THE IMPORTANCE OF GOOD PICTURES TO POST FOR "OUR ADOPTABLES"

I wanted to visit with all of you who are taking times out of your lives and fostering these wonderful doodles in need that have bonded us into a tightly knit rescue unit! I fostered quite a few in a short amount of time, until health and personal reasons put me on a back burner, hopefully soon to make enough strides to jump back onto the hot plate! One of the things that I learned is that good pictures are a major component in the success of receiving a good number of applications so as to have choices, good choices, in where to place a dog.

It is so important that we give a good description of the dog so that a bond can be made with the right personalities. But, we all have to admit, the first thing we do is look at the picture. That is the dog's, looking for its forever home and relying on you to find it, first impression to a potential adopter.

Since photography is my main source of income, I thought I would share a few tips that might help increase the number of applications.

There is rarely a dog that is EASY to photograph, especially in a foster situation and definitely early on, when you need the photographs to post. The number one mistake is getting into too big a hurry and not preparing adequately to take good pictures. The quality of the camera is not the issue. It's about the preparation, the knowing in advance what needs to be seen and how to show it, that is the biggest cause for photos that don't highlight the dog to its full potential.

If at all possible, make sure the dog is clean, groomed, or at least brushed before posting. Even when a dog's legs aren't brushed and looks like they might be stringy, uneven, LOOK like they may be matted even if they aren't, it gives the immediate visual impression that the dog comes with extra "needs". We all know that doodles have high grooming needs and we stress this during the application process. However, we, DRC, doesn't want it to look as if the grooming requirements are so high that we can't handle it within our foster homes.

Your families are instrumental in being successful foster homes for these dogs! My children have done things that they never thought they would see or do and learned oh-so-much by being involved. But when your children are in a photo or a dog who desperately needs children of its own, you need to remember that people are looking at this photo. What do they see when your child is smiling and laughing with a foster? That dog doesn't NEED a home. It looks like it is happy where it is. That CHILD is happy with that dog being in his/her home. (Remember, I'm a visual...)

There are definitely times when you need to utilize as many people as possible to get a dog to be still long enough for a photo to be taken. In these cases - remember LESS IS MORE. Less humans in the photo and more dog... Zoom. And zoom some more. Try not to capture your children's smiles but only their hands if anything. Don't let the potential adopter put a face to the child loving on that foster dog. They don't realize that our children are happy to have another playmate and are even more happy most times when the adoption takes place and there is one less bowl to fill!!! :)

Actors and models always submit head shots. It is an opportunity to be able to look people/dogs right in the eye. The eye is the doorway to the soul...??? I would recommend a close shot of the face, which I know isn't always easy. Actually, it's rarely been easy! But I can tell you that when you do get one where people can look that dog right in the eye, they connect! How many times have you lifted your doodle's face by the chin and looked him/her right in the eye and talked to them?

Some foster babies are a little more active than others so it is important to make sure that all physical needs are met before even trying to get pictures. Feed them. Give them a treat to make sure they're full! They tend to get a little less active with a full tummy. It is perfectly fine to let them chew on a toy while taking the picture. It is actually endearing! The bonus is that it looks MUCH MUCH better than showing them sniffing around the yard. Every dog sniffs around a yard, but the one to fall in love with is the cute one playing with the toy!

I cannot stress how important lighting is, especially for our less-than-light friends. Take it outside. If you're inside, use a flash. You have got to catch that sparkle in the eye or the difference in tones - anything to break up the sea of darkness that is the curse of the black dog (I have a black goldendoodle so I know only too well how hard he is to photograph!). Look at your pictures and see if you can tell if the coat looks soft or if it looks like a solid color without texture. If it doesn't look like it has texture, play with lighting. My house is a "not on the furniture" house because I have three kids AND three dogs. I can't afford the upkeep of letting either of them on the nice stuff, but the kids don't mind as well as the doodles.

When submitting your photos to be uploaded onto petfinder or our site, make sure you submit high resolution photos. Whatever software you use, whether Photoshop or other, you can make sure of this by RESIZING the IMAGE, not the canvas size. A lot of programs default to 72 dpi. You just click on that and change it to 300 dpi. That will make the file size increase dramatically, so you then can crop the photo, change the percentage ratio size (if you aren't familiar with these terms, don't worry! - Just work on trying to figure out how to get it to 300 dpi) to a lesser percentage so that the ending file size is around 5 MB.

So, long story a little longer:

1. Good lighting is key

2. Dog should be groomed and content before even trying

3. Minimize amount of background "noise" (people, objects, home interiors) and zoom in or crop so you focus on the doodle

4. Imperative to submit high resolution

5. Need to submit a head shot, and at least two body shots, preferably one standing or sitting (lying down isn't the best unless it is lying on the stomach with head up)

6. If you need help, let someone else click while you work with the dog. More often than not, a foster is much better at getting a dog into appropriate "poses" and having a friend or spouse actually just point and shoot may produce better results.

Thanks for all you do to help these wonderful creatures we have all grown to adore so much, and happy shooting. My next post will be on how to get young children to smile for Christmas card pictures.... yeah, right! LOL!

Replies to This Discussion

Permalink Reply by Diane Marra on November 14, 2010 at 9:46am

thanks so much for the tips and instructions! I have had 3 fosters - 2 were black and very difficult to get a good picture. I took the before and after of Benson, to show the contrast. I didn't follow all the directions above on the before, just couldn't believe the condition he was in and so was snapping pics of the grooming process. I will try your suggestions on the next ones and on my own dogs, although they are easy being white and apricot!
Thanks!!!

Permalink Reply by Jacquie Yorke - DRC Director on November 14, 2010 at 2:40pm

I knew that I could count on you Kim to put this all together in a concise, detailed and intelligent discussion........Thank you!...Beautiful job!....

I do want to also mention that cell phone photos are usually not the best photos to use for listings.....They usually come through distorted, motion blurred, low rez with details and color flattened......

Try to photograph a light colored dog against a darker background and vise versa with in regards to Black dogs....

So many times I receive photos of white dogs against white backgrounds and all detail is lost with the white against white.....

White dogs photographed against white backgrounds always look over-exposed and void of detail and contrast. It is very difficult to fix these photos even in Photoshop with a different exposure setting.....

I also receive many photos of black dogs against black backgrounds in which case the dog is lost black against black....it is better to photograph black dogs outdoors as I can always use the "shadow/highlight tool in Photoshop to lighten, refine and enhance the dogs features.

Permalink Reply by Nancy, Ned and Clancy on November 14, 2010 at 2:57pm

I don't have access to a black doodle but my daughter has a very black lab. What I have done is a very easy photo fix provided by my Mac. I lighten the shadows. This is not photoshop or fancy which I don't know how to do.
Before:

And lightened just a bit:

This was taken in our RV door so he was at eye level. Then the other dogs were cropped out and it was lightened a bit. Look how fabulous he looks: