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How to Take Digital Pictures of Pets

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Taking digital pictures of your pets can be a challenge, but worth it in the long run. While this how-to assumes you want to take a picture of your dog or cat, most of what is described below can be applied to other types of pets as well.


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    Find a time when your pet is most relaxed. If you know your dog is hyper right after eating, then it is best not to take the picture at that time. The hardest part about taking pictures of dogs or cats is getting them to sit still long enough to take the picture.
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    Get down on your knees or in the prone position. A good picture of pets will be from the pet's eye level, not yours with the pet looking up at you. (This also applies to small children.)
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    If your camera has a "sports" mode, turn it on. This might be needed for a happy-go-lucky pet that wants to keep moving around. Setting your camera to sports mode does two things. 1. It uses a faster shutter speed to "freeze" the subject. If your pet is moving around, a slow shutter speed might leave you with a blurry picture. 2. It will use a special focusing system that constantly adjusts the focus of the camera. Without this, the camera focuses once and locks that way. If your focus is locked on your pet and he or she moves, you might end up with out of focus pictures.
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    Once you have your digital picture, you need a print to hang up on the wall. If you have a inkjet printer, then you can easily make the prints yourself using the digital camera software. Otherwise use an online photo service such as Mpix, shutterfly, Snapfish or oFoto to buy prints of your digital pictures. Follow the instructions on the websites for uploading and ordering prints. Online photo labs like www.mpix.comare pretty cheap, with prices starting at .29 cents for 4x6 prints. They also offer different types of paper such as matte, glossy, and metallic.

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  • Bribe them with food, toys, etc. They will be more motivated to do something if they will be getting something out of it.
  • Take pictures of your pet in his/her natural surroundings. If your cat spends all his/her time sitting on the couch, then that is the best place to take the photo. If your dog spends all his/her time in the yard, then that is the best place to take the photo.
  • Take pictures of your pet/s doing their natural stuff. Or when they do something funny, quickly capture the moment, think of a caption too. For example, these two pictures captions would be, "This is the life." :

Things You'll Need

  • A digital camera. ANY camera will work. It doesn't matter if it's a cheap, $99 Barbie digital camera, or a $1500 DSLR. Obviously, more advanced cameras will be less limiting to the one taking the picture.

Article Info

Categories: Animal Photography | Digital Photography

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