How to take a photograph of your dog:
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• Set your camera on the best jpeg setting, usually “large fine.” Shoot RAW if your camera offers that option because it offers more options.
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• IMPORTANT: Take the photo at the dog’s eye level. Your eyes must be even with your dog’s eyes. Don’t take the photo standing up and looking down on your pet. Put the camera’s focus point between the dog’s eyes.
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• Your dog’s muzzle should be slightly up. Try to take the photo so that we can use the dog’s neck in the custom “dog people” photo.
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• If possible, take the photo on a bright, overcast day. Dark, cloudy days or the shade are not the best conditions, but can work depending on your camera, lens and photography skills. Full sun is usually too harsh (and hard on your pet’s eyes!). Watch for splotchy light (light scattered by leaves from a tree).
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• Take the photo in the morning or late afternoon, not at mid-day. Position your pet so that he or she is pointed at your light source (i.e., the sun).
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• Position your pet so that he or she contrasts with the background — don’t put a black dog against a dark background or a light-colored dog against a light-colored background.
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• Get close. Take the photo of your dog from the chest up, we can’t use a photo that’s taken from too far away.
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• If you can set your camera’s ISO, use 200, unless it is too noisy (grainy), then use 100.
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• Use a high shutter speed (1/250th of a second or faster).
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• If you can set the aperture on your camera, use f5.6 to f11. On most camera lenses, f8 is the sweet spot for good depth of field and sharpness.
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• If you have a point-and-shoot camera without manual controls, try the “sports” or “child” setting.
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• Take lots of pictures. Dogs have short attention spans, so work quickly. The important points to remember: Exposure, focus and contrast — all need to be good for us to be able to use the photograph.
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• It helps to have two people, one to take the photographs and one to get the dog’s attention (and positioned directly behind the photographer). Use a squeaky toy, whistle or wave your hands to make the dog look in the direction of the camera.
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• E-mail us your best photos. We need a good quality head shot and, if possible, send us a photograph of your pet’s paws.
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• If you know how to size your image, it should be 5 X 7 inches and a 300 dpi jpeg at the highest quality setting. The final file size should be about 2 MB for jpegs and less than 10 MB for a tif. A good quality jpeg is fine for our needs.
Hopefully, you will end up with a shot that looks something like this:
