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Lighting Conditions

in Light on January 1, 2021 October 24, 2023 0 1,076 Views

The lighting conditions play a big part in your photo session. After all, EVERYTHING we do comes back to light!

It’s therefore important to have an understanding not only of whether the light is harsh or soft, or warm or cool, but also the type of lighting conditions you’re working with, and the direction of that light.

In this lesson we’ll be breaking down the different lighting conditions. In the Learning Journey, we delve into each condition in much more detail so you can really master using these different conditions.

Full Sun

Many photographers think when the sun is out and shining brightly that it’s the perfect time to go take photos. This may be true with action photos, lenses with narrow maximum apertures (high f/ number), or cameras that REALLY can’t deal with any kind of ISO…

But if you want pretty photos of your pet, full sun is unlikely to get you the results you want.

Profile:

middle of the day, harsh overhead light, cold/neutral temperature. Very strong and bright. Usually unflattering.
Sun at golden hour becomes softer and much warmer, and is more flattering than sun during the rest of the day.

It’s best to avoid shooting with full sun if you can.

If you’re on holidays and you have no choice, then of course go for it! Capture your memories! Just try and face the dog directly into the light to avoid crazy shadows and contrasts.

Overcast

The sun has gone behind clouds and many new photographers look outside and WISH they could be taking photos…

But they can!

Overcast is actually one of the BEST lighting conditions for taking photos!

Profile:

Soft, even, neutral/grey ambient light from the entire sky
Can be a bit more difficult with kit lenses or lenses with a narrow maximum aperture, as there is less light around
Can be a bit more difficult for action photos
Can be a bit “boring” if you’re including open sky in the photo
Can feel a bit “flat” and lacking contrast until edited.
For portraits, perfect!

Shade

If the sun is out, getting into some shade might be a great option to not have to deal with that harsh sunlight!

It can be a bit of a challenging situation to work with though!

Profile:

“Open shade” is for example next to a wall, under a roof, or under a large tree. Light from the sunny area bounces off the ground and illuminates the dog. Problem is, the background is usually EXTREMELY bright, which can distract from your subject
Shade in the woods can often be patchy and if those “hotspots” get on your dog, they are a big distraction and not that pretty. Dappled light looks a bit magical to us, but usually doesn’t come out very well in photos due to the extreme light difference between the sunny patches and shady areas.
Shade temperatures will be neutral to cool, with LOTS of colour casts bouncing off the ground, grass, bushes, trees, etc.
In the woods, it may be too dark for some lens/camera combos.

Golden Hour

The favourite lighting condition of MANY photographers. This is usually the hour or two just after dawn, and before sunset.

Profile:

The light temperature is rich and warm, and is how I get the warm orange/gold tones in the background of my photos.
it is much softer than during the rest of the day
you can use it to backlight the subject (with the sun behind them) for some cool effects and bokeh
may be difficult for some lens/camera combos due to the lower amount of available light
takes some skill to backlight the subject
can be weird to edit if the light is shining on the dog since there is so much colour in it, so the dog is the wrong colour!

Indoors & Artificial

Indoors, you have two options: use window light, or bring in some artificial light sources.

While our houses with medium-sized windows may appear bright, for a camera, they are usually very dark! Especially if you have a lens with a narrow maximum aperture.

Profile:

When using window light, avoid putting your subject in beams of sunlight unless you’re going for some special effect
Closer to the window = softer light
The bigger the window = the softer the light
If you do a lot of indoor photos you may want to investigate investing in a proper artificial lighting setup, for example continuous studio lights in softboxes
- using lamps and overhead lights can work… but overhead lighting often isn’t very flattering, and lamps and tungsten globes give off a lot of weird colours
- soft boxes with continuous lights allow you to keep the light on all the time, to see how bright it will be and get your settings where you want them
- bigger soft boxes = softer light
- closer to the dog = softer light
- a flash or strobe is another option, but this is not my style of photography, so we will not be diving into it at this stage, as I don’t think it’s really necessary to master in order to take lovely photos of your dog!

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Action Task: Light Detectives

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Types of Light

in Light on January 1, 2021 October 24, 2023 0 1,226 Views

Light Types of Light

There are a few different types of light we want to consider in our photography, as this will affect where we need to position our dogs, the type of mood or feeling we will get, and so on.

It is important to be aware of the lighting conditions, especially in situations where they are changing (from soft dawn light to more harsh daylight, shifting clouds and so on), so we can adjust as needed.

Strength

Light can be harsh – as seen in the middle of the day when the sun is out, or soft – as seen on overcast days beneath the cover of clouds.

For our purposes, we usually want to use soft light, as it is even and flattering, does not create any intense contrasts, and best showcases our subject

Harsh vs. Soft

Whether the light on the subject is light or soft depends on a few factors.

the size of the light-source For example, the flash on top of your camera is a relatively small light-source, compared to, eg., the sky! The smaller the light-source, the harsher the light.
- Harsh light sources could include: a bare flash, a small window.
- Soft light comes from larger light sources: large windows or open doors, a large softbox or light modifier, the open sky
the strength of the light-source. The stronger the light, the harsher it will be.
- Harsh light can come from: a strong flash, strong indoor studio lights, the sun, strong reflections off a building, etc.
- Soft light comes from filtered light, or indirect light, eg., light from the grey sky on an overcast day, light which passes through a modifier like a soft box, light in the open shade of a large tree, and so on.
how far away the light-source is.
- The further the light-source is, the harsher the light will be. (I know, this seems REALLY strange, but it’s true!). The best example here is the sun. How far away is the sun? A long way away. And its light is reeeaaalllyyyy harsh. Using window light far from the windows, or setting up a flash or modifier further from the subject will make the light harsher.
- The sky is relatively close to the subject, making soft light, placing them close to windows or a soft box with a flash or studio light will also make the light softer.

