Here are some dog photos outside so here is another quick review for the presumably good weather that is on the way, eventually, hopefully, at some point, in the near future. For starters, I cranked up my shutter speed. Dogs can move fast so a faster shutter speed is called for but if you can’t control your shutter speed – like in the case of phones or point and shoot camera, don’t worry. First check and see if you have a fast movement setting – I know most point and shoots these days have some sort of fast movement setting and even some smartphones do too, but odds are you should still come out with something solid even if your smartphone doesn’t. Just try to stay ahead of your subject and you will get the hang of it.
Next up, focus on the eyes. Those are going to help you stay ahead of the subject but also that’s how we humans connect with other living things (with rare exceptions, of course). The person viewing your photo will unconsciously be looking for and see the eyes first. But as previously stated, the eyes of the dog will give you an indication of where they are going next so you can be ready. It takes practice and depends on the dog but eventually you get the hang of it.
Finally, watch out of ID and personal information. Dog tags can have phone numbers, names, and even addresses. This is great for when a dog gets lost but if that picture you post to social media turns into click gold the person that owns the dog might get unwanted contact if you leave that information out there. When doing this stuff for clients you might want to consider having regular versions for printing and censored versions for posting to social media so everyone on social media isn’t calling them. What I do is use my processing tools to tone the sharpness and clarity all the way down on that information.