Fido Pictures, Yes You Can!

Running in the woods with all feet off the ground and as close to a grin as a dog can get. My dog Annie as I remember her. Then on a trip that would not normally be accompanied by a pet, Dixon goes to St. Louis. Walking around the Gateway Arch, I photographed him as my wife Tina held to the leash. More clicked than the camera and that is the experience that brings today's post.

So let’s make a good picture of your Fido. Plan and it can be easy to accomplish. Your lens selection needs to be telephoto. This, along with shooting with the lens as wide open as possible, will give you a background soft and defocused. At f2.8 or even f4 at 200mm, you will have a very limited depth of field with Fido sharp and the background very soft.

Take Fido for a walk and keep his leash taut and straight over his head. You can extend your arm and firm the connection to Fido. If your leash is thick consider using a thin rope for this project. When the photo is made be sure to loosen any visible tension so it appears natural. You or your helper will not be in the picture. The handler will also need to keep their shadow off of the subject and the background. You can position the camera low so the connection of leash to collar is hidden by the dog's head. Yes, on your knees or lower. Roll over and play dead while you're there. Your location needs to include simple backgrounds. Distant trees or simple patterns keep your post-processing easy. Lighting can be natural with the diffusion in the sky, also known as thin cloud coverage, or by working in the shadow near a wall or stand of trees. If this is the case try to eliminate direct light and work with the indirect light from the sky opposite the sun. So make your photo after making your plan. Now it’s on to PhotoShop.

Make your image choice and duplicate the background layer. The healing brush is your tool of choice. Make your source selection near the leash and slightly larger than the width of the leash so that as you brush over the leash you will supply a pattern that fills in the area without drawing attention to it. I use the normal mode setting. If you need something a bit more aggressive try the replace mode. It is more of an exact copy without the blending that “normal” has.

Questions?  Leave a note as a comment or go to TEKeez Discussion and let's talk.  TEKeez Discussion is at Flickr.com.