Home studio setup for pets

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Jonesy83

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Hey Everyone,

Apologies if this has been asked before, but I had a search in the forums and couldn't find a thread on it that I understood (I fully realise the problem is me here =)) and I was hoping for some help.

I'm completely new to the idea of studio lighting/shooting and I was wondering what consists of a good setup, or what I need to do the job if I wanted to set a studio up for taking shots of pets and maybe some of the kids in the family (if there's a difference?). I'd ideally not want to spend much more than £200, but if that's unrealistic or I'm going to get something a bit better for not a lot more then I'm all ears.

I've had a look through the forums and gather that permanent light isn't the right direction to go down, but I saw a set of Interfit EX150 mkiii's on eBay and was wondering if they'd be up for the job?

http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/142361555722?_trksid=p2060353.m1438.l2649&ssPageName=STRK:MEBIDX:IT

I know I'd also need a backdrop and stands, but would I need anything else?

Also, if anyone had an idiots guide to studio photography and lighting that they could recommend and share it'll probably save me bugging you guys in the future with stupid questions :D. I've ear marked the articles on digital photography school, but if anyone has anything else that makes a good resource then I'd be very grateful if you could share it.

Thanks!
 
You could start by reading through this section, there's hours of interesting stuff.

If you're happy to buy 2nd hand there's bargains galore available.

Some important stuff to bear in mind.

Don't buy the cheap Chinese lights with the built in reflectors often described as 'universal mount', the mount is the polar opposite of universal, somewhere between frustrating and dangerous.

Think about the mount, the 2 most popular are Bowens S fit and the Elinchrom fit, the mount is used to attach softboxes etc to the light.

The next important consideration is how to trigger the lights. At its simplest you can attach a cable from the camera to the light, and then the 2nd and subsequent lights will fire as slaves. But again, it can be frustrating, and tripping over a cable cost me a camera and lens service (made the radio triggers I then bought look like a bargain). Some older models use infra red triggering, but it's not as reliable as radio, the best new lights have a remote control system built into the triggers.

Any questions; just ask?
 
Jonesy83 said:
I've had a look through the forums and gather that permanent light isn't the right direction to go down, but I saw a set of Interfit EX150 mkiii's on eBay and was wondering if they'd be up for the job?
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Continuous not permanent.

The Interfit kit would work fine, if it goes cheap enough it could be worth your money just for the softbox, umbrella, stands and transmitter let alone the heads. Besides the price it also has the advantage of giving you an Elinchrom mount so you can build a system up around it but the major downside is reliability, if you buy it do so with the understanding the heads will probably have noticeably shorter life spans than the pets you'll be shooting and that's assuming they're working 100% at the moment.

Could be wrong of course, I've got a couple of really old Interfit heads that still work sort of but it helps to take a pragmatic approach to these things.
 
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Good advice so far
I may add. Keep it simple. Kids and pets requires 100% attention so no fumbling around to adjust. Start with one light and have it dialed in before the shoot. Also small feet and cables on the floor........(n)
 
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I always use one of my dogs toys to get exposure right before even contemplating trying to take some shots of him as they quickly get bored. I have also bought a squeaker to grab his attention that I just put in my mouth, that way he "normally" looks right at the camera.
 
What everyone else has said.
Also, short subjects need to have shorter light stands than normal - this means that the stands need to go fairly low but the also need to be sturdy, which the cheap EBay ones aren't.
Also, you mention a backdrop. Please be aware that if you want the background to be pure white, you will need two extra lights for that.
 
Garry Edwards said:
Please be aware that if you want the background to be pure white, you will need two extra lights for that.
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Exactly this.

White background unlit:

12799148_10204611082637618_3750816537816820688_n.jpg
 
The dog photos I have taken have all been with one speedlight and a softbox and most times a reflector a grey roller blind as a background. Same goes for the people photos. That said i'm no expert but hey ho it seems to get results.

Gaz

ps: recently treated myself to a grey paper for the background only purchased it so I could do a seamless look. Otherwise I would still use the blind.
 
Thanks for all of the replies, I can already see that there's so much that I hadn't thought about and loads to learn!! I'm only really toying with the idea of setting up a home studio, but it's something that I'm keen to learn and if that kit goes cheap enough I might pick it up as an experiment.

From what you guys have said I have a few more questions......

