Pet photography for charity - help please

Glass Books

Glass Books

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Name
Sunni
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Hi everyone,
I have volunteered to take pictures of rescue cats for a charity, the pictures will go on their website and hopefully help the poor animals find new homes faster. I've not been to see the location yet, but have been told I'll be shooting in a room with no windows. Does anyone here have some advice on what I can do to help the lighting situation? I can't use flash as it scares the cats. I have a Nikon d40 which is not particularly good at high iso so would rather not go above 400. I have a 50mm 1.8 prime to use, but might have to use a zoom as some of the cats are skittish and I may not be able to get close.
Any advice is more than welcome, especially on the light! My biggest worry is the light as I have no experience shooting indoors to speak of.

I'll also be typing up a contract regarding the use of the images, so if anyone has an example contract I could have a look at I'd be grateful.

Thank you in advance :)

Sunni
 
Yep - I was gonna say get some lamps or something.

I take photos for my local rescue - usually the dogs, but Ive gone in when they've had kittens and taken some for my own benefit/use, cos they're adorable, the lighting in there is VERY bad, there are 'windows' but that's in the form of 2 plastc skylight slots in the roof, and one tiny window on the door leading from outside. The actually lighting, lighting in there is pretty pants too[for pics]

A mixture of bright days and bright extra lighting can help - with no additional help re:lighting, these are some of the things I've got...As you can see there is motion blue - but luckily in these shots they're not too bad

3643823882_723c087225.jpg


3727210282_3c09a7e615.jpg
 
could you hire some soft boxes

i would take some iams

cats in containment can be nasty..even our family tabby went for me when i went to pick her up from a 'cattery holiday'
the handler gave me the gloves and a broom to get her into the transport box..

i wish you well because they are loveable animals...with claws
 
Thank you all! Shorty those are lovely pictures :)
I've been looking around for a softbox to buy, would this be suitable do you think? And would one be enough? I have to keep it small and light if possible. I'll also get a small, blue backdrop as I think blue should go well with most fur colours.
http://lencarta.com/continuous-lights/con001-solostar-softbox-light/index.php
I'll also have a look at worklights (I'm not english so not sure what the are) - google here I come! :)
 
Worklights (500w) will be too harsh I would imagine Sunni.

Would it be feasible to create a form of light tent (assuming you can get or create one big enough) where you could place lamps outside and one in front suitably difused ? I'm no expert in lighting so hopefully someone can either say this idea is rubbish or expand upon it...
 
That's what I'm doing at the moment, volunteering at my local animal shelter as a photographer. I'm back again tomorrow to photograph 80 dogs :eek:

My advice would be use the fastest lens you have, mine being a 50mm 1.8. I also used ISO 1600 but because they are resized quite small for web it doesn't matter too much.

A few examples using a 50mm 1.8

oct10_09_p1.jpg


oct10_09_p2.jpg


Good luck :)
 
Defiance said:
Worklights (500w) will be too harsh I would imagine Sunni.

Would it be feasible to create a form of light tent (assuming you can get or create one big enough) where you could place lamps outside and one in front suitably difused ? I'm no expert in lighting so hopefully someone can either say this idea is rubbish or expand upon it...
Click to expand...

Thanks Rob :) I've had a look at the link Chaz posted, I think if I can find something like that and then add a diffuser of some sort that'd probably work, however I'd like it to be smaller as I'll be travelling on the tube with it..

Not sure what you mean by a light tent - don't think the cats would enjoy being dropped in the tent, they'd probably scratch it to pieces trying to get out :lol:
 
hellogoodbye said:
That's what I'm doing at the moment, volunteering at my local animal shelter as a photographer. I'm back again tomorrow to photograph 80 dogs :eek:

My advice would be use the fastest lens you have, mine being a 50mm 1.8. I also used ISO 1600 but because they are resized quite small for web it doesn't matter too much.

--- snip --
Click to expand...

80 dogs! Sounds like a challenge! :)

Those are lovely pictures - looks like you've got some nice light there, do you have a setup that you use or is it natural?

Do you have some sort of contract with the charity re. how they can use your pictures, and how you can use the pictures, copyright etc? Would be very interested to see it if you've got one and don't mind sharing.
 
Never had a problem with scaring cats with flash!

This one was taken at the RSPCA through the perspex without flash.

kitten105.jpg



I would use a fast lens, something like a nifty fifty will do it, take lots of pictures quantity wins (wade through them afterwards!). Focus on the eyes. Keep the background from being too cluttered.

This was also taken at the RSPCA but not through perspex this time

pearl004.jpg
 
Glass Books said:
80 dogs! Sounds like a challenge! :)

Those are lovely pictures - looks like you've got some nice light there, do you have a setup that you use or is it natural?

Do you have some sort of contract with the charity re. how they can use your pictures, and how you can use the pictures, copyright etc? Would be very interested to see it if you've got one and don't mind sharing.
Click to expand...

All natural! It's actually really dark in there, I pretty much used the lens at 1.8 which made it look a lot lighter than actually is and adjusted the exposure slightly in Photoshop.

I don't have a contract, I've let them have free reign. I haven't even asked for credit! I'm just happy to help them as their own photos are appalling :lol:
 
cowasaki said:
Never had a problem with scaring cats with flash!


