Candid VS Posed?

Hi,

I'm becoming more interested at giving pet photography a more serious shot. I have no interest (at this stage) in creating a business, just chasing great shot's. So I'm interested to hear what the more experienced (then I am) photographers have to say in regards to what makes for a much nicer shot, candid shot's or the set up/posed shots? Why? And would you have any tips on how you go about achieving them? particularly the candid shot's. So far I've only photographed my own dog's and they are very obedient, but have recently asked to practise with other dogs belonging to family, that I guess you can say... are not so obedient.

Hey,

I'm in your boat too. Interested in others chiming in. I've just finally started using semi-auto to full manual exposure modes. I'm a beginner but finding my favorite things to take pics of right now are dogs... especially mine lol.

My Boston Terrier is extremely patient & obedient too. I prefer candid shots, but do a mixture of both. Why? They're just more beautiful in their natural state. Don't get me wrong, I've done some goofy set up shots too.

You may want to go to your local dog park and start taking pics of other dogs because you'll have all types of scenarios. You'll learn boundaries and what most dogs that aren't yours are willing to put up with and how other owners respond. You have to constantly be on your toes because most dogs won't just sit there and let you take pics of them. I recently had a Pitbull freak out after I took a pic of her, but she finally came around and I got a shot I was happy with. It was a learning experience and worth the effort. I'll post it below, along with a candid of my dog.

I love using my 50mm 1.8 prime .. I feel like I get better shots at that focal length and can really get close up and personal. Using a large aperture of course allows for those faster shutter speeds to get nice and crisp shots of moving pups. Plus I love the shallow depth of field you get. Would love to see a few pics of your dog!!

Thanks for taking the time to leave a reply jaebird82. Cute dog's, Boston's are rare here in Australia and you have to be on a waiting list and get "approved" by the breeder to be able to purchase one. My old boss is a breeder of Boston's, they are lovely dog's, such characters.

I had a really eye opener today, which seemed to answer a lot of my questions in regards to candid vs posed shot's. Today I practised some pet photography with my sisters dog, her dog is about 5-6 years old and is not very obedient, she is a extremely timid and scares so easily, any sudden movements and she bolts and hides (she is a jack russell x kelpie). Which made photographing her extremely difficult, I had to use my 70-300mm lens, sit way back and zoom in. Whilst my hubby kept her attention, just keeping her with us was tricky (and we didn't want leads in the shot), having my sister around only made the dog worse. In the end we had to ask my sister to leave and we found a way to get her to want to stay with us, but I didn't get the shot's I was hoping for (as I have high expectations of myself). And there is no way I could've used a reflector, the dog would have freaked out completely.

My dog's are obedient and patient (as I've always worked with mainly dogs in animal care and have spent years in dog training for obedience and agility). My dogs will do anything we ask of them.

Today I realised that it is best to shoot the way that makes the dog most comfortable, and that is how you will achieve great results. There was no point trying to set my sisters dog up into a "beautiful" put on setting, she just would not have been able to handle it and that would've made for horrible shot's in her body language. Yet with my own dogs they can handle it and are happy to do so, meaning good, natural, comfortable body language in their shot's.

Sorry to ramble on, it just was a really eye opener to photograph someone elses pet and not my own. I learnt so much in doing so, and I know realise I've gotten to use to my dog's doing as they ask and "setting them up" that I really need to work on more candid shot's to really improve and grow in this area of photography.

So if anyone has any tips on capture great candid shot's I'd be happy to hear them (going to research more about this myself also).

I've just done a forum search for "agility" and came accross this thread.

I don't own a dog, but I had a photo session a few weeks back with my sisters dog. I suppose you could call it a candid session as nothing was "posed", except that perhaps we (sister, nephew and I) threw a ball in the rough direction we wanted the dog to go.

I suppose I was lucky in that the dog knows me (perhaps the dog trusts my sisters trust in me) and after only a few minutes together we were playing ball (pun intended).

I suppose a key here is having the dog trust you - you are the stranger, you need to gain their acceptance. I guess the breed characteristics are key too (my sisters dog is a Border Collie)

We're particulary chuffed with this image (it now hangs in A2 format in my sisters lounge):

IMAGE LINK: http://www.flickr.com/​photos/trugga/85906921​14/

Wow, beautiful shot. Care to share what body and lens were used? I'm guessing a fairly large aperture was used because of the depth of field (or maybe a zoom lens) and obvious fast shutter speed. What was your shutter speed on this? I'm just learning photography so I always like to know other people specs or settings. Thanks!

EDIT: Nevermind, I see the details on your Flickr. Thanks.

Trugga wrote in post #15863005
I've just done a forum search for "agility" and came accross this thread.

I don't own a dog, but I had a photo session a few weeks back with my sisters dog. I suppose you could call it a candid session as nothing was "posed", except that perhaps we (sister, nephew and I) threw a ball in the rough direction we wanted the dog to go.

I suppose I was lucky in that the dog knows me (perhaps the dog trusts my sisters trust in me) and after only a few minutes together we were playing ball (pun intended).

I suppose a key here is having the dog trust you - you are the stranger, you need to gain their acceptance. I guess the breed characteristics are key too (my sisters dog is a Border Collie)

We're particulary chuffed with this image (it now hangs in A2 format in my sisters lounge):

I did find that getting down to eye level gave a better result (especially in the snow, allowing some background interest other than white).

