Jill Tisbury Portrait artist Photographic tips

Always work at your pet's level, you get a much better result.

Molly macro by Jill Tisbury

It takes time to get a great shot, so be patient.

Photographing your pet for a portrait To create a good pastel portrait, I need some good reference material. I always draw from photographs for portrait work. Imagine trying to get your pet to sit still for 5 minutes let alone the time it takes for a portrait! Unless we're talking cats, of course, and you'd like a portrait of them sleeping... If you are unsure whether the images that you have of your pet will be suitable, simply give me a call. Normally I will ask people to post or email the shots and can then let you know if I can use them. Here are some photography tips that might help: Getting the right distance • Get in as close as you can without chopping off important parts of your subject Sometimes you might actually want a very close-up image of the face. the left hand image would work if it were framed better and the eyes were in focus.
Too close	Much better for a head shot
Not big enough in the frame	Much better for a full body shot
Focus • Make sure you get the eyes in focus • This is critical, think sharp sharp sharp not blur blur blur

Getting the right height • Don’t shoot looking down on to the subject • Shoot at eye level of subject, you'll get much better results

Brightness If all of the light is behind your pet, there won't normally be enough light at the front to show up the detail. • Take a couple of shots with and without flash • Use flash for indoor shots and for dark subjects (black dog or cat) • Make sure you are not shooting into the sun, have the sun behind you
This is where your camera may have problems getting the right exposure, often a pop of flash is enough to fill the shadow areas. Stops that black cat in coal bunker look.	You can see much more detail here, now that we've got the light source in front.