1. An old photo of my Aussie shepherd, taken in full midday sun. Although there are no harsh shadows or hotspots, there is still a very strong light, strong contrast, and harshness to the quality of the photo that I don’t love. Some people really like these stark contrasts, and if you do, that’s fine! But understand that it will have a very different mood to a much softer, more even and gentler light. You may not be able to achieve a “dreamy” and “romantic” kind of look with this kind of light, nor deep, dark and moody. It will be more bold, hard edges and sharp lines – possibly good for in a city.
2. The same dog with much softer light on an overcast, snowy day. Note that both of these were not edited/not edited very well!

Examples of Harsh Light

I really don’t have many examples of harsh light as I tend to avoid it! A lot of these photos are therefore either quite old, or were taken specifically for lessons so are definitely NOT examples of good photography!

While there are a couple here that are “okay”, it is just generally not soft, pretty and nice to look at when the light is harsh, and we have to be VERY careful about which direction our subject is positioned in, so we don’t get crazy highlights and shadows like you see in some of the photos above! Nobody wants half their dog to be super bright and shiny and the other half super dark…. right??

Examples of Soft Light

The examples below, are either unedited or minimally edited, because I wanted you to see how the light looks AS IT IS.

This light CAN look flat, when you take the photo straight off the camera… but with some small edits, you can get the contrast back easily.

The thing is… it’s always going to be easier to edit these photos and to make them look nice, than it is photos with harsh light.

With this soft, ambient light, I don’t have to fix really bright areas, or try and lighten up half a face that’s super dark, and I don’t have to deal with black dogs who have gone silver grey because their coat is reflecting the light.

Professor Snoot Says...

For pretty, artistic, or nice photos of your pet… aim for soft lighting conditions! Harsh light is rarely flattering, even for people! Choose shady locations, overcast days, or shoot when the sun is low and gold. This applies even with black pets, and especially black and white ones like me!

Hotspots

We must be aware of the effects of harsh light when we want to take photos in shaded conditions too, as harsh lighting can wreak havoc on our photos by creating hotspots when the photographer was trying to get away from the sun and into the woods.

The photos above were mostly taken from pexels.com and pixabay.com except for the photo of Loki. Each one has different examples of hotspots, whether they are shining on parts of the dog, on the ground in the background, or even on the trees in the background – although I would say that the photo of Loki with the bright trees would be MUCH easier to fix than the pup with the dappled shade on his neck.

Of course sometimes it is unavoidable and you just need to take the photos. In this case, try and hide as many of those hotspots as possible with your position or angle, have a helper hold a diffuser up to soften the light. You can find these on Amazon, for example these oval-shaped ones which can also be used as reflectors to bounce more light onto the dog (useful if you have a helper!) or these circular ones, which I have, and also have a lot of different options.

Interesting shadows

There is a love for shadow patterns in some genres of human portraiture. I’ve yet to see this done well with dogs. In fact, I’m yet to see any harsh, direct sunlight photo done especially well. But I’m particularly interested in the moment in bending our genre of photography, so if this is something that interests you, in using shadows and highlights for certain effects, then maybe you should pursue it!

This to me is similar to the last one. I want to re-edit it and see where I can take it.

Temperature

The temperature of the light in our photos can range from cool/blue (particularly at dawn and dusk) to white/neutral (midday sun, overcast days), to golden and warm (first light, last light of the day. There is no set time period here, eg., the first and last two hours of the day… it depends on the time of year.)

As with most elements of our images, the temperature of our photo can change the mood and feeling of it.

We should consider the temperature of the photo not only in regards to editing choices and finding the correct white balance, but also with the mood we want to create too.

It is much more difficult (if not nearly impossible?) to create a “deep dark forest” photo with sparkly warm orange bokeh. It is also much more difficult to create a bright, happy, joyful, light and airy photo with flat grey light (though not impossible!).

One thing I would advise is (in general) not to try and fake the temperature of the light too much. People often ask me how I get the golden backlight when there was no gold in the light (after they’ve seen a before and after photo) but the fact is that after I correct the white balance, there is usually always golden light in those photos. I have only rarely (and usually for the sake of making a tutorial) faked the temperature of the light in the background.

Of course you CAN. And that is an editing decision that you can make throughout the process of your work.

Clearly warm/golden light

Cool blue and pink light

Neutral/grey overcast day light

The before image which someone asked me how I make the light gold. Journey is very cool in this image. Just by warming it up, the bokeh turned warm yellow.

The after image which someone asked "how do I make the light gold".

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Workshop: Seeking Distractions

in Rationale & Style on January 1, 2021 October 25, 2023 0 758 Views

Introduction to Editing Workshop: Seeking Distractions

Here is the screen recording of the free workshop for mailing list members, held in December 2020, where we discuss different kinds of distractions and then set about finding them and fixing them in a few of my images. As it’s a screen recording of my screen, rather than the meeting itself, the perspective you see might be a little different to what a participant would have seen – but I’m sure I’ll work out these technical issues for future workshops!

