How To Take Awesome Pet Photos With Your iPhone

Welcome back to part two of our Photography series, in our previous piece we talked about how to better your iPhone photography skills. At Kdan Mobile, it’s safe to say we’re big fans of animals and know how many people out there have pets of their own that they love dearly. Capturing photos of an unpredictable and moving subject such as a dog, a cat, a horse, or another animal can be sometimes tricky — but don’t worry, that’s where we come in to help!

We’ve brainstormed a few tips that are designed to help you take better photographs of your favorite companions­. We’re going to need a little help with this piece, so we’ve found the perfect model to go along with our explanations. Meet Elliette: an adorable, playful, sassy, all around cuddly, and most importantly insanely photogenic two-and-a-half-year-old golden doodle who resides on the seacoast of New Hampshire.

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Elliette loves playing with her friends, going for runs, cuddling with her owners, and belly rubs. She’s incredibly energetic, and is never too tired to play a game of fetch.[/caption]

Knick, Knack Paddywack, give a dog a bone…

Sometimes training an animal to retain eye contact can be extremely difficult. Animals are not going to want to stay perfectly still and are not going to be patient forever like human models may be.

A way to “cheat” the system a bit and overcome this, is by holding a treat or toy handy as you’re taking a photo. Hold the treat up near your phone, so that your animal knows that they will be rewarded if they glance up. Elliette knows that she will be get a treat if she looks up, and is much happier to stay still for a picture and wait for that treat.

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This Christmas themed photo of Elliette and her brother, Kylo Ren would have been near impossible to take if it wasn’t for the treats.[/caption]

Good Lighting

The next step in raising your pet photography skills has to do with lighting and image composure.

Ensuring that your photos have good lighting can help instill a certain mood or atmosphere in your images. Lighting can pass off different messages to the viewers.

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Even with a snowy background that’s whiter than most, Elliette still stands out.[/caption]

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The bright light and baby shadows cause for Elliette to look more vibrant.[/caption]

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This lighting provides the viewer with a different view. First they look at the scenery before they spot Elliette wading in the water.[/caption]

Burst Mode

To capture a series of burst photos, simply hold down the photo button on your iPhone and watch it go! Your phone will recognize the movement and simultaneously take pictures until you remove your finger.

Why would you want to take a lot of photos you may ask? Having a lot of photos gives you many options. Burst mode is best used if you want to take a photo of an animal in action. It can be your best option to capture a shot of an animal jumping through the air.

Not every photo you take in burst mode is going to be perfect. However, after you take your series of bursts you can always go back and delete the ones you don’t like as much.

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Autumn beach runs in Maine[/caption]

Let’s get creative

After you take your photos is the time where you can get even more creative with editing! There are so many things that you can do in post-production including using our applications, creating collages, making a GIF, or by adding a filter to the image.

Making a GIF can help bring your photo to life in a way that not many applications can. You can use a simple website like www.giphy.com to create one for yourself, or add motion stickers with Write-on Video to create some playful effects.

You can also use NoteLedge to create a scrapbook or a pet journal to capture memories of your pets. Add stickers to your images and text to make your project unique.

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A pet journal made with NoteLedge[/caption]

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We added a black and white filter to this photo[/caption]

Taking pictures of your pets is a great way to capture and share your memories. We hope that you will think about these tips the next time you set out to take a photo of your favorite pet!