There is nothing I like more than photographing pets outside doing what comes naturally. It's even better when the light cooperates and there is a natural, eye-catching landscape as a backdrop. I have been really busy this past week keeping up with shelter photography, so I'm going to use a shelter photograph for one of my images.
I've also decided to approach this from a little bit different slant--the "what if it ain't such a perfect landscape" perspective.
I've also decided to approach this from a little bit different slant--the "what if it ain't such a perfect landscape" perspective.
I hope you like the above image. It is of a dog named Troy, who resides at The Lehigh County Humane Society. Troy is a very nice dog and I am hoping he will find a home soon. When you do shelter photography, you are limited to the use of props, a small mobile studio set up, or finding a piece of land where a handler can easily manage a dog for photos. The Lehigh shelter is lucky because it has a nice piece of land adjacent to the main building. There is even a small creek nearby.
In the case of Troy and the landscape behind him, we are not quite into full-bloom Fall colors yet. The landscape is soothing enough, in my opinion, but the original copy of this photo was not as bright and mostly green. With the light being good, and the dog having a pleasing expression on his face, I decided to use my editing programs to help me make this image a little bit more colorful.
I brightened the image in Adobe Lightroom first, then moved it to Photoshop Elements to pull out the color where it already existed, just not as vividly as you now see it. I also blurred the landscape a bit, because I thought adding a leaf overlay with just a few leaves, would make the image more interesting. Now we have a moving-to-Fall landscape instead of an all green photo backdrop. There are many tricks you can use while editing to bring out color. Troy's coat color is naturally beautiful, and the added color in the landscape helps to highlight it.
In the next image, taken a few weeks ago at an event, we have both a foreground and background landscape situation surrounding a dog hunting for birds. Using much the same techniques (first Lightroom, then Photoshop Elements), I adjusted the brightness and brought out the color in the foreground environment. The background landscape was already blurred due to the lens used to shoot this photo. It was later in the afternoon, and the sky was starting to brew up a rain storm, so it provided its own color scheme. The dog (named Pi) was checking in with his owner and I just happened to capture this glance. I like the progression of focus from front to back in this shot (extremely sharp to blurred), and the late day light.
In the case of Troy and the landscape behind him, we are not quite into full-bloom Fall colors yet. The landscape is soothing enough, in my opinion, but the original copy of this photo was not as bright and mostly green. With the light being good, and the dog having a pleasing expression on his face, I decided to use my editing programs to help me make this image a little bit more colorful.
I brightened the image in Adobe Lightroom first, then moved it to Photoshop Elements to pull out the color where it already existed, just not as vividly as you now see it. I also blurred the landscape a bit, because I thought adding a leaf overlay with just a few leaves, would make the image more interesting. Now we have a moving-to-Fall landscape instead of an all green photo backdrop. There are many tricks you can use while editing to bring out color. Troy's coat color is naturally beautiful, and the added color in the landscape helps to highlight it.
In the next image, taken a few weeks ago at an event, we have both a foreground and background landscape situation surrounding a dog hunting for birds. Using much the same techniques (first Lightroom, then Photoshop Elements), I adjusted the brightness and brought out the color in the foreground environment. The background landscape was already blurred due to the lens used to shoot this photo. It was later in the afternoon, and the sky was starting to brew up a rain storm, so it provided its own color scheme. The dog (named Pi) was checking in with his owner and I just happened to capture this glance. I like the progression of focus from front to back in this shot (extremely sharp to blurred), and the late day light.
Now let's check in with some other photographers to see how they interpreted this week's theme. First Cincinnati pet photographer, Suzi Pix Photography. Enjoy!
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