I know as well that a lot of participants were pretty quiet, and that’s totally ok! This was the first time we’d all gotten together, and it can be pretty intimidating to unmute yourself and speak up for the first time. My sincere hope (and goal) is that when I open the membership area of my site, that we will form a supportive Learning Community together. I’ve always called it a learning community, because it reflects how I operate. Although I want to teach you and share my knowledge with you, we will all learn better together, sharing and exploring, trying new things, asking questions, and engaging with one another. As a teacher in schools, this was how I ran my classroom. I never believed in “chalk and talk” as the most effective way to teach… So while this workshop was a little bit quiet, I foresee workshops run once the learning community is open as interactive events, where we can discuss, share, ask questions and receive guidance on our work.

But enough from me, I’m sure you want to get to the video. Below you will also find a link to download the PDF I walk through at the beginning of the workshop. Please do not share this with others, or screen-record this workshop.

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How to Edit Out a Leash in Photoshop!

in Fixing Things on December 17, 2020 October 25, 2023 0 689 Views

Introduction to Editing How to Edit Out a Leash in Photoshop!

This tutorial will require a bit of editing in Photoshop. Unfortunately there’s no real way to remove a leash in Lightroom (at least the results when I’ve tried haven’t been good) – and I’m quite sure there would be no way to do it in most free apps.

That being said, you don’t always have to remove a leash from a photo. Sometimes photos of a dog standing next to their people who are holding the leash adds a connection between them. Sometimes the photo was a candid, and the leash is too big, or crosses too much of the dog’s body to be able to remove it without making a complete mess of things.

If you’re taking a photo of a dog which has to be on leash for whatever reason (instead of, say, to represent the connection between dog and owner), my recommendations to make your editing job much easier would be:

Use a thin, black leash
Stretch the leash out either behind or straight away from the dog. Don’t let it drape or cross over the dog’s body or it’s much more difficult to remove
Remove the dog’s harness and/or halti. Using a thin collar without tags will also make editing your images easier
As always, think about your background and location. For leash editing, a simpler background will make your job easier. The more detail and variation there is, the more specific and detailed you need to be in the edit.

With the introduction of Photoshop’s “Remove Tool” (which works EXCEPTIONALLY well) I’ll be doing an update to this lesson soon!

Leash example photos

The photos below have all been taken from pexels.com so you can find them yourself if you want to have a go at editing out different kinds of leashes – these are only the small resolution files so I wouldn’t recommend working on them from here. If you hover over each image you can read my thoughts on the leash removal for that particular photo.

This leash should be pretty easy to edit out, as it is away from the body, on a simple soft background

I would not remove this leash. I think it connects the dog nicely to the owner.

This leash would be difficult to remove. It is thick, has a wide buckle, and goes down along the dog's chest.

Image #4

I would not remove this leash. Again, it connects the dog to the boy.

This leash you COULD remove but again I think it connects the dog to the owner. Otherwise the owner is just a random pair of legs in the background.

This leash would be a challenge - but not impossible- to remove. If it had been black on the dark coat it would have been easier. But there is enough extra fur that it would be doable.

This leash would be difficult to remove as it's crossing over a lot of the dog.

Another challenging one to remove as it's quite in the foreground so matching areas of the dog's coat would be difficult

This one should be alright to edit the leash out of, however you may run into some issues with the different plants, some being in focus and some being out of focus.

Leash removal steps, in Photoshop

I will be using this image (also from Pexels) for the step-by-step guide – it is a more “standard” photo, without a soft blurry background, so more likely something that would be achieved from a kit lens or even a phone, while you are still learning. Learning Community members will also have a step-by-step guide to editing a leash that crosses the dog’s body.

1. Duplicate your layer

We always want to keep our original image safe, so that if we make some weird edits, we always have an untouched copy as a backup. I recommend not working on the duplicate layer, either. The worst thing in the world (and trust me, as someone who taught myself Photoshop over 15 years ago, I dealt with this MANY MANY times) is to do an hour of editing, realise you made a mistake way back in the process, and to have no (easy) way to fix it without undoing all your work, or making a big mess of things.

2. Create a new transparent layer

Since we don’t want to work directly onto our image if we can help it, we can remove these leashes on a transparent layer. This means if we want to turn that layer off and hide our edits, or erase part of our edits, or even just make some changes to the leash-removal parts of our edits specifically, we can. Get into the habit of working on separate layers now, to save yourself trouble down the line!

3. Use the Healing Spot Brush

The healing spot brush is usually best for removing small things like bits of dust, eye boogers, thin blades of grass and so on. You can just paint over the top of something and PS will fill in that area with what it thinks should be there. It doesn’t ALWAYS work with leashes, but since it’s a lazy and easy way to do the job, I like to try it first.

Also, sometimes it can set a nice but imperfect “base” which we can fix up with other tools.

The Result...

So! This is after a VERY quick go with the spot healing brush tool. It’s not too bad, really! Much better than the result I got in the video above. You can see the edits in the “Layer 1” layer, which I can turn on and off with the eye button. There’s definitely a few issues I could fix up, which I’ll use the “Clone Stamp” tool for. You could also use the clone stamp for the entire edit, as with the video above.

As I said, the Spot Healing brush tool won’t always work. It depends on what’s around the object, how well it can fill in that area, even how well it can pick out the “wrong” thing from the background. So don’t worry if it looks like a mess, just head to the next step.