- Just how unreliable are IR transmitters and in what way? If I wasn't getting on with them would I be able to buy some radio transmitters further down the line and attach them to the kit as an upgrade?
- If I decide to go down the second hand route is there anything in particular I need to look out for, or should test, in particular to make sure that they work OK when picking them up?
- What would you expect the lifespan of this kit to be assuming it was well looked after and how often would I need to replace bulbs/heads? I guess a lot of it depends on how often I use it, but is asking for a rough number of pictures I cold use it for a stupid question?!
- I hadn't even considered that I'd need more lights to get a pure white background!! It's definitely something I'd like as an option at some point, would a reasonably thin background with some lights behind it be the best way to achieve this and would they be continuous rather than flash?
- Would there be any benefit in getting a flash for my camera or using the on camera flash with the setup?
- Would I be able to use these bulbs with a beauty dish? I really like the work of Kaylee Greer and read that she uses a beauty dish on her shoots so I was thinking of picking one of those up one day, maybe instead of going down the studio route.
- From reading a few threads on here it seems that different power heads have different uses. The set in my link is 2x75w, making 150w in total, but what is that best used for and what are the main uses of different power heads?

Apologies for the bullet points and amount of questions!!

Mark, that shot of your Springer is great. S/He has a beautiful face, really expressive and it looks like you grabbed it at a rare (for your average Springer) calm moment =)

Steve
 
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Jonesy83 said:
- Just how unreliable are IR transmitters and in what way? If I wasn't getting on with them would I be able to buy some radio transmitters further down the line and attach them to the kit as an upgrade?
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Depends on your environment, in a small room you won't have an issue. IR transmitters are exactly the same as your TV remote control, they just fire a more powerful beam and if it doesn't reach the IR receiver it won't fire the head. I don't think you'll have a problem but radio tends to just be a better solution all round.

Jonesy83 said:
- If I decide to go down the second hand route is there anything in particular I need to look out for, or should test, in particular to make sure that they work OK when picking them up?
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Always test, if you pick them up especially because it's an awkward conversation to bring up later whereas in person it's hard to argue. Some minor faults are actually a good thing as you can get a better deal. If they're older units make sure the flash tube hasn't worn out (fire on lowest power setting repeatedly, if it misfires the tube is on its way out) and you fire on full power to test the rest of the head. Also check the sync port and IR sensor are working as otherwise you can't fire the head and if it has a fan see if it works.

The noises it makes and even how it smells can give away its condition.

Jonesy83 said:
- What would you expect the lifespan of this kit to be assuming it was well looked after and how often would I need to replace bulbs/heads? I guess a lot of it depends on how often I use it, but is asking for a rough number of pictures I cold use it for a stupid question?!
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Everything breaks eventually, you can buy the best and most expensive equipment and it can develop faults in a short span if you're unlucky. Truth be told it depends a little on who made it and how, something like the newer Interfit and Calumet heads are not to be relied upon in the long run even though under low usage conditions you'll probably get a couple of years service out of them.

If you're lucky it may never fail on you but like I said earlier be pragmatic, if you're paying a tiny amount of money then you can't expect it to be bulletproof (that costs extra!).

Jonesy83 said:
- I hadn't even considered that I'd need more lights to get a pure white background!! It's definitely something I'd like as an option at some point, would a reasonably thin background with some lights behind it be the best way to achieve this and would they be continuous rather than flash?
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No, the reason you need lights for your background with flash is because of the Inverse Square Law which as far as you're concerned simply means the further away something is from your light source the darker it appears so if you expose a shot for your subject perfectly something white will appear correctly on them but something white 10 feet behind them will appear grey to black.

That's not an especially great explanation and doesn't cover the subject properly, this would be a good thing for you to learn about, at the very least check out a video about it as it's not complicated in practice.

You do not want continuous because there's no such thing as good cheap continuous lighting and it brings its own issues to consider.

Jonesy83 said:
- Would there be any benefit in getting a flash for my camera or using the on camera flash with the setup?
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A speedlight can be a useful addition but I'm not seeing how it will help your setup while mounted on your camera.

Jonesy83 said:
- Would I be able to use these bulbs with a beauty dish? I really like the work of Kaylee Greer and read that she uses a beauty dish on her shoots so I was thinking of picking one of those up one day, maybe instead of going down the studio route.
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A beauty dish attaches to your head, so if you get an Elinchrom fit head you'll need an Elinchrom fit beauty dish. Yes basically.

