How to take better photos of your dog or cat with your phone
Most blurry, dark, or odd-looking pet photos come from three things: not enough light, a camera held too high, and a pet that moved. Fix those and the phone you already have does the rest. Here is how, in the order that makes the most difference.
1. Find the light first
Light matters more than the camera. Phones do their worst work indoors in the evening, when every shot comes out grainy or soft.
- Daylight by a window is the easiest good light at home. Put your pet between you and the window, with the window behind you or to one side.
- Outdoors in the shade, or on an overcast day, is even better. Bright midday sun throws hard shadows and makes your pet squint.
- Turn the flash off. It flattens the coat and gives cats and dogs glowing eyes.
If the photo looks dark on the screen before you take it, tap your pet and slide the brightness up. Or move closer to the window.
2. Get down to their level
A photo taken from standing height looks down on your pet. You get a big head, small legs, and a view nobody would call flattering. Crouch, kneel, or lie on the floor so the camera is level with their eyes. The photo stops looking like a photo of the floor with a pet in it and starts looking like a portrait.
3. Get them to hold still
A still pet is a sharp pet. You will not get stillness by asking for it, so set it up:
- Photograph them after a walk or a play session, when they are ready to sit.
- Bring a helper. One person holds a treat or a toy just above the phone, so your pet looks toward the camera. The other takes the photo.
- A sound works for a few seconds. A squeak, a crinkled packet, or their name said in a new voice gets the ears up and the head turned. It stops working after the second or third time, so take the photo on the first.
- For cats, wait. Cats are easiest at the end of a nap, in a sunny spot, when they are warm and slow.
4. Use burst mode
Hold the shutter button down and your phone takes a run of photos in a row. One of them will catch the moment between the blink and the yawn. On most phones, holding the shutter or sliding it to one side starts a burst, and you pick the keepers afterwards.
5. Tap to focus on the eyes
Phones usually guess what to focus on, and they often guess the nose, because it is nearest. Tap your pet’s eye on the screen before you take the shot. If the eyes are sharp, the photo reads as sharp, even if the tail is a little soft.
6. Keep the background simple
A plain wall, a rug, grass, or a sofa lets your pet be the point of the photo. Look over the screen for a lamp growing out of their head or a laundry basket behind them, and move a step to one side.
Dark pets are a special case. A black dog against a dark sofa becomes one shape. Put them in front of something lighter than they are, so the outline of the ears, muzzle, and tail is clear.
7. Take more than you think you need
Phones are free to fill. Take twenty, keep two. The keepers are usually the ones where:
- the eyes are sharp
- nothing is cut off at the edge
- the light is even, with no hard shadow across the face
- the pose shows something true about them, whether that is the head tilt or the one ear that never sits right
Three shots worth having of every pet
Whatever else you take, try to get these three. They are the ones you will want later, for a frame, a card, or an app that draws your pet from photos.
- The side view, standing. The whole body, nose to tail, from their level. It is the shot that shows their shape.
- The face, straight on. Level with the eyes, close enough that the face fills most of the frame.
- The other side, if the markings are different there.
If you want a desktop pet from the photos
Pawsome Family turns 1 to 5 photos of your dog or cat into a small animated pet that walks along the bottom of your Chrome tabs. The three shots above are the ones it works from, so a few minutes with the tips on this page give a closer likeness. Our help page on which photos work best has the details, and the example beagle shows the kind of result you get.
One pet is free for 30 days, with no card needed.