4. Clone Stamp tool

I can’t screenshot usage of the clone stamp, because the keyboard shortcut to screenshot alters the tool. But you can see it in operation in the video,

Select the tool, as shown below.

Pressing Option on your mac keyboard, or alt on your Windows keyboard, will bring up a circular target. Use this to tell Photoshop which part of the image you would like to “clone”. Choose parts of the image that are similar to the background. Be careful though, our eyes are very good at picking up “repeating patterns”, so if you clone large or distinctive areas from one part of the image to another one, it will be easy for our eyes to see.

For example, the shape of a bush, or a tuft of grass, or even a distinctive leaf, could all be distracting if repeated, particularly if they are repeated close to one another, so try taking from a target a bit further away if necessary.

It may take a bit of work, selecting different target areas and gradually working over the leash, or area where the leash was, until it looks seamless.

Try turning the leash layer (Layer 1) on and off, to “reset” your eyes and see any areas that are a bit weird. Zoom closer in or further out for a different perspective.

Be careful of problems like suddenly floating bits of grass or twigs which aren’t attached to anything, broken wires or lines (you can see this in the screenshot above, above n the right-hand side dog there is a grey wire which is suddenly and weirdly broken.

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The Really Important Stuff

in Uncategorized on November 3, 2020 October 22, 2023 0 2,446 Views

Focus on Foundations The Really Important Stuff

Really important? I hear you asking. Isn’t it all really important?

Of course it is! However, there are some things which I believe are even more important than others.

You must, MUST, MUST, get the eye of your subject in focus. This means the eye will be sharp and detailed, and the out of focus area will be soft and slightly blurry.

If you aren’t sure what I mean, your immediate priority is to begin training your eyes to see if your image is in or out of focus.

This is most especially important for images that will be used outside of Instagram. Instagram’s compression and small size means that photos which are slightly out of focus will probably still look in focus. But if you’re taking photos for clients, or you want to have photos for an album or your wall, they really do need to have the focus on the eyes.

Of course, if you’re doing some kind of artistic effect, like a “boop the snoot” photo, then the eyes don’t need to be in focus (though mine still are!). But as a general rule, we should be striving to get the eyes in focus. You might find this tricky at first! But as we work through the next lessons, we are going to be covering a number of strategies to help you get the majority of your photos focusing on the eyes.

Eyes are the most important aspect of our photos. They create connection, either with the camera/viewer, or the story/scene. They are the “window to the soul” and we want our viewer to be drawn to the eyes, first and foremost, in our pictures.

Quiz Time!

Let’s have a look at some images – you can click on them to make them bigger. Decide which one is in focus and then click the “Click for the Answer” button to check

There are plenty more lessons on focus coming up, so don’t worry if you’re finding it challenging at this point!

Look for the areas of the image with the most detail. Is it the nose? Is it the fur just in front of the eyes? Is it the fur on the forehead? I’m looking more at the fur or skin details then I am at the eyes themselves.

Some of these are a bit tricky, so don’t despair! Just have a go, and then go and look at some of your recent photos. Where is the focus?

Image #1

Image #2

Image #3

Which is in focus?!

Click for the Answer

Image 3!

Image #1

Image #2

Image #3

Image #4

Which is in focus?!

Click for the Answer

Image 2!

Image #1

Image #2

Image #3

Image #4

Image #5

Image #6

Which is in focus?!

Click for the Answer

Images 5 & 6!

Image #1

Image #2

Image #3

Which is in focus?!

Click for the Answer

Image 1!

Basic Composition

The other thing I want you to think about from the very beginning, is composition.

Don’t panic! I’m not going to talk about rule of thirds or the golden ratio or whatever right now. I’m going to lay out a couple of super easy “rules*” for you to follow as you make your way through this course.

Don’t cut off parts of the dog. Don’t clip their ears, don’t cut off their paws. This doesn’t mean you have to do full body shots all the time. Try either: full body, head & shoulders, or head only. Even better than not cutting off their ears or feet, is to give their ears and feet a little space so they don’t feel so “trapped” in the photo.
If the dog is looking to one side, give them “space” to look into. Have a look on my Instagram and you’ll see this immediately. Any time the dog is looking to one side, 2/3 of the frame is empty space for them to look into.
Don’t have trees, branches, or “things” growing out of the dog’s head (or butt). Check your background, and if you see a tree growing out of their head, move slightly to one side.

And that’s it. But trust me when I say not cutting off a dog’s ears or paws can take you from amateur to proficient as quickly as that. Have a look at the examples below – click on the images to enlarge them

*as always, rules are made to be broken, but let’s maybe master the basics first.

Image #1

His head tilt caught me by surprise so I accidentally (almost) cut off the ip of his ear. Definitely not enough space for my liking.

Image #2

This is much better. Here he was a nice little gap between his ear and the top of the frame.

Image #3

Getting this "puppy dog eyes" look with this particular lens is really tricky because I can't see the composition. I cut off half Journey's ear and it's no good.

Image #4

This is much better. Both ears comfortably in the frame.

Image #5

Here, I was struggling to fit all of Journey in the photo, and ended up taking a seperate picture of the lower part to create more space for his feet, which I'd chopped off. If you're not at that level yet, it's much easier to get it right in camera!!

Image #6

Here he's crouching down a bit more so has plenty of room above his head, and you can see his feet through the bushes.