I would use a fast lens, something like a nifty fifty will do it, take lots of pictures quantity wins (wade through them afterwards!). Focus on the eyes. Keep the background from being too cluttered.
Click to expand...

Thanks cowasaki, those are lovely pictures :) The no flash thing is something the charity has told me, but I might be able to get them to change their mind on that one if it turns out their location is too dark to get a good shot.

I have a 50mm, but it's manual focus on my d40, and I'm sure that will give me problems on all but the most docile of the cats - so considering getting the AF-S f1.4 version, or possibly the 35mm f1.8 :thinking:
 
hellogoodbye said:
All natural! It's actually really dark in there, I pretty much used the lens at 1.8 which made it look a lot lighter than actually is and adjusted the exposure slightly in Photoshop.

I don't have a contract, I've let them have free reign. I haven't even asked for credit! I'm just happy to help them as their own photos are appalling :lol:
Click to expand...

Thanks :) I think I'll go over there to do a test run with my 50mm and see how it goes. I'll definitely be writing a contract though (assuming they don't have one they want to use) as I want to retain control of my images for the future.

Thanks for all your advice everyone! :thumbs:
 
I don't have any sort of contract with my local rescue, I was and am a volunteer first, and I got asked, once into photography to just give pics of one of the dogs no-one else had manage to get pics of. Now, all of the dog pics of the website are mine, unless the dogs have issues which mean I'm not allowed to walk them. I do it purely for helping the dogs, which is prob a bit different from you. However, recently, the volunteer who runs the website, off her own back has put a 'thank you' style note/sentence on the page with my name. They also don't mind if I put a watermark on the images.

And I can do as I wish with the photos - although it is a very small rescue and they don't see anything wrong with me using my own photos as I wish...Might be diff if you're going to a rescue that has branches RSPCA/Cats Protection/Blue Cross etc.
 
I like to light tent idea as proposed above, if you use work lights remember they get very hot. Good look, it looks like it might be fun.
 
Shorty said:
And I can do as I wish with the photos - although it is a very small rescue and they don't see anything wrong with me using my own photos as I wish...Might be diff if you're going to a rescue that has branches RSPCA/Cats Protection/Blue Cross etc.
Click to expand...

Same here, if it was a bigger charity like the ones mentioned above then I'd probably draw up a contract but my local shelter receives no government funding and rely entirely on donations so I'm happy for them to do whatever they want with my photos if it makes them money.
 
Thought I'd update this with a big thanks to everyone for your advice! I went to do the pictures last Saturday, and had a blast!

Most of the rooms have adequate lighting and there's just one or two rooms that gave me problems. I shot all of them with my manual 50mm lens, on f1.8, ISO 800 mostly. I've attached one below, but you can see more on my blog (www.cynosurephotography.blogspot.com).

I decided I needed a better lens for this, because there were so many pictures I thought were good that turned out to be out of focus once I got to see them on my PC. I blame the manual focus, so I went and got a 35mm f1.8 AF-S that blissfully works on my trusty D40. Can't wait to try it out :)

Going again this Saturday, and if I'm still having problems with the light I'll have a look at those light tents and softboxes. :)

DSC_5584.jpg
 
Here's another one too, this one's my favourite - he looks more like a giant teddy bear than a cat! Note the floppy ears :love:
DSC_5523.jpg
 
Good job :thumbs: It's fun, isn't it? I'm about a quarter of the way through the dogs now, lots of running around the field getting them to look at the camera, I love it :D
 
Glass Books said:
Here's another one too, this one's my favourite - he looks more like a giant teddy bear than a cat! Note the floppy ears :love:
Click to expand...

I want to take him home!
 
hellogoodbye said:
Good job :thumbs: It's fun, isn't it? I'm about a quarter of the way through the dogs now, lots of running around the field getting them to look at the camera, I love it :D
Click to expand...

Yes, it really is a lot of fun, and so rewarding both to meet these lovely cats and also to see them find new homes :)

Barney12 said:
I want to take him home!
Click to expand...
Go for it! :thumbs::thumbs:

staffitaxi said:
I do a lot of the photography for Northern SBT Rescue and I have to say that dogs must be much easier than cats with having the option of the great outdoors!!
Click to expand...

They probably are - you definitely have more choice of background, and better lighting seeing as you're outdoors! I'm a bit of a cat person though, so have to say I prefer the cats, despite it all ;)
 
Shorty said:
Yep - I was gonna say get some lamps or something.

I take photos for my local rescue - usually the dogs, but Ive gone in when they've had kittens and taken some for my own benefit/use, cos they're adorable, the lighting in there is VERY bad, there are 'windows' but that's in the form of 2 plastc skylight slots in the roof, and one tiny window on the door leading from outside. The actually lighting, lighting in there is pretty pants too[for pics]

A mixture of bright days and bright extra lighting can help - with no additional help re:lighting, these are some of the things I've got...As you can see there is motion blue - but luckily in these shots they're not too bad

3643823882_723c087225.jpg


3727210282_3c09a7e615.jpg
Click to expand...

Aw such a cute picci:)
 
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