Asked to do some pet portraits - equipment?

I was asked by a co-worker to do some dog/cat portraits for a local rescue group. There may also be some shots of owners with their adopted pets. I don't have any experience doing portraits so I am hoping to get some advice here regarding my equipment. I shoot a lot of product shots for my wife's online shop so I already have a modest studio setup. For this rescue group shoot we will shoot at a location to be determined (not at my house). My equipment is in my sig - what's not listed is a couple of light stands and a Cheetah Qbox 24. Tomorrow we have another 580EXII arriving (my wife wanted one too). So I'll have two flashes to use and one softbox. Since I have an extra light stand, I don't mind buying a cheap umbrella or something. I can also use my wife's 7D if that helps for remotely controlling the flashes.

Any advice on what kind of cheap diffuser/reflector to use for the second flash (if I need one at all)? I'd be willing to spend no more than $100. I'll keep reading through this section of the board in the meantime.

Thanks!

-Tim

I guess the biggest thing to know first is what the location looks like and how it's set up.

seoul4korea wrote in post #13365007
I guess the biggest thing to know first is what the location looks like and how it's set up.

That's the thing I don't know yet. We might be able to use a conference room here at work. My co-worker is looking into renting a backdrop. For now I would assume an average sized room space, 15' x 20' or so.

timeasterday wrote in post #13365017
That's the thing I don't know yet. We might be able to use a conference room here at work. My co-worker is looking into renting a backdrop. For now I would assume an average sized room space, 15' x 20' or so.

If that's the case the two speedlites should be more then enough light for that room. I guess one thing to consider would be whether or not you are planning on using props. The lighting should be a problem considering the size of the room I think the hardest part is getting the dog not to move around.

the only thing i can throw into this is that some of the animals are still in the rescue centre and will be very skittish and having multiple flashes going off at them might make them even worse its just a thought, ive worked in a rescue center and getting some of these animals to trust is a job in itself some may have been abandoned etc etc

My 2 cents: Buy 2 squeaky toys and a big bag of treats. Use the treats to help lure your subject to the right position/pose. Use the squeakies to get the dog/cat's attention. You may need to toss both toys to get your shot so having a spare in your pocket is helpful. krisuk makes an interesting point in that you will be working with a lot of abused animals who will be very suspicious of a dude hiding behind a camera around dangerous looking lightstands. You must be *extremely* patient and caring.

I found out more info - this will be people who adopted rescue pets posing with their pets for a Christmas portrait. Not really what I thought it was, I was hoping it was just animals. The people trying to organize this are expecting that people will pay for these portraits. That makes me a little uncomfortable since I have no portrait taking experience. And they don't have a location yet (our company said no to using our facilities). I'd love to help them out with better photos of pets up for adoption, but I'm not quite ready to do paid sittings with people. Hmmm, gotta think about this.

timeasterday wrote in post #13367575
I found out more info - this will be people who adopted rescue pets posing with their pets for a Christmas portrait. Not really what I thought it was, I was hoping it was just animals. The people trying to organize this are expecting that people will pay for these portraits. That makes me a little uncomfortable since I have no portrait taking experience. And they don't have a location yet (our company said no to using our facilities). I'd love to help them out with better photos of pets up for adoption, but I'm not quite ready to do paid sittings with people. Hmmm, gotta think about this.

It's not that hard, Just imagine the people as pets but more annoying because they can talk jk. You just have to find a way to blend them together and get them set up. Having them sit on the ground or low to the ground at the same height of the dog/cats will help or if it's a smaller animal have them being held a do a tight shot of the owner/pet looking at each other or something.

You could have a flash with an umbrella off to the left and high up point down and then a soft box either directly off to your right at their level and just play with the lighting from there.

The hard part is going to be using the lighting to show emotion (Light + Shadows)

You could even try one light to the left (Or right) and have one light behind them to give you some brim lighting to keep some of the shadows in.

seoul4korea, thanks for the help!

I recommended a local photo studio for a location (since I know the owner) and the rescue group ended up renting it for a day in a few weeks. That works out great since they have a very nice space. It's a huge room with direct outside access (they bring cars & motorcycles in for shoots there). The floor and back wall are curved where they meet so it's seamless and all painted white. So I probably won't have to worry about my flashes at all - they have lots of equipment there - studio lights, backdrops, props, etc. They will be bringing in a guy dressed as Santa too. I think this will be fun and a great learning experience!

Well that works out great then! Keep us posted on how it comes out.

We did the shoot this morning and everything went well. Not many people showed up but it was a great learning experience for me. I think the photos turned out pretty good for my first portrait session. Here's one:

Looks like you did great.