FAQ: Questions about Photographs for Pet Portraits

If you have a question about finding or taking suitable photos for your pet's portrait, by all means, ask: Email me, use the chat box to the right or call 412-828-8679.

Questions about suitable portrait reference photographs

• Do you work from photos or real life?
• How should I send you my photos?
• Top five tips for taking good pet photos
• What if my pet is gone and I don't have the option of taking any more photos?
• I'm interested in having a portrait of our two dogs done. Can you work from two separate photos and combine into one portrait?
• How can I take photos of more than two pets, so the lighting similar enough to do one portrait?

 

Do you work from photos or real life?

I work from photos, since even the best-trained pets have no patience for a portrait sitting! ;-) Sending a variety of photos usually works best, since sometimes I can combine the best from each. You can email digital photos or scans or snail-mail traditional photos, which I will return with your portrait.

How should I send you my photos?

Traditional film photos

• Snail mail the photos to:

Susan Donley
700 10th Street
Oakmont, PA 15139

• Scan the photos and email them or snail mail a CD-ROM containing the photos. Scan at high resolution (300 ppi or dpi) and save the file as a high quality JPEG. See your scanner instructions for how to do this. If your pet's face measures less than two inches on the print, scan at a higher resolution (400 or 600 ppi) or at 200% magnification at 300 ppi.
• If you are taking the photos especially for this portrait, request a CD-ROM of the photos when you have them developed and snail-mail me the CD.

I'll return your Photos and CDs to you with your portrait.

Digital photos

Send me your original digital photos at full resolution to preserve as much detail as possible (don't reduce or enlarge them):

• Email them if there are only a few. If the file sizes are larger than 1 megabyte, please email just two or three at a time in separate emails.
• Burn a CD iIf you've taken a lot of photos, and snail mail it to the address above.
• Use a ZIP utility to compact all the photos into one .zip archive and I can send you a file-sharing link to upload them to. (If you don't know what a ZIP archive is, then this probably isn't a good time to learn, unless you have a techie friend to help you! ;-)

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Top five tips for taking good pet photos:

• Get as close as you can -- if your camera has a zoom lens, use it to zoom in until the dog (especially the dog’s head) fills the frame.
• Crouch down to your pet's eye-level -- it usually makes a better portrait.
• Take a lot of photos, some head-shot close-ups, some full body. Try different angles: Head-on, side view, three-quarter view.
• Use natural light, if possible. Avoiding the flash not only helps avoid the dreaded "red-eye" (or green-or-yellow-eye in cats and dogs), but also prevents flattening out the shading that can really make your pet's portrait pop off the page.
• If your photos are digital, take them at the highest quality/resolution that you can. I will use the digital files — no need to print them out.

Sign up for my free email mini-course "Taking Portrait-Worthy Pet Photos" to learn more.

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What if my pet is gone and I don't have the option of taking any more photos?

If your pet is gone, send what photos you have. I will combine the best from each to get the detail I need. That's what I did for this memorial portrait of Britt, a Welsh Springer Spaniel. Finding photos for this one was a special challenge, since Britt's owners' friends were arranging the portrait as a surprise sympathy gift.

Britt, a Welsh Springer Spaniel, died suddenly at only six years old. Britt's mom's friends wanted to comfort her with a portrait showing off Britt's beautiful face. Obviously, there was no chance to take the perfect picture. Their solution was to find (being very sneaky to not ruin the surprise!) several pictures.	In the finished portrait, I combined elements of several photos. Her mom's favorite photo with the cocked head was over-exposed so there was no detail visible in the highlights. I started with the cocked head expression, then pulled the missing details, like Britt's freckles, from the bottom photos and her silky ears from the top left and bottom right photos.

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I'm interested in having a portrait of our two dogs done. Can you work from two separate photos and combine into one portrait?

Yes, since it is nearly impossible to get photos of two critters together without one of them moving, looking the wrong way, etc. It is best to have the same lighting conditions if you want them to look like they are sitting together naturally. That’s what I did with this portrait of the three kitties to the right.

The two on the right were actually sitting together in the photo, but the one on the left was added. I was able to find a photo that was lit from the same angle and she was even looking the same direction! Having a lot of photos to choose from helps, especially since this was done posthumously, so I didn’t have the option to take more photos.

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How can I take photos of more than two pets, so the lighting is similar enough to use for one portrait?

One of the challenges of combining pets in a portrait is that the lighting is usually different on each. It helps to have plenty of photos, since I’ll often need to use the pose from one pic, but the lighting from another.

If you don’t have suitable photos already, my advice is to take them outside and just start shooting as many photos as you can from different angles. Most likely we’ll be able to pick suitable photos from the bunch (if you have a digital camera, this is pain-free, since taking a lot of photos doesn’t cost any more than taking one.). If you can get them to sit in the same spot, facing (roughly) the same direction with respect to the light (its OK if they are looking different directions, as long as the light is coming from the same angle), we’ll be sure to have something to work with.

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