Most amateur pet photographers put the camera settings on "automatic" and shoot away in the auto setting; Generally getting sharp "ok" photos
. If you want a high-quality portrait of your pet, you will need to take more control of your camera's functions. If you are like me, you have no idea what f-stop is or shutter speed or how about aperture? Any way i thought i would come up with a kind of "amateur pet photographer" tutorial and I will keep it simple.
1. Lighting- Lighting is key! Outside photos work best on pets but if your inside try to get extra lighting in darker rooms. Bring a plug in lamp or two to light up that dark room. Try to avoid flash when possible or you will get the "green" or "red" eye.
2. Position- Get down low with pets unless you have an elephant or lion as a pet. Lay down on the carpet or floor in different positions or angles until you get that perfect shot. Always try to focus on the eyes in a photo. Don't be afraid to take a paw shot or half the face with a great whisker shot or in the Sphynx cats case the "broken whisker" shot!
3. Digital camera settings- I will make this as easy as possible for the best "auto" results.
A. Portrait shots- use the "portrait" feature. on your camera it usually has an icon of a persons face. This will focus on your pet and leave the background a little "fuzzy" or "out of focus".
B. Action shots- How about those "tongue out of mouth" shots or the famous yawning cat shots. You want to put your camera setting on the icon of the "skier" or "sports" type icon. This will give you a faster shutter speed for action.
Tip: Never delete photos on your digital camera while you are in the shooting session! what looks horrible on a 2" LCD screen may be a wonderful photo on your desktop computer.