Dog Photo School - #1 Get Down To Your Dog's Level

Whether your aim is to take cute photos of your dog or illustrate a book about dog breeds, an understanding of the fundamentals of photography and canine psychology will help you achieve great results.
Dog Photo School is the place to come to get tips and techniques to help improve your dog photography. With a little knowledge, planning and patience anyone can produce a professional looking portrait of their dog to be proud of.
In this series of tutorials I will be covering subjects such as posing, lighting, composition and equipment.
I welcome your feedback and would love to hear of any topics you would like me to cover.
Good luck with your dog photography and remember to keep it fun for you and your dog!

Today I would like to share probably the most important yet easily overlooked factor that will improve your dog photography.

Get Down To The Dog's Level

The view point you choose to photograph your dog from has a great bearing upon how your final picture will look. Too high an angle will mean you have a great view of the top of his head and back but will not show a realistic representation of the dog's physical form or character. You wouldn't photograph your child from the top of a ladder after all.
Subject's photographed from a high angle tend to look submissive, so if your dog is a proud and imposing German Shepherd a photo taken looking down on him would not do his character justice. There are many situations where it can be appropriate to take a dog's photo from an elevated view, but if your intention is to take a full stance shot of your dog without distortion or exaggeration you must get your camera lens down to the dog's level. Professional dog photographers call photos taken from above the subject "aerial shots".

There are a few options you can take in order to be at the dog's level, the obvious one is to get down on your knees. This is the most common approach but it does have it's pitfalls, muddy ground if you are in a field, wet patches on the beach, intense pain on concrete, vulnerability to attack if you are photographing an unfamiliar nervous animal.
Lots of people suffer with their knees and back so it is impractical to take the kneeling route,so I would recommend that the best alternative is to elevate your subject on a small hill or bench if you can find one or put them on a table if you are taking the picture in doors of a medium to small dog.
A dog grooming table is best for this as they are designed to stop the dog from slipping and can be covered with a suitably coloured cloth to make it look a bit more photogenic. Another advantage of using a table is that it allows you to sit comfortably on a chair whilst taking the pictures, which puts you in a more relaxed frame of mind. It is important to be calm and relaxed you are during a photo shoot, as you will find it easier to stay focused on the job in hand.