Behind the Lens: The Puppy Portraits
In my new blog series entitled “Behind the Lens:” I will share some outtake-style images and shooting details for a specific photoshoot.
Alright, let’s dive in to my two recent puppy sessions!
In mid-May I showed up to a lovely residential location with a ton of gear bags in tow and immediately noticed that a house full of Goldens = A HOUSE FULL OF DOG HAIR! Haha! Like a lovely snow globe. But the wet nose kisses greeting me made up for that quickly.
So much personality. Mr. Blue was NOT wanting to play along and Mr. Green said, “I’m outta here!”
Once I got my lights out I started to meter and figure out where the best places to work might be. For the five-weeks-old photoshoot I actually went into the family room and used a blue sofa in a room that had almost no natural light as it was late in the afternoon/evening. I set my strobe to camera left and had the light pass in front of the sofa (feathering the light). This is similar to standing near a window but where the light is all in front of you, not directly on you.
For their individual portraits, we decided to place the puppies in baskets for visual interest. At five-weeks-old they were rather rag doll like and slumped rather than sitting up with strength. Much like with infant photography where they are placed in things to prop them and look cute, I used that idea here also with the puppies.
The puppies were just old enough to want to spill out of the baskets and explore around them. To capture their attention we used a variety of dog toys, high pitched trills, clanky keys, etc. For the most part, the puppies didn’t care…lol!
Once I photographed the individual puppies I then used the puppy wranglers to help line all seven up on the sofa. This was a little challenging at five weeks, but got to be VERY challenging at seven-weeks-old! By then they were all over the place with energy, strength, and curiosity. To capture their attention at that age we discovered that pounding on the piano worked GREAT!
Did you think getting the group photos was fast and easy? Seven curious personalities made for some fun antics while photographing!
When I came back for the seven-weeks-old photoshoot I did the same as the previous session, but the difference for this shoot was choosing to shoot in the living room which was on the opposite side of the house. There was much more natural light coming through the window, but it was also much earlier in the day than when I photographed them previously. I like the contrast of the two sessions. By the later session the puppies are awake, energized, light and bright in their personalities. In the earlier shoot they were young and sleepy, so the darker snoozy atmosphere complemented that feeling.
Pullback of lighting setup. With proper lighting and intentional framing of a photograph, any location can become a “studio” setup.
I used two lights for the second shoot. I wanted full control of color of the overall light and its intensity, so I aimed one light straight at the window to bounce added light off the window and onto my little furry subjects as a hair light. My second light was set 45 degrees to my camera right and was used to light the room space evenly, provide a consistent color to each portrait and fill the shadows. Using my strobes lended itself to the feel of a well-lit daylight space but without too much backlighting overpowering the scene. So if you had previously thought that artificial flash is too “flashy” it’s all about learning how to set it and the camera so that it looks natural, but with more control over the end result.
The puppies were being puppies and we enjoyed playing with them in between takes. I took my time and went at their speeed—which included a potty break, food breaks, and a few nap breaks! But in the end we ended up with some really fun images for the breeder to use for marketing these cuties.
After much repositioning of moving puppies we got a few really fun group images and here is one of them.
Using strobe lights I have nice catch lights in the puppies eyes.
Let me know if you like this series showing the work behind the scenes to capture the photographs. Let me know in the comments.
Until next time,
-xo Trisha
