Watch the Video: Home Photo Ideas – Close Up Pet Portraits
While it’s safe to stay indoors, it’s the perfect time to improve your camera skills. Try home projects on how to use flash to take great pet photos.
Never work with children or animals, they say – and they are often right! I did my best.
We decided to photograph Cloudy, our little pet hamster. Small rodents like hamsters move very quickly and do not have the habit of standing still and posing in this direction.
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But with a few key techniques and with the lights tested and set up, ready and in place, using the play tube to let it sit still for a few seconds, I finally hit the winning shot I was able to get it (see above). run away.
I set up a small home studio with a blue background paper pasted to the walls and the top of Cloudy’s cage, with two off-camera flashguns set to low power so as not to scare small rodents. . Read on for more information.
01. Home studio setup
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I set up a simple mini-studio by taping a blue background roll to the wall and gently curving it into the hamster’s cage to create a smooth, seamless background. increase.
• The perfect backdrop for photography (opens in new tab)
02. Flashgun settings
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Using an off-camera flashgun can not only illuminate the animal evenly, but also create a catchlight on the black eye to add a little extra sparkle. Used. Both flashguns were low power 1/128, one in front with 28mm zoom and one on the side with 50mm zoom, fired via wireless triggers (camera fired pop-up flash, instead to optically trigger the flashgun).
• best cannon flashgun (opens in new tab)
03. Choose standard zoom
Since the hamster is so small, I was able to focus close enough for full-frame composition using a Canon EF 24-70mm f/2.8L USM standard zoom at 70mm with a full-frame camera. For the crop sensor Canon, the 18-55mm kit lens is sufficient.
• best standard zoom lens (opens in new tab)
04. Depth of field
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You might be tempted to use the maximum aperture of your lens for creative blur, but when focusing on small subjects, f/2.8 has a very shallow depth of field, so f/5.6 can capture a small hamster I photographed most of the in focus. I set the shutter speed to 1/200 second and ISO640 to match the strobe sync speed to increase the brightness.
05. Feed the animals
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The best way to attract animals of all shapes and sizes is to bribe them with their favorite foods. Cloudy loves nuts. An assistant is very useful here. Because it allows your pet to (a) stand still and (b) balance on its hind legs for better poses. Patience goes a long way here…
06. Inject color
I tried using a plastic green tub to inject the color and it also stopped my hamster from escaping! I found that the red cardboard tube that came out of the cage was perfect for keeping it pointed at the camera for the few seconds it took to get the shot.
read more:
Stuck at home: 11 photography projects to try indoors during the COVID-19 crisis (opens in new tab)
DIY photography hacks: add camera stability to any camera body! (opens in new tab)
photo tips (opens in new tab) and technique videos