Jonesy83 said:
- From reading a few threads on here it seems that different power heads have different uses. The set in my link is 2x75w, making 150w in total, but what is that best used for and what are the main uses of different power heads?
Click to expand...

It depends on what you're doing, if you needed to overpower the sun or fill some gigantic modifiers then you need a lot of power to do so but as you're doing portraits you generally won't be using much power at all and you may find that a low power head is better for your needs as you need less not more power but like I say it depends on what you're doing and how you're doing it.
 
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Garry Edwards said:
What everyone else has said.
Also, short subjects need to have shorter light stands than normal - this means that the stands need to go fairly low but the also need to be sturdy, which the cheap EBay ones aren't..
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Having done this at a few pet stores you either need as Garry said shorter stands or as we do raise the subject up which makes a working day easier on the knees

Mike
 
Thanks for all of the replies everyone, especially to you Simon for answering my shopping list of questions!

I think I'll keep an eye on it and maybe pick it up as an experiment if the price is right. What is the smell/noise I need to look out for when testing it? I guess general electrical burning is the smell? I've had a look on YouTube for some videos on the kit and can hear what they sound like, but is there a particular noise that a knackered set makes?

I'm not expecting it to last a lifetime but if I get a year or so out of it then they've done their job, I would have (hopefully!) learnt something new, and I can at least use the stands etc and just replace he heads later on down the line.

I have a video lined up on the inverse square law and will watch in a mo!

Thanks for all of the tips on working with dogs/getting their attention too. At the minute I use a mixture of a dog whistle app (not so great), an app that makes animal noises (pretty decent), an empty crisp packet and Bronson's favourite toy (both of which are great!) the only issue with those is that it means I only have one hand on the camera. The crem dela crem is a kazoo though, hands free and sure to get attention!

bensherman2 said:
To the OP

I have some of these "squeakers" going spare if you want me to post you out some?

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That'd be great if it's not too much bother, I'm always keen to try something new, I'd be very grateful!! Shall I pm you my address?

Steve
 
Jonesy83 said:
Thanks for all of the replies everyone, especially to you Simon for answering my shopping list of questions!

I think I'll keep an eye on it and maybe pick it up as an experiment if the price is right. What is the smell/noise I need to look out for when testing it? I guess general electrical burning is the smell? I've had a look on YouTube for some videos on the kit and can hear what they sound like, but is there a particular noise that a knackered set makes?

I'm not expecting it to last a lifetime but if I get a year or so out of it then they've done their job, I would have (hopefully!) learnt something new, and I can at least use the stands etc and just replace he heads later on down the line.

I have a video lined up on the inverse square law and will watch in a mo!

Thanks for all of the tips on working with dogs/getting their attention too. At the minute I use a mixture of a dog whistle app (not so great), an app that makes animal noises (pretty decent), an empty crisp packet and Bronson's favourite toy (both of which are great!) the only issue with those is that it means I only have one hand on the camera. The crem dela crem is a kazoo though, hands free and sure to get attention!




That'd be great if it's not too much bother, I'm always keen to try something new, I'd be very grateful!! Shall I pm you my address?

Steve
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Yes Steve no probs, I'll try and post some out to you tomorrow when I'm back from work.
 
Jonesy83 said:
I think I'll keep an eye on it and maybe pick it up as an experiment if the price is right. What is the smell/noise I need to look out for when testing it? I guess general electrical burning is the smell? I've had a look on YouTube for some videos on the kit and can hear what they sound like, but is there a particular noise that a knackered set makes?
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Generally if you can smell electronics burning that's a bad sign although not always, if you fire up an old head with lots of dust in it it'll smell of burning until the dust has cleared. If you sniff the unit and there's a strong smell of electronics (hard to explain, acrid smell) that's often a sign it's been heavily used.

You've got obvious noises to watch out for like a fan going or a bang/loud pop when it fires or crackling but it's more a basis of comparison, once you've heard the same head working normally then if you hear anything else it's a sign there may be an issue or not, sometimes they vary even on the same model.

I wouldn't stress it too much, there's just lots of little signs you can watch out for.

Jonesy83 said:
I'm not expecting it to last a lifetime but if I get a year or so out of it then they've done their job, I would have (hopefully!) learnt something new, and I can at least use the stands etc and just replace he heads later on down the line.
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I expect you'll be OK, don't machine gun it and it'll probably be fine. As an added bonus once you're done with it you can sell it on and recoup most of your money.
 
