What do you use for Pet Potraits?

[Guerry Dalrymple]

What lens do you use for pet potraits? Do you approch lighting the same as for people portraits?

[Jon]

Lighting, yes. Lenses - 24-70, 70-200 or (if out of range for the 24-70 and too close for the 70-200) 24-105. I mostly do environmental, hence the lens mix.

[deci]

Home work - Lenses - Prefer to use the 50L, but nifty or 85 1.8 will do me fine. Lighting - prefer natural light (hence the 50L), but will use flash, provided its bounced off a bit of cut out plastic milk bottle I have strapped to the back of my flash and the flash pointing straight up.(beats a stofen, hands down)

For shelter work, I use either the above arrangement or, for the more scared furries, one of the zooms in my sig. I don't use flash at all in shelter, I figure the poor buggers are scared enough.

[rushnp774]

By far, my best pet portraits are from my "nifty fifty" f/1.8 lens. Check out my pics on Flickr if you'd like to see them. I only have that lens and a crappy Sigma 28-105, so I tend to leave the 50mm on there most of the time.

[Boogedy]

Another vote for the 50 f/1.8! I use it almost exclusively for any kind of portraits. My Flickr page has some pet shots taken with it (link in siggy).

[macro_shooter]

And yet another vote for the nifty fifty!

[queenbee288]

I used the nifty fifty for some close ups of some kids this weekend. Nice and sharp but the bokeh looked like crap.

[RPCrowe]

I once used a 28-135mm f/3.5-5.6 IS lens but have shifted to a 24-70mm f/2.8L for studio work and a 17-55mm f/2.8 IS lens for outside work.

In the studio, I like two old White Lightning 500 "Coffee Can" units bounced into umbrellas. One from directly above using a white umbrella and one from camera position using a silver umbrella to get detail in the animal's coat. I have more sophisticated lights but, I like the quality of the White Lightnings for dogs, especially white dogs.

I don't use a tripod but will usually sit on a roller desk chair so I can move around but be at the level of the animal.

Outside, I use sun with a 420EX or 550EX (depending on which is on my camera at the time) for fill lighting.

By the way, I use the white stuffed animal for lighting and exposure tests so I am set up and ready to go when I have the dog in front of my camera.

[uphillslide]

I use my Tamron 17-50. Sometimes I try to keep distance though and use a canon 70-200. This allows my cat to ignore me better.

[deci]

............ This allows my cat to ignore me better.
First time I heard of a cat needing any help to ignore someone:lol:

[RPCrowe]

Actually, just bouncing a flash often does the trick, especially for those photo opportunities which are fleeting. My wife is a neat-nick... Everything has its place but, the only things she doesn't mind lying around are my cameras. I keep two set up in different rooms for opportunities like this...

[cincojoe]

24-70L, 50 1.4, 85 1.8 are all good ones. Even the canon macro lenses are great for portraits.

[deci]

I'd forgotten all about the 60mm e-fs


http://www.black-cat-gfx.co.uk/potn/katie-016potn.jpg

[rebelchard]

nifty fifty definitely gets the job done for me.

[ck8l4]

As a lens I use the only one I have a 35-80mm f/ 4.0 -5.6.
For lighting it all depends on how much time I have to do it or if I have pre-setup.
IF I have a will use one light and shoot it through something, at the pets eyes to try to get a "glow" in them. Like this: http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2629/3681229600_e17ceeeba8.jpg
If it is a spot of the moment thing I will just lose natural light as seen here:
http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3406/3516414484_a79dd075ec.jpg

[gws]

http://img5.imageshack.us/img5/1291/img0161elarge.th.jpg (http://img5.imageshack.us/i/img0161elarge.jpg/)
I used ef 24-70 f/2.8 for this shot. Was trying to experiment with lighting. The lighting equipments were 2 580exII, one with homemade tupperware :) and another was just bare flash.