The business of Pet Photography - DPChallenge Forums

04/11/2005 10:02:08 AM · #1

Question - What is involved in Pet photography? Equipment and props. In the area where I live, there are plenty of pet owners and no photo portrait shop anywhere around. I know pet photography is not as easy as it seems, so if anyone has any helpfull hints on this topic, please share. I currently own a Canon Digital Rebel, 550EX Flash Unit, Backdrop Stand, 28 - 105, 28 - 75, 14 - 35mm

Thnx

Olympus 17.5-45mm f/3.5-5.6

04/11/2005 10:07:31 AM · #2

Lots of patience, great website, post proofs online big plus, have to be naturally great with dogs... they can sense if you are even slightly big uncomfortable.

As for equipment... muslin backgrounds are great!!! However, I let the dogs on top of it on the floor (most dogs are uncomfortable on boxes, which shows in the pictures), so the muslins do not last too long. Some people use felt for the dogs to sit on... but I like this look better. Also, lots of spot cleaner... male dogs like to mark backgrounds =( So be prepared and do not get upset... dogs do not know better.

You can e-mail me at any time at clarmore@peopleandpups.com if you have any questions with your start-up =) My website is www.peopleandpups.com, I am currently in the process of redesigning it... so my gallery is not fully online yet.

Neuferland

Google Pixel 2

04/11/2005 12:01:15 PM · #3

www.peopleandpups.com

Just making that link active for those who are too lazy to cut and paste, LOL!

I just started myself but prefer to work outdoors and right now am concentrating on horses and dogs. It will be awhile before I can afford the really good equipment for indoor (lights, etc.)

Deannda

kirsty_mcn

Olympus E-500 EVOLT

04/11/2005 12:12:28 PM · #4

nice website, clarmore, but did you realise that if you lok at the slideshow of images in the gallery they're all squished/stretched to fit the dimensions of the 1st photo? it may just be my browser, but you might wanna check it out...

04/11/2005 12:48:08 PM · #5

Nice Site. Like your Pet Pics, but like Neuferland, I don't have indoor lighting equipment just yet and Muslin can be expensive. Do you think outdoor pet photog will work? I see you have a photo posted of an outdoors shot and it looks good. Do you use floods or stobes for you indoor shots?

04/11/2005 12:57:25 PM · #6

Most customers want indoors. I purchased my lights and backgrounds all on ebay... amvona.com is my favorite - you can get excellent deals with them on ebay.

Plus if you set up an appointment and the weather takes a turn for the worst, I found that with rescheduling you sometimes will lose the customer (they will change their mind). However, if you can get them to switch to indoors (which 98% will do) then you are much better off. I think the investment is well worth it. I have customers book pet portraits as far as 3 months in advance... you never know how the weather will turn out.

Plus I found that I make much higher sales with formal portraits with a background than outdoor shots... people tend to spend more on products that they are confident that they couldn't do themselves.

04/11/2005 12:59:50 PM · #7

To give you an idea for price... the average I spent per muslin on ebay was around $70 each... the hand-painted 8x6 background in the pic below was only around $125 (after shipping). And they all paid for themselves after a couple months.

Nikon AF Nikkor 50mm f/1.8D

04/11/2005 01:23:42 PM · #8

Well i'm going to some research on this. Do you think floods would be a good choice for indoor lighting? I can use my dog as a test subject. Here is a link to some of my photographs if you want to take a look.
Thnx for the help.

//www.photozo.com/album/showgallery.php?cat=500&ppuser=3027

Joe_Cool

Canon PowerShot G6

04/11/2005 01:29:21 PM · #9

Great site, I agree that the pictures in the gallery were distorted, and the descriptions appeared to be defaults. Still, some really nice looking photographs!

David.C

04/11/2005 01:46:28 PM · #10

Originally posted by clarmore:

... My website is //www.peopleandpups.com ...

Absolutely fabulous images.

To echo what others have said, with a bit of detail to possibly help track down the problem -- the slide show distorts all but the first image, stretching or shrinking the rest to fit the dimensions of the first. If it is your code, the section that updates the image is not updating the dimensions -- if it is not your code, a work around is to place borders on all images to make them the same size (this border would match the website background, so it wouldn't show).

David

emorgan49

Olympus E-5

Olympus 50mm f/1.8 MF Normal Zuiko

04/11/2005 01:57:08 PM · #11

hmm - slide show works perfectly for me - on Safari...Gorgeous pictures.

edit: oh, I see - squishy thumbnails.

Message edited by author 2005-04-11 13:58:39.

Canon EF 70-200mm f/2.8L IS USM

04/11/2005 02:24:45 PM · #12

Yeah, I'm having some trouble with the coding in the gallery... it's still a work in process... I was too hasty to take down my old website while building this one.

I started off with floods... don't do it!!! The dogs will be panting within 10 minutes into the session. I used 1-2 500 watt lights and right now they are sitting in storage. Definately go for strobes! Also, floods get soooo hot. Once a dog knocked into my light set (hyper great dane) and the light bulb broke and burnt a hole into my backdrop... if it was carpet floor underneith I probably would have burnt their house down. yikes!

I not only get nicer looking light from strobes, but they are safer and the pets are more comfortable.

C-Fox

Canon EOS-20D

04/11/2005 02:43:55 PM · #13

Thanks Clarmore what a lot of great advice!