While nothing has been "chopped off" here, I don't like how close Loki's ear is to the top of the frame. I often have trouble fitting him into an image because his ears are SO POINTY. So if you have a dog with sticky-up ears, take note!! especially if they tilt their heads at all.

Plenty of room above Loki's ears here, and space to crop the image in a little bit if I want to make it even closer and more intimate. It's easier to crop in a little bit (not too much or you lose image quality) rather than try to add more photo around the dog!

This pup (from pexels.com) has a tree growing out of his head, and is missing his toes.

This pup (also from pexels.com) appears to have branches growing out of his butt, which is rather distracting from the main image.

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How to Tell if Your Focus is Off

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Choosing a Location

in Locations on October 31, 2020 October 24, 2023 0 984 Views

Location Choosing a Location

Choosing a location must mean you need beautiful settings, fairytale forests, perfect mossy rocks or mountain views, right? There’s no way to get amazing photos without some super special forest!

Wrong! With some creativity, you can turn even the most boring, dead grasses in an industrial estate into a beautiful photo. Don’t believe me? Have a look at this…

With my camera and lens, this location became…

It may take some time to develop your “photographer’s eye” to begin to see which locations will work best, but by following the tips below, and by getting out there and practising as much as possible, I promise you it will get easier and easier.

Things to Consider When Choosing a Location

These are the things I ALWAYS keep in mind when taking photos, no matter the location.

Purpose of the photo/background. I’ve talked about this in earlier lessons, but why am I taking this photo? Of course it’s to capture a pretty image of my cute dog, but what is in the background? Rubbish bins/trash cans? Something dead/ugly/distracting/busy? A big ugly industrial building? Can those things be hidden by the lens? (For example, a long lens like my 135mm will show only a small amount of the background). Is there a way that you can move to hide the distractions? Always consider your backgrounds and whether it is helping your photo or not. If the background is ugly, busy, or super distracting and can’t be fixed by moving around a bit, I probably won’t use the location.
Light. Which direction is the light? Is there enough light on the dog’s face? If you’re in the woods, you should try and either be on the edge of the trees, or in a clearing, so there is plenty of light from the sky above. Or, is there too much harsh sunlight?? Or are there patchy areas of dappled sun that are going to make crazy “hotspots” in your photos?
Visual interest. Related closely to #1, but is there something interesting in the photo to “anchor” the dog in the scene? When I’m looking for visual interest I’m looking for:
1. Logs or stumps
2. Ferns or foliage with interesting texture
3. Moss
4. Rocks
5. Tree trunks with interesting colour or texture
6. The forest floor with interesting colour or texture (leaves, berries, flowers moss)
7. Flowers
8. Something unusual about the scene (eg., a tunnel of long grass, frost, unusual light through fog, interesting shapes in tree branches or a split tree trunk, a bridge, a snail, etc.) Basically any way I can think of to create something “special” in a scene.

Purpose of the Photo

Have a look at the images below, all taken from pexels.com, and think about what in the scene/background may be detracting from it being a high-quality photo. Click on the images to view them larger

This isn’t to say you can’t take photos of your dog next time they’re looking cute! But can you move to one side or another to slightly change the angle of the photo? Can you wait for the distraction to pass by? Can you move the dog a bit to put them in a better position?

See The Background The Way Your Camera Will

Being able to see the scene the way your camera does is a skill that takes a while to learn! We’re used to using our phones, which show more or less the world as we see it, unless we use portrait mode, in which case the whole background just goes soft.

But this isn’t exactly the same as using a camera and a lens, and there can be a bit of a steep learning curve as you get used to how your camera transforms the backgrounds of your scene.

One trick you can try, if you’re out walking and wondering if a background will look good with your camera, is to try it with your phone first! (And I write this because I know many DSLRs are big and bulky and we don’t want to carry them all around “just incase”, and since we mightn’t know what we’re looking for, we inevitably never bring them at all!)

Find your location. Take out your phone, on normal camera mode. Hold up your hand or finger VERY close to the lens – as close as it can go and be in focus. This will force your phone’s camera to narrow the depth of field so it can focus on your finger. The background will then blur in a MUCH more correct and realistic way, like your camera would!

Now, your phone’s lens is pretty wide, so if you have a longer lens, the background will be more compressed (like everything has been pulled forward, so you’ll see less of it). Also, if your lens only has a narrow minimum aperture (eg., f/4.5,) you might not get quite as much blur, depending how far away the background is, how close the subject is, etc.

If you’re using a phone or wider angle lens, be really conscious of areas of white open sky between the trees, or at the edge of the tree-line. Empty white blobs are often quite bright, and our eye is drawn to the brightest part of an image… so if your photo has some big white blobs in it, guess where our eye is going to go?

Yep, to those areas of open sky.

For my photos in my style, I tend to avoid areas where there are large open gaps between trees in the background as these make empty white blobs that I don’t personally like in my photos. This isn’t a “be all and end all” and shouldn’t deter you from taking a photo in that location if it’s special for other reasons, but it is worth being aware of!

Landscape photos are a completely different story, and will likely include the sky!

Visual interest

Is there something interesting in the scene? A reason for taking the photo (other than including your cute subject)?
Is that thing very busy, detailed, or distracting?

By including a foreground & background we can give our photos a sense of depth. We want to try and include a background (ideally one that isn’t too busy or distracting), and a foreground (maybe some kind of foliage or out of focus grass or similar).

