| Photographing Subjects or Choosing a Photo Use high resolution digital formatting when using a digital camera (300 dpi). Focus is essential. Unfocused pictures may be able to be corrected but this is not always possible. I do encourage you to send as many photos as you like. The larger the subject is in the photo the better. Make sure your pets are clean and well groomed before taking photographs (unless "dirty" is your dogs personality). I draw what I see and how I see it. Colors, coat, expressions, are drawn according to photos. I can make some corrections but not for major faults. It is sometimes possible to take a number of photos and incorporate them into one art piece. Have someone help you when taking pet pictures. Either have them hold or position the pet or have them take the pictures. You should be at eye level with the pet. Try to take some photos with the pet in its natural position if you want to show the pet in its most common look and personality. If you want a more posed portrait position the pet in front of you. Take multiple photographs of the pet in a full profile shot, a partial profile shot and a full frontal shot. Pets look best when the ears are forward. You can use a squeaky toy, whistle, toss something to get the pets attention. This can also give the pet a more alert look. The best lighting is natural, either outside or by a window. Do not have lighting directly behind the photographer or the subject, this will throw shadows on the subject or cause the subject to be to dark. The light should be off to one side of the photographer. If you have to choose from photos that you already have, pick the photo that has the qualities from the above description. If you are limited, choose the photo you like the best and also send other photos that have aspects you prefer such as color, eyes, ear set, tail set etc. Again, I can make minor changes. If you are snail mailing photos, please send photographic copies so originals are not lost or damaged. You can try to send photo files. I would need these to be sent as .png files at 300 dpi and 1 mb or just under in size. Usually, clients cannot get the dpi or size correct and I need the original. |
| The lighting in this photo washed out one side due to a camera malfunction. I was able to work around this defect because the lighting on the opposite side was adequate. |
| This 16 x 20 color pencil is a combination of different photos. The cows and calves are from 3 different photos and the background from another. |
| This original photo was from a 35mm camera. The lightning is fairly good coming from the right side of the horse. |
| This photo from a 35mm looks very dark. I was able to bring out more detail in the dark areas. The lighting was very good coming from the right side of the photographer, lighting the horses face. The halter was raised, made smaller around the nose and the name plate was added. |
| This photograph was very dark but I was able bring out the dog,s features. |
| Another 35 mm photo. The original looks dark here but, was fine for the drawing. The halter was changed to brown and the horse,s lip was made smaller. He had been trying to reach for the carrot they were using to get his ears up. |
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