Jonesy83 said:
What sort of lighting setup did you use to get this and how far was your Springer away from your background? Spacing is another thing I need to learn!!!
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She's a working cocker, not a springer.

Sat up in her bed. BG 3 metres away. Lencarta Atom with soft box camera right 1.5m from subject on a low stand, reflector camera left. shot from roughly 3 metres on a 135mm lens.

It's not a particularly good shot because the reflector gives poor catch lights making it look like she's got a cataract in her right eye.
 
Thanks for the help Simon


DemiLion said:
She's a working cocker, not a springer.

Sat up in her bed. BG 3 metres away. Lencarta Atom with soft box camera right 1.5m from subject on a low stand, reflector camera left. shot from roughly 3 metres on a 135mm lens.

It's not a particularly good shot because the reflector gives poor catch lights making it look like she's got a cataract in her right eye.
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Ah, apologies, I always thought cockers were a solid colour. Every day's a school day.

Would you say it's worth picking up a reflector to add to the kit then? I know the different colours produce harsher/softer light, but is there a 'standard' colour for pet photography? And is there any drawback in getting one of those 3 in one reflectors as opposed to one dedicated colour? Also, what size would you guys recommend?

I see what you mean about the reflection in her eye, what would you do to get rid of that? Would you do it in post or is that something you'd fix in the studio setup/technique?

Thanks!
 
I normally use 2 softboxes one either side of subject to give even illumination.
" Lencarta Smartflash 2's. Great value in kit form I think. Well worth looking at.

I'm really restricted spacewise so have to do the best I can.

When the other half has moved her arm chair and sideboard out of my studio I'll have more space!!!!!!!


[url=https://flic.kr/p/SBYeTT]Get Back!!! by Terence Rees, on Flickr[/URL]
 
My advice would be to start with one speed light, one stand, a brolly box, a set of triggers and a reflector. All of this will be under you £200 budget. This also gives you portability compared to other kits. You can then take photos of the pets or kids on location. Also you have the added benefit of being able to use TTL whilst you get to grips with shooting manual flash. Yes the power is not there, but realistically indoors you can control the ambient light easily by closing curtains etc. and outdoors you can shoot later in the day as the sun sets.

As an example here is one of my now departed friend shot using exactly that

Beautiful+pet+portrait+in+the+studio.jpg
 
One major question to ask yourself, would pet owners prefer the have their pet photo taken at home where they are relaxed and happy or to somewhere strange with unknown lighting etc. We used to photo pets cat/dogs at our kennels if requested for the owners. let me tell you right now it is not a paying proposition,not that many pet owners would go to the lengths of paying for a "Studio" shot let alone paying for someone to take photos which they would more than likely take themselves. We boarded animals for 22 year (licenced for 118 dogs and 42 cats) the number of requests to have their pets photographed to buy the pictures is near zero percent.
there may well be a case for family photos in a studio but you would need to stand in a high street first and ask parents if they would pay to have photos of their children in a studio, a little down to earth research. My betting is again almost zero.


Setting up any business is not as easy as you may think, how long would it take to recover the cost of the equipment outlay let alone making a decent return on the money. Then there is insurance -tax-accountants - salery- living costs-maintenance of gear. Think alone of the cost of a camera?£1000? how long would it take to get that amount back, so you really need to get a business cap on, it took us 7 years to get established with our exisiting kennels in our own name before the business started to build up. We even had 75% of the asking price of the kennels and banks still would not loan us the rest, we had to go to a foreign bank for the loan
 
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realspeed said:
One major question to ask yourself, would pet owners prefer the have their pet photo taken at home where they are relaxed and happy or to somewhere strange with unknown lighting etc. We used to photo pets cat/dogs at our kennels if requested for the owners. let me tell you right now it is not a paying proposition,not that many pet owners would go to the lengths of paying for a "Studio" shot let alone paying for someone to take photos which they would more than likely take themselves. We boarded animals for 22 year (licenced for 118 dogs and 42 cats) the number of requests to have their pets photographed to buy the pictures is near zero percent.
there may well be a case for family photos in a studio but you would need to stand in a high street first and ask parents if they would pay to have photos of their children in a studio, a little down to earth research. My betting is again almost zero.