In a few weeks time, I will be at the obidience/agility class my sister attends, where I hope to gain more experience of dog photography (and hopefully come away with some acceptable images) - like you, just for fun.

Lawrence

Thanks Trugga, That is a great capture, thanks for showing it, this is the kind of candid stuff I'm taking about, I'd have it on my wall also. I had a look at your other shot's, very well done. I hope you enjoy your outing to agility in a couple of weeks and would like to see what you get, I'm thinking to head out with the club I use to do training with (before my dog got serious health problems and could no longer train).

I agree having the dog's trust is a very important part. We eventually got there with my sisters dog, once my sister left, her dog relaxed and was happy to play with my hubby and sit with him. I thought we would get better results if my sister was with us... but not so in that case.

I'm a pet photographer, so I'll chime in a bit.

When I do my sessions, most people request posed shots. But I do usually get some nice candid ones as well. With dogs, the biggest thing is getting their attention and making sure they're comfortable. Some dogs respond great to funny, loud noises (you make a total idiot out of yourself LOL), but others do better if you just sit back and "watch" them with your lens. I photograph show dogs as well as pets; most show people want certain poses and a more serious look. Pet people like the goofier faces, etc.

I also photograph shelter dogs, which I think is a GREAT way to get involved and learn about pet photography. Always something different when it comes to them! It has really taught me (and still does) a lot.

Here are a few examples of each:

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More candid/action stuff:

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Thanks kady05 for your input and for showing your images. You have very lovely photographs, I hope one day to shoot images of that quality.

From my experience from working with dog's (but not photographing them) tells me that a big part is to be able to work with the animal in a way that they are most comfortable (with the photographer), being able to "read" them and understand them is another big plus.

I had been noticing that I seem to "set up" most of what I've done with my dog's and then began to wonder what made for a nicer image, candid or posed. I really need to practise the candid more.

Here a couple of my images. My dog's posed and probably my best so far (but I can see errors), I had posted these in the critique forum, I also had them printed recently and I'm not real happy with the way they turned out in print, their eye's are very dark.

kady05 - One question I have is how do you get the eye's so clear (as I think that would be quite important)? do you do that in camera or in editing?

And here are a couple of candid shot's a friends dog, this is a farm dog. To be honest I'm not completely happy with pretty much all/most of my results.

a lot has to do with the lens and camera she's using, i'm sure. not to say you can't get great results with an entry level DSLR, but the bigger sensor and better glass will make a big difference. i'll post a few more of mine. i just started learning photography so i'm learning.


i'll post a few more of my dog.

Macro girl wrote in post #15877200
kady05 - One question I have is how do you get the eye's so clear (as I think that would be quite important)? do you do that in camera or in editing?

And here are a couple of candid shot's a friends dog, this is a farm dog. To be honest I'm not completely happy with pretty much all/most of my results.

awesome. i might start doing shelter dogs for practice, and because they deserve better photos. for your action shots, what mode do you set your camera to? AV? TV? I assume you're on continuous shooting and aI servo. Do you use a lot of natural lighting for your outdoor shots?

EDIT: sorry macro girl didn't mean you hijack your thread. im sure you'd like to know too though.

kady05 wrote in post #15876748
More candid/action stuff:


And then you have the shelter dogs. I focus on their faces/eyes the most, that draws people in.

So you get the idea!

Thank you for the nice words

For starters, I shoot with a 1D Mark III and all of the pictures I posted about were taken with my 70-200mm lens. For a little change, this was taken with my 85mm:

are you using AI Servo for your action moving shots? If not, that could be why the face is a little soft when you're shooting your subjects for action shots.

Macro girl wrote in post #15877200
kady05 - One question I have is how do you get the eye's so clear (as I think that would be quite important)? do you do that in camera or in editing?

And here are a couple of candid shot's a friends dog, this is a farm dog. To be honest I'm not completely happy with pretty much all/most of my results.

Awesome, thanks for getting back. So, is pet photography your main profession? How long have you been doing it? Seems like a lot of fun. Do you still love doing it as a profession as much as you did doing it has a hobby? I've read that once you start making money taking pictures, it's no longer a hobby.. it's work. Just wondering if you feel the same way.

And I'd like to see some of your t1i pics since i have a t3i. I need to get some new lenses, but I'm loving my 50mm 1.8. Although, there are times when moving closer or further from your subject makes you miss the shot, so it'd be nice to have a good zoom lens. What your favorite lens to use?

Thanks!

kady05 wrote in post #15878238
Thank you for the nice words

For starters, I shoot with a 1D Mark III and all of the pictures I posted about were taken with my 70-200mm lens. For a little change, this was taken with my 85mm:

I have some with my 50mm and even some with my old (I used to have a T1i) stock lens that I can post too. You can get nice pictures with "cheaper" lenses/bodies, but I will say that my 70-200 is pretty much glued to my camera.

I generally focus on the dogs eyes, so that's why they're sharp. I do some editing in Lightroom & Photoshop also.

Most of those pictures were taken in Manual mode. This one:

Was shot in AV mode, f/5, 1/5,000. AV mode works great for action shots, and yes, AI Servo.

There was no flash used in any of the pictures I originally posted, actually. The one above of the cat yawning there was. I rarely use a flash though.

The pictures you guys posted are good, you're on your way to even better images With dogs, one big thing is getting down on their level so it doesn't look like your shooting over their heads.. unless of course you want that "look". It's sometimes cute!