Is the visual interest helping, or hindering your photo? Is it going to take attention away from the dog, or is it going to help place the dog in the scene?

You may have to try, experiment, fail, try again, many, many times before you begin to see how your camera sees. This is really normal. Learn from the process. If one time your scene was too busy from a lot of long grasses, do some gardening before you begin the next time. If one time the image was a bit “meh” because there was nothing of visual interest, try and find something the next time!

Remember: light, purpose, visual interest

Below are some examples of photos I’ve taken with my iphone of the location, and how they came out in camera. What can you notice about them? What elements of visual interest have I included?

The images below were all taken for a challenge I ran on instagram, to see how much variety could be achieved within a 10 meter diameter area. I made sure to keep my area very small, to see how far I could stretch my creativity. You do NOT need a huge forest to find good locations. You just need to stick to the above principals!

These were all shot with a 135mm lens, an 85mm lens, or for the image looking down on Loki, with a 28-75mm lens

Image #1

This was at the base of the tree Loki was standing beside, but on the opposite side, lower down, and having the light behind Journey, instead of in front of him. And of course my leafy boi is holding a leaf. Cute little ferns curl over him to embrace him within the photo, and again, the tree as a side frame.

Image #2

This photo was taken with the tree as a frame to one side, and the delicate curling ferns slightly behind him to provide further visual interest and contrast.

Image #3

This image used the gorgeous backlight and autumn foliage to really set the scene, with Journey perched on a mossy stump, and a little tiny fern to add interest.

Image #4

A simple puppy-dog eyes/looking down photo of Loki getting into the autumn feeling. I actually did some work to shift the green moss tones toward brown/red for a really monochrome look here.

Image #5

Loki by the green tree. His face was toward the light this time. I love using a tree as part of the images frame. Although he's looking straight forward here, I like how it's off-centre as well

Image #6

Here Loki is posed on the stump, cutting out the rest of the scene for a close-up headshot. This photo would also work if I had left in more of the stump, as it has an interesting texture. Again, using the autumn colours and backlight bokeh behind him.

This was the one where Journey was lying by the black stump. I ended up cutting out most of the stump and adding some extra negative space for him to look into. One of the more "plain" images of the series.

Journey in the ferns. Really a simple photo. I love how delicate the fern is curling up under his chin, and of course the perfect backlight bokeh

Below you will see some more examples of images taken with my phone, to show the location, and then what I captured in camera. These were all taken on a short, 10 min walk, at a little secret patch of woods near my house.

Again, be noticing the foreground and background, try and analyse the light, and what elements of visual interest I’ve included. The last group of photos were all backlight. These were taken on an overcast day.

Image #1

A pretty simple shot amongst the ferns, just making sure Journey was surrounded by them, then shifting the colours to be more complementary.

Image #2

As far as visual interest goes, things like waterfalls, creeks and other quite interesting areas can be a lot of fun, but also sometimes TOO much. When there's a lot of "stuff" in your image, the dog can sometimes get lost in it.

Image #3

I loved the V-shape of this tree, with the moss along the edges, and knew I could use it to frame Journey in its centre.

Image #4

Another mossy log, with a simple background and the line of the log leading to Journey.

Image #5

Bridges and paths are GREAT locations for beginners, as their lines lead the viewer's eye to the dog, and they create a kind of "tunnel" within which the dog is framed. Please please don't take photos of your dog on train tracks - I'll provide a link below as to why.

Image #6

The same mossy log as above, but from a different angle! From here, you see less of the log but still get the texture, and there was some sky filtering through the trees behind, with a hint of autumn colours.

This was just sort of a small hill, covered in moss, with autumn colours behind. Super simple, super easy, pretty texture from the moss and you can shift the colour more toward green or yellow as the scene demands, once you know how to work in Photoshop 🙂

This one actually required quite some editing because I wasn't happy with the composition, so I photoshopped in some more leaves to the left of the image, to hide the fence. But the concept would work if you could find low-hanging branches to be your foreground, and a leafy background.

As a new photographer you may think taking photos on railway tracks, even dead ones, is a good way to get “leading lines” toward your dog.

This blog post from Lawtog explains why it’s a bad idea. Please don’t do it. There’s a hundred other more creative, less cliche ways of using leading lines in your photography.

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To Preset, or Not to Preset

in Lightroom on June 22, 2020 October 24, 2023 0 705 Views

Introduction to Editing To Preset, or Not to Preset

What are presets?

Presets are actions which you can install to LR – they are basically pre-determined settings and conditions, so that with the click of a button, all those settings (including radial filters, gradient filters, colour adjustments and so on) are applied to the image.

In short, I don’t use presets. I used to! When I was first learning and wanted an easy solution and a way to press a button and have a result, I used presets. Looking at the presets I used to use, I cringe a little now, because I can see how they were holding me back in really digging deep into editing and getting the best results for my photos.

To me, the way I edit is like being a baker. I put the ingredients together myself, for each individual cake; a bit more of this, a bit less of that, exactly as needed.

Presets are like a box cake mix. There’s nothing wrong with them. They’re quick, convenient, easy, and usually reasonably tasty. You don’t learn how to bake a cake, how to mix ingredients for different flavours or effects or for different occasions.

