personality out, so we can connect them with adopters.
First off, we're going to get on the animal's level. And then, we're going to tune into their energy.
I'm thinking about using features on the Camera app,
like Portrait mode, Photo mode, maybe some Live Photo, using the Grid for composition.
We have so many things to try. So many things to try, so let's just get started.
[LATIN TRUMPET LOOP]
This is Marilyn and she's a senior doggy.
So, she's one of the longest residents here at the shelter.
When I work at the shelter,
I like to keep the background really simple for the doggies,
because I really want their faces, and their expressions, and personality to shine.
So, the first thing I do is get to Marilyn's eye-level.
She has short legs, so we're going to go really, really low on this one!
I'm using the Portrait mode. Just tap the little F button in the top right corner.
And then, there's a slider that appears here.
This is going to adjust the depth of field of my photos.
And we can focus on, for example, just her eyes, her beautiful soulful eyes or her face.
Once the dog is in position, you want to use your trick,
like sounds, you're going to move that treat around, and capture, and just snap, snap, snap.
Good girl! Look over here!
Make sure you reward your model.
That's a good girl.
That's it. Oh, my gosh!
[MELLOW AMBIENT MUSIC]
Yes!
Okay, so Maple looks amazing! And I'm definitely going to get a few shots in here.
But I have something that I think might help make this even more interesting.
So, I'm going to go into my Camera settings, and I'm going to turn on the Grid.
And what the gridlines help me do is, I can either position Maple right in the center,
or I can position her off to the right, or the left.
You can split your photo up into three different parts, horizontally or vertically.
You might get a really interesting shot.
Now, another tip would be to actually place the focal point of the photo,
which here is Maple's head, right where the lines cross.
What you might want to also do is lock the focus on that spot,
so that it doesn't get blurry.
Now, what I'm going to do is tap and hold the screen until I see AE/AF Lock.
While you're there, you can also drag the sun upwards for more light,
or drag it downwards for less light.
And that makes for a really dramatic shot.
[LATIN TRUMPET LOOP]
One thing I really love about taking portraits of sheltered dogs is to Zoom in,
and do, basically, a headshot.
It's more about the expression, the eyes, the smile, and I love that.
Doggies are so expressive, so we want to have fun with that.
A great feature about the Portrait mode is that you can Zoom in 2.5,
and that gives you a perfect headshot.
Look at this. Marilyn, look!
Good girl! Good girl!
That's a good girl!
Look at those eyes!
If this doesn't get an adopter, I don't know what will.
[LATIN PIANO WITH A BEAT]
Sophie's advice was to tune into the animal's energy.
[MUSIC STOPS]
That's me tuning in.
This is Beans. He's super energetic, super fun. [MUSIC RESTARTS]
And I already have a few features that I think will be perfect
for capturing all his movement.
So, why don't we start with prioritizing faster shooting?
And it's super easy to turn on.
I'm going to go onto my Settings, scroll down to Camera, and it's in a nice switch for me.
I'm just going to turn on Prioritize Faster Shooting.
And let's do it.
I can move a lot faster around Beans, and capture all his fun, little quirks.
Look at those ears!
Maybe even switching to Portrait mode just for fun, because those ears I cannot resist.
Good boy!
And then, you pause for some love and let him know he did a good job.
Sit.
And Fuzz here has a wonderful energy.
I love that about him.
But it makes capturing photos really difficult!
So, what I'm using is Live Photo.
And this is actually my favorite option.
One thing I really love about Live Photo, you can turn this into videos or GIFs later on.
And it's great for social media,
and it's awesome for capturing the personality of doggies like Fuzz.
[UPBEAT MUSIC]
Sophie! How are you?
How was your day taking pictures of puppies all day?
Wow, it was an intense day. The doggies did amazing.
Man, I took so many pictures.
Yeah, you were, like, "Click-click-click!"
Yeah, I couldn't stop.
So, I'm curious,
how do you go through and pick some of your favorite shots?
[SOPHIE GAMAND] So, I got, actually, a lot of really cute, awesome candidates.
I was trying to narrow it down here, and I think I have one that has a lot of potential.
It was a doggy named Philomena. She was very, very loving.
She kept wanting to come to me and give me snuggles.
And I captured something on Live Photo,
which I think is going to make a great Bounce and a GIF.
So, I'm going to start by just swiping up, and turning this Live Photo into a Bounce.
This one is actually kind of amazing.
She's wagging her tail in the background, so the Bounce really captures that movement.
Oh, this is so cool!
There's another great way of using GIFs,
and that's really awesome when you're trying to get a dog adopted.
And that's basically to combine a bunch of different photos into one GIF.
So, I'm going to go to the Shortcuts app. Tap the action that's called Convert Photos to GIF.
So, I'm going to choose portraits that are almost framed similarly.
Mouth closed, tilt of the head, big smile.
And then, I'm going to combine them. Let's see what happens.
With one GIF, you can show potential adopters, here's a doggy that has all these emotions.
She has so much love in her eyes, and then she smiles, and then she's serious, tilts her head.
It gives you a real capsule of what that dog is like.
[JAHMYRA] Ooh, yes. I love that.
Don't forget, tap Save Image, so you can find it in your Camera Roll.
You can also share it right from here using Messages, Mail, and my personal favorite, AirDrop.
[LATIN PIANO WITH BEAT] I also have another tip with Portrait mode
that I think will really help bring out the personality of Beans.
So, I'm actually going to go into Edit.
And at the bottom of my screen, under this cool 3D cube,
it gives me different options for Portrait Lighting.
If I take it all the way to the end, I get this feature called High-Key Light Mono,
which makes the background all white, and really puts Beans in the center of this.
- Yes! - You go, beans!
- So much personality in such a small package. -Yay! I love yours, too!
My favorite part is seeing how you took the same feature, but used it in a different way.
- I think that's so fun. - Oh, yeah! [LAUGHS]
[MELLOW SYNTH MUSIC] So, actually, I have a little surprise for you.
Is it covered in chocolate?
At Soul Dog Rescue, I spent a little time with some kittens!
Oh!
[SOPHIE LAUGHS]
I'm obsessed.
- I am obsessed! - [SOPHIE LAUGHS]
The ears, the little eyes. Like, little paws.
Hoo! I'm so glad we got a cat in this!
[KITTEN MEOWS]
- Thank you so much for joining me on this journey, Sophie. - Thank you.
I've learned so much, not only about photography, but about animals, a bit about myself, and about you.
- So, thank you so much. - Thank you. It was such a pleasure.
[DRUM AND BASS GROOVE]
Today, we got lots of great tips from Sophie.
We learned the importance of getting on the pet's level.
We got awesome tips for tuning into the animal's energy to capture their expressive moments.
And finally, we let their personalities shine with extras,
like creating a GIF, Live Photo Bounce, and more.
There is no physical limit to the amount of pictures a person can enjoy.
So, please, share your amazing photos with us. And be sure to use the hashtag, #TodayatApple.
We want to see your furry, feathered and scaled companions.
If you're new to our Today at Apple family,
you can find Creatives and Creative Pros, just like me, at Apple stores around the globe.
We're here to show you how to take better photos, record your own movie,
get drawing again, make your own beats, or even write your first line of code.
So, join us. We'll be adding more episodes soon. And you can catch up on what you've missed.
So, be sure to subscribe or share this video with a friend.