Setting up any business is not as easy as you may think, how long would it take to recover the cost of the equipment outlay let alone making a decent return on the money. Then there is insurance -tax-accountants - salery- living costs-maintenance of gear. Think alone of the cost of a camera?£1000? how long would it take to get that amount back, so you really need to get a business cap on, it took us 7 years to get established with our exisiting kennels in our own name before the business started to build up. We even had 75% of the asking price of the kennels and banks still would not loan us the rest, we had to go to a foreign bank for the loan
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He's talking about taking shots of kids and pets in the family, not starting a full blown studio business. :p
 
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Bobsyeruncle said:
He's talking about taking shots of kids and pets in the family, not starting a full blown studio business. :p
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That is not clearly mentioned in the OP post so one assumes he is looking for making a business out of it. Even if not he will need to watch his back and make sure any commissioned work is covered by a legal contract and the minimum of third party insurance. he will also have to clearly state the charges for the work including everything else like photo frames albums etc and cancellation costs

Why I say this is sometimes at the kennels when pet owners returned a day or two early they tried to claim back what they paid for those days. We had already given them a contract copy stating all days booked must be paid for, and it was pointed out to several clients who "tried it on" . They had to sign our copy of contract
So it is the same with a photographic shoot, why loose money just because someone changes their mind at the last minute, not only do you loose fees but may well have turned down another booking.
So it doesn't matter if it is full or part time work he needs to get a business outlook on it.

So many give advice (and rightly so), but I do wonder how many have actually run a successful business. WE only had 350 clients when we took over the kennels, when we sold we had boosted it to 5500 clients on the books with average occupancy of about 65% over the 52 weeks. So I do have some idea of what to watch out for over 22 years we had the boarding establishment
 
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I'm def talking about setting up a studio for my own amusement and tying to improve/expand my own photography skills rather than setting up a business. Shooting with anything but natural light is something I've never done before, to be honest I wouldn't feel comfortable charging anyone for any shots because I don't think I'm good enough yet, just in general! But who knows, I might be in a position to do so sometime in the future. I'm sure there are loads of people out there who pick up a camera and think they can start charging people just because they have a dslr and I'm not one of them, but there are a couple of interesting videos from Kelbyone on YouTube where people talk about funding your photography habit by charging people and that has made me think. However, I guess that's a discussion for a different thread/forum =)

ding76uk said:
My advice would be to start with one speed light, one stand, a brolly box, a set of triggers and a reflector. All of this will be under you £200 budget. This also gives you portability compared to other kits. You can then take photos of the pets or kids on location. Also you have the added benefit of being able to use TTL whilst you get to grips with shooting manual flash. Yes the power is not there, but realistically indoors you can control the ambient light easily by closing curtains etc. and outdoors you can shoot later in the day as the sun sets.

As an example here is one of my now departed friend shot using exactly that

Beautiful+pet+portrait+in+the+studio.jpg
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Cracking! Thanks for the comments and I'd be really happy if I could produce something like that of my dog. He's a black mini schnauzer and I'm really struggling to get much detail in his face without over exposing the background and his eyebrows create quite a lot of shadows that make capturing his eyes/expression pretty hard for me. It's almost like I need him to run around with a reflector at all times! Speaking of which, do you have any advice on what size reflector to pick up?



Bobsyeruncle said:
He's talking about taking shots of kids and pets in the family, not starting a full blown studio business. :p
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Your photos of Ben in the dog appreciation thread are really great btw!! If that video on the inverse square theory I watched the other day sunk in then did you have the flash pretty close to him?
 
Im going away from the indoor shoots for owners. I mainly shoot outdoors now which means less equipment set up time, more images for the customer and pets acting naturally. I much prefer outdoor now as often customers houses are cramped and small meaning you cant place the lights properly. Trying to find interesting locations is the hard part.
 
Jonesy83 said:
I'm def talking about setting up a studio for my own amusement and tying to improve/expand my own photography skills rather than setting up a business. Shooting with anything but natural light is something I've never done before, to be honest I wouldn't feel comfortable charging anyone for any shots because I don't think I'm good enough yet, just in general! But who knows, I might be in a position to do so sometime in the future. I'm sure there are loads of people out there who pick up a camera and think they can start charging people just because they have a dslr and I'm not one of them, but there are a couple of interesting videos from Kelbyone on YouTube where people talk about funding your photography habit by charging people and that has made me think. However, I guess that's a discussion for a different thread/forum =)



Cracking! Thanks for the comments and I'd be really happy if I could produce something like that of my dog. He's a black mini schnauzer and I'm really struggling to get much detail in his face without over exposing the background and his eyebrows create quite a lot of shadows that make capturing his eyes/expression pretty hard for me. It's almost like I need him to run around with a reflector at all times! Speaking of which, do you have any advice on what size reflector to pick up?