I think presets would work in a couple of scenarios:

You take a LOT of photos in the same place at the same time and want to edit them exactly the same (eg., in a studio where you control the conditions).
You take a LOT of photos and don’t care to individually work on each one. A “slash and burn” kind of situation where you need to deliver 300 photographs and can only spend a limited time on each (wedding photographers, or at an agility competition, show or other trial, for example, where images only need basic white balance and light adjustments).
You only use Lightroom and want to create your own presets for different common scenarios that you shoot under (one for backlight, one for ferns, one for the woods and so on) mostly for colour adjustments as I think this could be the most “fiddly” and time-consuming part of editing solely from Lightroom, and the space where your own individual style can come through a bit more.

Personally, if I used a preset, I would go and change ALL the adjustments anyway (because my lighting is always changing so the global adjustments can’t possibly be right for every individual photo), and as you’ll realise as we go through this course, we really need to be able to quite selectively edit our photos. And as each one of our photos is completely different, a preset can’t really do all that for us.

So in short, I would save my money for something other than presets. If I were to use them, I would create my own and name them based on common scenarios I shoot, and learn the tools of LR to further improve the image, especially using selective editing. In the video below I have a look through some of the presets I had saved on my computer and try them on a few different types of images, and further share my thoughts on presets in general.

Below is a video explaining how to create a preset. Essentially, you choose an image, apply all the settings you want to use in the preset, particularly regarding colour changes. Then, in the presets menu on the side, click the plus button, and you’ll see an option to “create a preset”. Click this, name it, and you’ll find it in the “user presets” section of your preset collection.

I actually had quite a lot of trouble coming up with a preset, as I’m used to doing these kinds of colour changes in Photoshop, and I was creating the presets with the mindset of doing further selective edits with radial filters (more on this soon, so don’t panic!) so mine ended up being more of a base than a “one click and the image is finished” kind of solution.

I highly recommend that you learn your way through Lightroom, how and when to use the various tools and effects, and then, IF you decide you want to create presets, you will do so with the knowledge of what makes a good edit.

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Navigating Lightroom

in Uncategorized on June 22, 2020 January 5, 2023 0 593 Views

Lightroom For Pet Photography Navigating Lightroom

If you’re new to Lightroom, this is a great place to start. We have a look around the different “modules” of the program, explore its nooks and crannies and I explain which tools we’ll mostly be using.

The library module is our first port of call, and the place where we’ll find all of our images in our library. Here we can make different collections, search for and assign key words and so on.

I admit up-front that I am the LEAST organised person in the world. I’m lucky if I name my folders instead of just using the default date system. So if you want tips and advice on how to store and organise your library, this is not going to help you (sorry). In the future I may amend this lesson to delve into organisational techniques, but right now I just want to guide you around the program.

I mention the Histogram in this lesson. If you haven’t used the histogram before, it’s actually a really useful tool, particularly when you check it in camera while you’re taking photos.

Basically, it shows you the range of light, from blacks, through shadows, midtones, highlights and whites, across the image. When you’re taking photos, you can check the histogram in-camera to make sure you’re not blowing out your highlights! In LR you can use it to make sure you have an even range of light and dark, which should look like a nice steady curve… but… this can depend on your image and how you edit! 90% of my images look like they’re nothing but shadows, because I edit very dark and moody most of the time!

This little video just shows a few example images and discusses using the histogram in-camera.

Lightroom has a LOT of options for organising your photos. You can put them in collections, give them keywords, give them ratings out of 5, pick or reject them, or assign colours to them. You really need to find out what method works for you.

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Introduction to Editing

in Lightroom on June 22, 2020 October 24, 2023 0 1,064 Views

Introduction to Editing Introduction to Editing

As I mentioned on the course information page, I highly recommend doing everything you can to get your photos right in-camera first, before tackling the editing side of things. You can spend 7 hours on editing an average photo, and it still won’t become “magical” if the dog looks bored, if the composition is flawed, if the mood and the editing don’t match and so on. Get as much right in camera first, then use your editing to really make it “pop”. AND save yourself time! Photos with poor lighting and composition CAN be saved (usually more with PS than LR) but it’s such a pain and takes way too much time.

Throughout the course we’re going to look at each of the tools or panels, to understand how they work and how we could use them, and then as we progress, there will be larger, more in-depth tutorials using LR only. I recommend you follow along with photos of your own that are similar to the ones I’ll be working on.

Before we jump into the tools, I want to discuss a few editing principals that I adhere to in most of my edits, as they shape and dictate the way I approach editing each photo – even if the process ends up being more or less the same.

What is our main goal as photographers when we approach editing?

Most people would probably say: “to make the photo better,” or “to make the photo ‘pop'”.

But this is pretty vague and unhelpful.

Instead, approach all your photography with the mindset of creating a flattering image of your subject – everything you do should be to emphasise your subject/s.

Does this change your thought process?

