Your Photograph
Choice:
The details in your photograph are crucial
to provide the information for the portriat.
Taking a photo specially for the portrait
is the ideal so you can make sure that the quality is satisfactory.
As a guide line for portraits, the whole
head and shoulders should occupy most of the picture. A 'normal' photograph
of a dogs body will produce a head size of about 1" (2-3 cm)
which will be low in detail and difficult to develop into a satisfactory
result.
Looking at the galleries will show you
what works well,. Some people choose to have professional photos taken.
This will produce a good basis for the portrait, but with patience
and a little thought about the photo you should be able to achieve
a suitable image. You may find the following suggestions helpful.
Lighting:
· the best light conditions are outdoors, out of direct sunlight,
which can bleach colouring and eliminate details in shadows. A bright
overcast day is ideal, or morning and evening when the light is bright,
but not overhead. Avoid flash. Flash lit photos are even worse
than sunlit subjects.
Positioning:
· try to have the camera at the same height as the subject's
head, unless a particular effect is preferred. `More detail
will be recorded if the camera is close to the subject rather than
using zoom. For portraits, try to fill the viewfinder with the
head and shoulder, and full body shots should just fill the
frame.
Pet Control! Animals are often
curious or distracted by cameras, so arrange to have a diversion and
perhaps some helper to passify the pet. Since only the animal is of
interest, it doesn't matter what else is in the frame by way of arms,
hands, legs, provided none of these obscure the detail to be used.
Some pets will not stay still for a photo. If this is the case, just
ask someone to stand behind him/her to hold their collar. If they
try to hold the collar from behind their hand should not get in the
way. Observe the expression of the pet, and try to capture a typical
pose e.g. ears alert rather than flat etc. Also, too much tongue protruding
is better avoided!
The final painting is dependent entirely
on the quality of the original image, so it is fairly important to
take a little time to get it 'right'.