Your photos of Ben in the dog appreciation thread are really great btw!! If that video on the inverse square theory I watched the other day sunk in then did you have the flash pretty close to him?
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I don't want to complicate matters but...

Flashguns are usable outdoors in poor light, i.e. at dusk or dawn. In bright lighting conditions, if they're close enough then they can supplement the light that's already there from the sun, and can fill in shadows, but they won't have anywhere near enough power to actually create the light. That may or may not be a problem for you. Also, they will have to be used at high power settings, which means that you will be waiting for them to recharge for a few seconds between each shot, this WILL be a problem.

Used indoors, with no significant amount of light coming in from outdoors, there will be enough light but you will still have to wait for them to recharge between shots.

This limitation, plus the lack of a modelling lamp on flashguns (which shows where the shadows will fall) is the reason why most people choose to have studio flash heads instead, with a powerful modelling lamp and near instant recharging.
 
Garry Edwards said:
I don't want to complicate matters but...

Flashguns are usable outdoors in poor light, i.e. at dusk or dawn. In bright lighting conditions, if they're close enough then they can supplement the light that's already there from the sun, and can fill in shadows, but they won't have anywhere near enough power to actually create the light. That may or may not be a problem for you. Also, they will have to be used at high power settings, which means that you will be waiting for them to recharge for a few seconds between each shot, this WILL be a problem.

Used indoors, with no significant amount of light coming in from outdoors, there will be enough light but you will still have to wait for them to recharge between shots.

This limitation, plus the lack of a modelling lamp on flashguns (which shows where the shadows will fall) is the reason why most people choose to have studio flash heads instead, with a powerful modelling lamp and near instant recharging.
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I agree with all of what you said Garry, but the problem is it is limiting insomuch as you can only shoot indoors. The ideal solution is something like the Godox, but in a £200 price band it is not really feasible if you include modifier and stand, etc. In terms of a decent setup that can be used in different situation, something like a Yongnuo speedlite with triggers, generic soft box and stand would be well within budget and would work indoors, where you could work at between 1/2 power easily enough, and give the option to shoot outdoors. Modelling lights and quicker recycle times come at the expense of being only able to work indoors. Whichever way you look it is obviously a trade off.
 
Jonesy83 said:
Your photos of Ben in the dog appreciation thread are really great btw!! If that video on the inverse square theory I watched the other day sunk in then did you have the flash pretty close to him?
Click to expand...

Hi,
Yes, I used my Lencarta Atom, turned down low, just about 18inches in front of him. It had a godox folding softbox on it.
 
DemiLion said:
I hate to disillusion you, but you must have got your offer dramatically wrong or been chasing the wrong market.

The right pet owner will pay thousands for well taken images of their beloved.
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What a load of you know what. No one will pay thousands for a pet shoot. Maybe in cloud cuckoo land
 
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realspeed said:
What a load of you know what. No one will pay thousands for a pet shoot. Maybe in cloud cuckoo land
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:LOL::LOL::LOL::LOL:

The kid in my local McDonald's can't afford 'The Fat Duck' but he's not daft enough to deny it's existence :thinking:
 
sorry t we did work closely with an animal agency (Animals Unlimited) for a good number of years who got us a lot of shoots such as Saab cars - Brother computers- clairol as well as a lot of fashion shoots with our white Afghan hounds. even the film ones never paid thousands. Ok we only provided the dogs a an when wanted,but no way was the photographer paid thousands on any of them.


This is just one of the sets we did using our Kabella Ice Cream at Pashkym (Muffin)

View: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VR_XIC1FiFU
 
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realspeed said:
What a load of you know what. No one will pay thousands for a pet shoot. Maybe in cloud cuckoo land
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Oh yes they absolutely will. Ask Lindsay Dobson.

Any decent high end photography set up, whether it's shooting new borns, family portraits or animals is aiming to sell high end wall art - which is where the money is.