Start with a good base photo. It’s ok if it’s too dark, we can fix that. But there’s some things (expression, poor composition, crazy light, pose, busy distracting backgrounds, etc) we can’t fix, especially in Lightroom! I really recommend you work through the Foundation course before going through this one.
Our job is to “trap” our viewers in our photographs and have them focus on the dog’s eyes. Our goal at all times, therefore, should be to draw them back to the dog’s eyes – and not because the eyes are so unnaturally bright and glowing that we can’t help but see them!
Our eyes are naturally drawn to the brightest areas of a photo, and we need to be conscious of this as part of our editing process. If our audience is distracted by bright areas other than the dog, we aren’t keeping them where we want them – they will be distracted and keep scrolling.
By manipulating light, we can direct a viewer’s gaze, by acting as a path toward our dog.
Constantly ask: “Where does my eye go next?” and if the answer isn’t “The dog’s face”, I need to fix it.
Are the colours helping or hindering our image? Thinking about how many colours there are, whether the colours are complementary to the dog, if they are light or dark, and whether that helps our image or not. eg., a black dog might stand out better on a lighter background. New photographers often feel like strong colours make the picture better, however so much saturated colour can be a distraction, as our eye is drawn to so much colour and visual interest.
Strong pops of random colour or very strong colour can also be a distraction.
What kind of MOOD does our photo naturally have (a golden retriever puppy will have a much happier mood than my serious Loki) – different moods require different editing.
Consider what is “natural” in terms of light– thinking about where the light would naturally hit and how much it should be lightened up, etc, so that it’s not crazy or unbalanced, or doesn’t make sense to our eye, or that there is a strong vignette on the ground, where there should be no shadow because it’s on the beach where there is only open sky above. Similarly, strong vignettes in the sky – the sky does not naturally get darker at the edges.
You will need to discover your own style and it might take you some time and experimenting to be able to do that! All the tools we’re going to use can be applied in hundreds of different ways! Go and play with it. Just always ask if your edits are serving a purpose. Are your edits detracting from your subject?

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White Balance

in Lightroom on June 6, 2020 October 24, 2023 0 741 Views

Introduction to Editing White Balance

Setting the white balance (WB) should be one of the very first things you alter about your image.

Most cameras are set to “Auto-WB”, meaning the camera will read the scene, the light and the colours and try and adjust the WB for you. Most cameras can also have different settings for different conditions (Shade, cloudy, etc). However these aren’t foolproof so you may need to still adjust the WB in Lightroom!

Getting the correct white balance is about finding a temperature and a tint that is natural and correct for the scene the dog is in.

Mostly, that involves us looking at the scene and remembering what colour the dog’s coat is, getting a “sense” of whether the scene looks too warm and too cool, and adjusting the settings until it feels correct.

With a dog that has white on it, we can use the eyedropper tool to tell LR where a part of pure white is, and it will set the white balance off of that area! Careful though! Different parts of the dog can pick up and reflect different colours, so it’s not a foolproof method! Between the eyes is usually pretty safe, but chests can be yellow or green, and the tops of noses and heads can be blue. Keep in mind though this only works if the dog’s white (or grey or black) areas are pure neutral colours! I can’t, for example, use this tool on Journey because his white areas have red spots in them.

There is also the option for LR to suggest some presets based on the conditions of the photo: Cloudy, shade, etc. However, again, these are generalisations only, and mightn’t apply to every scene, especially if there’s a lot of other colours around, so you may still need to adjust the settings.

Don’t forget that chests, the tops of heads and noses and under the chin are VERY likely to reflect the colours around the dog (blue, yellow, or green!) so don’t base your adjustments of of those areas. Have a look at the face, particularly around the eyes.

Quick tip!

You can possibly check if your images are about the correct white balance by increasing saturation to +100. This works especially well on black, white, or grey dogs, who will suddenly be turned pure blue if the image is too cool.

You will probably not be able to remove ALL the blue from their coat – the idea is to find a median point between too-blue and too-yellow.

Don’t worry too much if their chest is very yellow, if they have a white chest. This is normal. Below are some examples of this technique in action. Click to enlarge.

The image "straight out of camera". Does it look too cool to you?

Saturation +100. You can now see all the blue tones in her coat!

Image is warmed up using the white balance "temperature" slider.

Here is the image again with the saturation up 100.

The image "straight out of camera". Does it look too cool to you?

Saturation +100. You can now see all the blue tones in her coat!

Image is warmed up using the white balance "temperature" slider.

Here is the image again with the saturation up 100.

The image "straight out of camera". Does it look too cool to you?

Saturation +100. You can now see all the blue tones in his coat!

Image is warmed up using the white balance "temperature" slider.

Here is the image again with the saturation up 100.

Below are some different examples of the image of Journey – from too cool, to just right, to too warm and below, looking too magenta or too green.

Setting the white balance does take some time and practise to train your eye, and don’t feel discouraged if you continually look at your images even after you’re happy with them and question whether you have it right! This is really normal and means you’re thinking about it and analysing it, and that is a great thing to be doing!

Of course, you can be a bit creative with the white balance. You may want a cooler, moodier scene! Or a warmer, more sunny scene. My recommendation is to set the white balance correctly first, and later to do some selective edits on the area around the dog. Personally, I like the dog’s coat colour to be as close to correct as possible (although of course it will be warmer if the light at that time of day was warmer, and so on. I want it to be natural for the scene it was in).

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Full Sun

Overcast

Shade

Golden Hour

Indoors & Artificial

Table of Contents

Strength

Harsh vs. Soft

Examples of Harsh Light

Examples of Soft Light

Professor Snoot Says...

Hotspots

Interesting shadows

Temperature

Leash example photos

Image #4

Leash removal steps, in Photoshop

1. Duplicate your layer

2. Create a new transparent layer

3. Use the Healing Spot Brush

The Result...

4. Clone Stamp tool

Quiz Time!

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Basic Composition

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Things to Consider When Choosing a Location

Purpose of the Photo

See The Background The Way Your Camera Will

Visual interest

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