The fact that you don't know that explains why you weren't able to capitalise on the market.
 
realspeed said:
sorry t we did work closely with an animal agency (Animals Unlimited) for a good number of years who got us a lot of shoots such as Saab cars - Brother computers- clairol as well as a lot of fashion shoots with our white Afghan hounds. even the film ones never paid thousands. Ok we only provided the dogs a an when wanted,but no way was the photographer paid thousands on any of them.


This is just one of the sets we did using our Kabella Ice Cream at Pashkym (Muffin)
Click to expand...


Seriously? For a high end advertising shoot? You think that the photographer wasn't invoicing for a fee in the four to five figure range?
 
DemiLion said:
Oh yes they absolutely will. Ask Lindsay Dobson.

Any decent high end photography set up, whether it's shooting new borns, family portraits or animals is aiming to sell high end wall art - which is where the money is.

The fact that you don't know that explains why you weren't able to capitalise on the market.
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We boarded animals not into photographing them as a business. Suggest you read posts properly before commenting. I don't think buying a kennels and cattery with only 350 dogs and building up a client base to 5500 dogs and a
substantial increase in cat boarding not a bad effort. Photographing was at clients request as was using our dogs at the agencies request, and we took them to the shoot as well.

It doesn't matter what business one wants to start especially from new it can take up to 7 year on average to get established.


You go on to sell selling high end wall art, where did that come from? when we are talking about what clients are willing to pay to have a photo taken not what the sell on for.


You quote Lindsay Dobson well this is an extract from her web advert


Pricing
SESSION FEES
Session fees (also called the reservation fee, or booking fee) for location pet and animal photography are currently £125 for our standard attendance of up to two hours (please speak to us if you have more than three animals). We’ll work with you at your home and/or a scenic or familiar location of your choice – providing you with a range of both controlled and spontaneous images which reflects your pet/s individual personality. The session fee is payable at the time of booking and reserves your date (your products are purchased separately). Beyond this reservation fee we make no charges for our service which includes:

Where does it say thousands of pounds???? I suggest you get your facts right before posting
Link
http://lindsaydobsonphotography.com/pets/pricing/
 
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realspeed said:


We boarded animals not into photographing them as a business. Suggest you read posts properly before commenting. I don't think buying a kennels and cattery with only 350 dogs and building up a client base to 5500 dogs and a
substantial increase in cat boarding not a bad effort. Photographing was at clients request as was using our dogs at the agencies request, and we took them to the shoot as well.

It doesn't matter what business one wants to start especially from new it can take up to 7 year on average to get established.


You go on to sell selling high end wall art, where did that come from? when we are talking about what clients are willing to pay to have a photo taken not what the sell on for.


You quote Lindsay Dobson well this is an extract from her web advert


Pricing
SESSION FEES
Session fees (also called the reservation fee, or booking fee) for location pet and animal photography are currently £125 for our standard attendance of up to two hours (please speak to us if you have more than three animals). We’ll work with you at your home and/or a scenic or familiar location of your choice – providing you with a range of both controlled and spontaneous images which reflects your pet/s individual personality. The session fee is payable at the time of booking and reserves your date (your products are purchased separately). Beyond this reservation fee we make no charges for our service which includes:

Where does it say thousands of pounds???? I suggest you get your facts right before posting
Link
http://lindsaydobsonphotography.com/pets/pricing/
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You say.....I suggest you get your facts right before posting?

Oh the irony.
Look at the price of an album....from £545, plus prints? Canvases? Etc etc.
You might know a lot about running kennels, but you clearly know little about running a portrait photography business. :p
 
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I think a little business lesson is needed, the £125 is a sitting fee, product i.e. wall art, albums etc. is on top of that - now I am not qualified to say how much Lindsay takes on average but have certainly met photographers that are averaging in the 4 figure bracket for animal photography.

Mike
 
realspeed said:
We boarded animals not into photographing them as a business. Suggest you read posts properly before commenting. I don't think buying a kennels and cattery with only 350 dogs and building up a client base to 5500 dogs and a
substantial increase in cat boarding not a bad effort. Photographing was at clients request as was using our dogs at the agencies request, and we took them to the shoot as well.

It doesn't matter what business one wants to start especially from new it can take up to 7 year on average to get established.


You go on to sell selling high end wall art, where did that come from? when we are talking about what clients are willing to pay to have a photo taken not what the sell on for.
Click to expand...

Seriously, you need to

a) Stop digging
b) Stop handing out business advice about photography
 
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